Task 1 - part 1 Discuss both past and current artists and works

Experimental video has been adapting continuously since the concept was first created, in the 1960's, when video was brought into art galleries. Early examples of experimental video are "The Girl Chewing Gum" by John Smith in 1974 and 8 years later (in 1982) Godfrey Roggio created the film "Koyaanisqatsi" Both of these videos are highly concept based. As times have progressed and technologies have advanced, the quality of experimental videos have improved, but the level of concept base pieces have not changed.
When you look at an early piece of experimental video like "The Girl Chewing Gum" it is easy to see that the technology being used is very basic and lacks quality that many modern pieces have. An example of the increase in quality is Andrew Haung's computer graphic piece "Doll Face" created in 2003.
"Doll Face" introduces the audience to a jack-in-a-box character, which is plain and lifeless. That is until it sees a number of images on a screen, one of which is a beautiful woman wearing make-up. The character then starts trying to imitate the image it has seen. In doing this, it pushes itself until it goes to far and breaks. The concept behind "Doll Face" is the idea of somebody can push themselves so much in the pursuit of perfection, but if they push themselves to far, they can end up destroying the very essence that makes someone who they are. And people are pushed so far because of what the media dictates is perfect. Similarly, Media dictating opinions and context of what is being seen is a concept behind "The Girl Chewing Gum". In this video, you are lead to believe that a director is giving instructions and controlling the action that is taking place in the shot. Then it is later revealed that the "director" is not controlling the action, he has just added audio commentary to action filmed previously. The level of craftsmanship in John Smith's short film is considerably less than Andy Huang's. The only piece of advanced is the adding of non-diegetic sound. Whereas, "Doll Face" only works because of extremely well created craft of the graphics.
By today's standards the level of craft involved in "Doll Face" is incredibly impressive. Back in 1982 "Koyaasqatsi" was released. It was created entirely through filming of everyday events and environments, then edited heavily in postproduction, to create the 88-minute film created by Godefry Reggio. At the time, this was seen as revolutionary and impressed many who viewed it. It is still considered as an inspirational film in present day. Both Reggio’s and Huang's films are very well made and enjoyable to watch. They offer views on life that cant always be seen and spark thoughts about the state of the world, even though they have been created decades apart.