Series: New Television
Program: New Television
Episode: 506
Date: 1987-01-01
Subject: Animation; Airplanes
People: Neumann, Andrew

Clip Description
"Phenomenology (Parts A, B, C)" was created at the Boston Film and Video Foundation as a New England Film Video Fellowship. In part A, a ladder is filmed from different angles and perspectives. In part C, slowly spinning objects are filmed in close-up, lending them an ironically powerful presence. A head of broccoli, an artichoke, an apple, a can of Budweiser -- all loom somehow larger than life. Visual text drops in and out of the picture frame, moving subtitles that serve to question and shift the meanings of the images that appear before us. Obliquely addressing ethics and commodity, the text is personal and political at the same time. A doormat fills the visual frame and the text asks the viewer to consider the object's manufacturer. The text maintains a certain levity and at times evokes the double meanings and appropriations of Jenny Holzer's "truisms." "I'm in love with a constructivist," the voiceless words tell us. As the work draws to a close, the text focuses on a future vision of a world inhabited by floating people. The imagery of airplanes and a disembodied camera technique capturing movement through city streets serve as illustration to this concept of flight.

Program Description
This episode of "New Television" features Andrew Neumann's "Phenomenology (Parts A, B, C)," Ping Chong's "Plage Concrete," Susan Rynard's "1932," and Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese's "De Stijl."

"Phenomenology (Parts A, B, C)" is a triple score of language, image, and sound. Divided into three sections (the parts A, B, and C referenced in the title), the work boasts an abstract electronic score that often incorporates and simulates the sound of an airplane take-off. Images of airplanes dominate the visual score. The work is 17 minutes long.

"Ping Chong's "Plage Concrete," of which Nancy Hoyt is credited as "curatorial consultant," surveys several unique environments. Philosophical and statistical visual text provides a vast historical survey of uncertain purpose. Copyright: Ping Chong?

Susan Rynard's "1932" presents a series of vignettes reviving cherished moments passed. Allowing the portraits to stir personal recollections, the artist creates scenes that evoke feelings of loss. The work is approximately nine minutes in length.

Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese present a portrait of the Dutch composer Louis Andriessen, whose compositional style is inspired by the paintings of Piet Mondrian. The video artists divide the screen into related geometric forms, [further mirroring this style]. Andriessen talks about the development of his four-part opera, "De Stijl" (Matter). Copyright; Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese

Series Description
The New Television Workshop originated at WGBH, a public broadcasting station in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1974 to support the creation and development of experimental video art. This experimental programming included dance, drama, music, performance and visual arts on video and film. As early as 1968, WGBH was committed to the development of video art through residency programs, with artists such as Nam June Paik, and the "Rockefeller Artists-in-Television" project. Many of these early works (pre-1974) were broadcast both locally and nationally.

As an umbrella for arts related programming, the Workshop included "Artist's Showcase, " "Frames of Reference, " "Dance for Camera, " "Poetry Breaks," and "New Television," as well as acquired arts programming. Individual works were created for "Visions," a series produced by WNET (New York), and "Alive From Off Center," a series produced by KTCA (St. Paul - Minneapolis). The Contemporary Art Television (CAT) Fund was co-founded by the Workshop and Boston's Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA) in the 1980's, to commission works by video artists. In 1993 the Workshop ceased production at WGBH.

See also: http://main.wgbh.org/wgbh/NTW/FA/TITLES/Phenomenology68.HTML