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Irridescent cyber duck illustration with a bionic eye Irridescent cyber bear illustration with a bionic eye Irridescent cyber bee illustration
Visit People's Park Plinth

VideoHomeTraining

16/01/2004
Furtherfield

When taking part in TEK’s Trondheim Matchmaking conference in Norway at the end of 2003, I was struck by the urgent need for the positive function and action of people getting together to show what they are up to; not necessarily with the aim of declaring one’s own egoistic mission or networking alone, but to see what others are actually doing. Technology has brought about the rise of many different factions so diverse, that to pin it under a single; centralized term such as “New Media” seems almost ludicrous. One begins to realize how liberating it has been to all, in respect of the exploration of digital creativity and its widening, rule-breaking fluidity in having no static established definition.

So there we all were nearing the end of the event, late evening, worn down by all the talking, the listening, the thinking, the consuming of everyone’s ideas and contributions. The remaining die-hards, ‘ahem’, were rabidly guzzling down the expensive Norwegian beer. Washing away all that carefully attained information gathered during the conference, numbing our sore and bruised craniums. Suddenly, a techno beat cranked its potent, noisy presence into the melee, drowning out the sea of voices. A projection screen lit up and the crowds were instantly diverted from their liquid dominated haze, to witness a performance by the dynamic electro duo called “Videohometraining”. A live sound & video concert based on classic computer games.

The performance starred Marieke and Gijs, up on the screen as animated super 2d fantasy heroes, video game avatars, using high-end vector FX. The whole show was controlled live on stage via their physical selves, from their lab-tops, incorporating a funky mix of noisy sound samples with cut up animations. The epic series featuring iconic game characters such as Transformers and Lara Croft forged an immediate connection born of deep familiarity with the audience. They fought against dark forces in the form of various aliens, spaceships and dangerous clones of bikini-clad women. Their performance reminded me of the 1982 Disney movie Tron written and directed by Steven Lisberger. Like Tron caught up in virtual landscapes, these electric warriors possess heroic superhuman strength.

They have focused and finely tuned their creative talents to formulate a type of audiovisual work that refers to contemporary genre of pixel art. Incorporating a mix of sub-culture, game culture and their own identities in the work itself. A lo-tech initiative that is compatible with a wider audience and beyond art esthetics. This work is definitely more at home in a progressive club culture than the sparse white traditional walls of a white cube gallery.

Teks
Matchmaking conference 2003
Tron via google.com