TV or Not TV
Digital and video art presentations on the Sunset Strip video billboards, part of the LA Freewaves 2002 Festival. A West Hollywood Fine Arts Commission "Art on the Outside" collaboration. Video billboards may be seen from November 2002 through February 2003, at 9039 Sunset (Key Club, segments aired on the half hour), and 8410 Sunset (segments aired intermittently between commercials). Individual art works range from 15 seconds to about one minute each, aiming to capture the attention of motorists and pedestrians. The billboards explore issues of unity, identity, and the meaning of the message.
- Laurel Beckman -IWTLY (I Want To Love You)
A single flashing image with the words "I Want to Love You" is simultaneously sincere and skeptical in its offering. Beckman is a multi-media artist and a lecturer at UC Santa Barbara.
- Ted Fisher and Douglas McCulloh - 1102 Portraits in One-Minute Segements
The project explores some of photography's enduring questions: does a photograph of a face reveal truths about character or soul? If a single portrait conveys a glimpse of identity, what do ten portraits tell us, or a hundred, or 20,000? Fisher is an artis who is exploring the boundaries of photography, computer and the digital art. McCulloh is a photographer with particular interest in chance sampling and digital technologies. Both are at University of Claremont.
- Ann Kaneko, Site-specific Traffic Project
This is a video exploration of urban traffic and culture and seeks to connect those driving through the streets of West Hollywood with the related experience of traffic in other parts of the world. Kaneko is a Los Angeles-based independent filmmaker.
- Eric Saks - Tobacco Geezers (a public service piece)
Tobacco Geezers is a series of anti-smoking Internet and broadcast Public Service Announcements aimed at diverse audiences. Viewers are compelled to learn about the negative affects and implications of genetically modified tobacco being developed by "Big Tobacco." Eric Saks's work integrates his experience in both experimental media and commercial production.
Information about the works was gleaned from the Art on the Outside press release. Photographs by Ruth Wallach, taken on December 21, 2002.