Axiom Gallery

"On The Corner"


"On the Corner" consists of two of the following, mounted evenly on each intersecting wall that form a corner of the gallery.

There is an approxamately 3x5 inch LCD screen (black edge) mounted on a threaded rod approximately 18 inches long. On the end of the threaded rod is a small electric motor that turns the threaded rod. The turning threaded rod causes the LCD screen to travel horizontally (left-right) across the length of the rod. When the screen reaches the end of the rod, it hits a switch with a click sound, and the motor reverses direction, causing the screen to change direction of travel and move to the other end of the threaded rod. There is little/no delay while the screen changes direction. The screen takes a few seconds to travel across from one side to another.

The screen is a very open design, showing some of the electronics behind the display, and giving off a slight green glow from the back. The video feed for the screen comes from an SD car and reader mounted behind the screen, so there is no external video source/player/generator. There are almost no wires going to the screen connecting it to a power source.

On the screen is a video of a streetcorner (in downtown Boston by that Bank of America building that cantalievers over its base and loos like a stiff breeze would tip it over), with cars, trucks, and pedestrians passing in front of the camera. The camera does not move, but stays steady as the traffic goes by. The scene is shot in daylight, maybe around noon, with "average" daylight lighting (no particular shift in color, no really steed shadows, etc.) Every now and then the video changes direction - instead of being played forward, the video stops and starts playing backwards. As the video changes direction, the speed of the cars appears to change too. Sometimes the cars are traveling forward (r-l) while the video screen moves r-l too. Then the video changes, and suddenly the cars are going backwards (l-r) while the screen keeps moving r-l. The more opposite the direction the cars are moving compared to the direction of the screen, the faster they appear to go.

"On the Corner" references other works in the Neumann show because it deals with the idea of what moves in a video. In his videos of flowers on a turntable, the subject is moving (the flowers spin.) In "On the Corner, " the cars move down the road, the camera stays still, and the entire video screen physically moves towards and then away from the corner of the wall.





Andrew Neumanns show at the Axiom gallery is new media because it involves the viewer with the technical aspects of the videos just as much as the visual aspects of the films. A traditional show of video might include some TVs mounted in the walls, showing a video loop over and over again, or possibly a projector showing a film on a wall. Neumann takes the viewer a bit past that point - his screens are small and open, with the circuitry clearly visible behind them. Some of his works have almost no wires at all, and appear to be self-contained TVs just pulling a signal out of thin air. One of his pieces specifically has 5 DVD players sitting in a stack on the floor, with wires openly running up the wall to connect to each small LCD display screen, as a reminder that video today is much easier then it used to be. No longer is the nitty gritty of video hidden away from the audience.


Neumanns work relates to the work we've done in class in many ways. Technologically, his work is mostly digital video, which we've learned to shoot, edit, and upload to the internet in class. Artistically, his work sometimes feels a bit like a storyboard. When you're watching some of his spinning works, like the flowers on a turntable, you almost feel that Neumann recorded the entire scene, then took only the three chunks you saw in the show and cropped them out to make his pieces.

Neumanns work is self-referential in that it challenges our idea of a video or "picture show" to begin with. The title of the exhibit uses picture show to refer to an old-tyme movie, yet only one of Neumanns works is actually shot with film, and then its recorded with a digital camera and displayed with a digital projector. Another one of his works is closeup shots of a film projector running, but again its being shown digitally. The title of Neumanns work also could reference the way that he displays his screens. Their size and positioning is similar to what someone might do when hanging snapshots or small photographs on a wall.




One final note, having read the Globe article, and seen it in person, I like the concept of "Projector w/Projections," but I found the execution to be a little bit lacking. I found the part with the backhoes to be very visually busy, to the point where I was uncomfortable watching it, and with todays video editing software, it reminded me of a video clip of someone exploring the cheezy filter effects in iMovie. . . Maybe I'm just too spoiled by digital video?