Turbulence Commission: “Plazaville” by G.H. Hovagimyan, with Christina McPhee and Artists Meeting
http://turbulence.org/works/plazaville/
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“Plazaville” is a new media video art work set in 21st century New York City. It is based on the classic 1965 movie “Alphaville” by Jean Luc Godard. The scenes from the original “Alphaville” are being re-enacted, interpreted and improvised upon by artists, actors and videographers. The piece uses the Internet as one means of distributing the short video clips. Viewers can download new scenes as they become available. This is somewhat like a serialized program but is not in any order. The videos can be viewed on computers, iPhones and large screen HD televisions (using AppleTV). “Plazaville” extends the notion of video-performance by using the idea of a movie shoot as vehicle for ephemeral performance art.
“Plazaville” involves a loose collaborative of artists in New York called Artists Meeting. The members are participating in the work as actors, camera-persons, set designers etc. G.H. Hovagimyan is the director, and Christina McPhee has added her superb camera work and improvisational narratives to several performance set-ups. Hovagimyan has also enlisted the help of several talented young actors to play the key roles.
“Plazaville” is a 2009 commission of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc., (aka Ether-Ore) for its Turbulence web site. It was made possible with funding from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.
BIOGRAPHIES
G.H. HOVAGIMYAN is one of the first artists in New York to start working with the Internet and new media in the early nineties. His work ranges from hypertext works to digital performance art, installations and HD video.
CHRISTINA MCPHEE is an artist in video, photomontage, drawing; born in LA she lives in the central coast of California, just now starting a lectureship at UC Santa Cruz department of film and digital media; is a moderator for the -empyre- list and was a participating editor in the documenta 12 magazine project in 2007.
ARTISTS MEETING http://turbulence.org/works/plazaville/credits.html
For more Turbulence Commissions, please visit http://turbulence.org