GENE GORT

"Intellectual Property: New Work by Gene Gort" at the Gallery at Still River Editions

"Intellectual Property: Stolen #3"
© Gene Gort
The solo exhibition "Intellectual Property: New Work by Gene Gort" opens at the Gallery at Still River Editions on Saturday, April 21, 2012 with a reception from 4 - 6 pm. The show runs until Friday, June 29.

The exhibition features ten new abstract digital print editions by Gene Gort, a multi-disciplinary artist from Avon, CT. Gort received his MFA from the University of California, San Diego and his BFA from Hartford Art School, University of Hartford where he is currently Professor of Media Arts, a program he designed and directs.

From Gene Gort's artist statement:

"I have recently become interested in NOISE; visual and sonic. The current project, "Intellectual Property", focuses on the visual noise generated from attempting to extract video from copyright encrypted commercial DVD's. As an educator who uses video clips as a mainstay of my classroom practice, I am always showing samples from various sources.

Recently, while attempting to extract sequences from mainstream movies, I was struck by the endless variation of intentional visual noise this process generates in order to keep me and everyone else from illegally copying movies. [...]

The images in this series are screen-grabs from this process; a kind of performance that I do responding to the real-time events I am watching on screen. The titles are an ironic pairing of "intellectual property" and the film title, like "Stolen", "Catch Me If You Can",  "Precious", "Babel" or "Gone with the Wind". [...]

The images here represent a visual equivalent to the collision of the video, computer code, encryption algorithm and extraction process,  my aesthetic sensibility and performance acumen - an equivalency that is independent of the content of the original source."

See a video interview of Gene Gort

The Gallery at Still River Editions is located at 128 East Liberty St., Danbury, CT.

"What if? 60x60x60"







Still from "Duck and Coverup"
©Mark Savoia



Still River Editions/Connecticut Photographics co-owner Mark Savoia has contributed a film titled "Duck and Coverup" to "What If? 60x60x60", to take place April 29, 7:30 pm AXIOM Center for New and Experimental Media, 141 Green St., Jamaica Plain, MA.

The project was created by media artist
Gene Gort and composer Ken Steen, both of New Media New Music New England. The project is a participatory experiment in audio and video that uses 60 video clips and 60 audio clips that are 60 seconds long. Contributors to the project are notable New England media and sound artists. Audience members will select one audio and one video clip, and the resulting combination is played back together. The selections will dictate the evening's performance, resulting in an hour-long event.

Savoia is a master printer,
video artist and photographer.

"What If? 60x60x60" may be viewed online
here. I've found by playing around with the web version, that pairing the same video with different audio often changes its meaning/mood/feeling, and vice versa.

~Lys

The Collaboration of Gene Gort and Ken Steen Tonight April 8 on CPTV

Gene Gort and Ken Steen will be discussing their work on "All Things Connecticut", on CPTV tonight, April 8 at 8 pm. Producer Ed Wierzbicki visited the artists during their residence at the I-Park Artists' Enclave in East Haddam during the summer of 2009.

During tonight's episode, Wierzbicki explores the theme "Technology--Changing the Way We Live" by showing the collaboration between Gort and Steen, who use visual media, musical composition and technology to create their work. Gene Gort is a professor of art at Hartford Art School in Hartford, CT and is a working artist in video, photography, sound, and electronic media. Ken Steen is a composer and professor of music at Hartt School of Music in Hartford, CT.

Their new work, "Each to Each" is a "new media chamber opera in one act for Soprano, Tenor, Clarinet, Violin, Cello, Piano, keyboard sampler, Max/MSP/Jitter, video projections and other visual elements". Their prior project, the "Reliquary of Labor" was created for for the opening of the New Britain Museum of American Art in November, 2006.

In addition to their creative collaborations, Gort and Steen have launched an online resource for artists who work in new media and composition. New Media New Music New England hopes to be a networking and promotion hub that will connect artists to venues, and will foster new projects in the northeast.

Check your local or digital listings to find your CPTV station.

~Lys