Aporias of the Digital Avant-Garde

This article maps two divergent trajectories within a narrowly defined sphere of short-form, time-based digital media created between 1995 and 2005. Works discussed include music videos, design-oriented short films, and motion graphics by directors Michel Gondry, Virgil Widrich, Mike Nourse, Barbara Lattanzi, Rico Gatson, and design firms Logan, Ramon & Pedro, and H5. These works are considered in relation to the historical avant-garde – particularly the Structural film movement of the 1960s and 70s – and analyzed as responses to a range of cultural concerns specific to the digital age. The analysis identifies movement toward two terminal points: first, a mode of remix-based montage inspired by open source programming communities and peer-to-peer networks; and second, the emergence of a mode of imaging termed the "digital analogue," which foregrounds the material basis of digital production. Aporias of the Digital Avant-Garde This article maps two divergent trajectories within a narrowly defined sphere of short-form, time-based, digital media – specifically: music videos, design-oriented short films and motion graphics – created during the past ten years. Despite the fact that the work under consideration here has rapidly proliferated and resonated with many of the key theoretical issues in cinema and visual culture studies of the past three decades, it has been largely neglected by theorists and critics of digital culture. [1] Part of the reason for this neglect is practical. The works themselves are often ephemeral or difficult to access and they tend to occupy a liminal position between what is called "experimental" or "avant-garde" film and video, and the equally broadly defined field of practice termed "new media. " These works therefore do not fit into any consistent curricular or publishing niche, are rarely a part of mainstream culture, do not receive theatrical distribution or broadcasting, and are often regarded with suspicion as proper objects of study within an academic context. [2] Nonetheless, I will argue that much of this work may be productively understood as a processing ground for some of the most compelling issues in digital culture, as seen across the broad spectrum of contemporary media. I am particularly interested in considering this work’s potential for understanding emergent approaches to the perception and construction of space, time, and bodies; the status of narrative; and relations between technology and material culture. As a point of entry, I propose to ask whether this work may be meaningfully understood in relation to the historical avant-garde, particularly the Euro-American Structural film movement of the 1960s and 70s, and to explore resonances with a range of cultural concerns of relevance to the digital age. I do not, however, wish to spend much time justifying my use of the term “avant-garde,” which admittedly carries specific historical connotations which are not all applicable to the present discussion. [3] I will argue that these questions guide us toward two primary terminal points. The first is the movement toward a kind of "open source" video authoring modeled after the combined practices of open source programming communities and peer-to-peer file sharing networks – two practices that have significance for the future of digital media across a wide range of production and distribution practices. The second is the emergence of what I call the "digital analogue," a mode that foregrounds material aspects of production seemingly in defiance of the conventional wisdom that digital media are characterized by dematerialization and disconnection from the physical world. Because the title of this essay features the rather glaring oxymoron "digital avant-garde," it may be useful to I will argue that these questions guide us toward two primary terminal points. The first is the movement toward a kind of "open source" video authoring modeled after the combined practices of open source programming communities and peer-to-peer file sharing networks – two practices that have significance for the future of digital media across a wide range of production and distribution practices. The second is the emergence of what I call the "digital analogue," a mode that foregrounds material aspects of production seemingly in defiance of the conventional wisdom that digital media are characterized by dematerialization and disconnection from the physical world. transvergence.anderson. digitalavantgards.01 define these two terms in isolation in order to frame the use I hope to make of them in juxtaposition. First, the term "digital" rarely denotes a set of cohesive practices. Digital media are notoriously hybrid, often bringing together images, sounds, and objects that are computer-generated or mediated with others that originate in the analogue, photochemical, or textual worlds. There is, however, a certain utility to "digital" as a historicizing term, particularly as it implies its own eventual obsolescence. I am less interested, therefore, in defining "digital culture" in terms of technology, than in attempting to identify the social practices and preoccupations that are particular to the digital age. One of the things at stake within the consumer culture that surrounds digital media is the growing invisibility of its underpinning technology. This is of particular relevance given the current movement toward ubiquitous computing and wireless networks; even flat panel monitors and microprocessors that are embedded in everyday objects seem to negate the physical infrastructure of the computer and by implication, its socio-industrial base. Within visual culture, digital imaging has come to signify a parallel ontological shift away from the indexical trace of the photograph. Where photochemical imaging could lay claim to a direct relation to the physical world, both conventional wisdom and our own experience tell us that digital images are differently disconnected from the world they purport to represent. Although the problematic of representing reality long predates the appearance of digital technology, the early 1990s marked a point-ofno-return for the representational capacity of images. In his 1991 book Representing Reality, documentary film theorist Bill Nichols offered this almost sheepish disclaimer: [through digital sampling] The image becomes a series of bits, a pattern of yes/no choices registered within a computer’s memory [. ] There is no original negative [. ] against which all prints can be compared for accuracy and authenticity. There may not even be an external referent. The implications of all this are only beginning to be grasped. They clearly set a historical framework around the discussion presented in this book, which continues to emphasize the qualities and properties of the photographic