Today, we (the student residents) continued our meeting series that has been going on for the past week or two. We have been meeting with the new artists working at Eyebeam. So far we have talked to Kaho Abe (Fellow), Ted Southern (Resident), Tahir Hemphill (Resident), and Dustyn Roberts (Resident), who are all doing amazing work. But today we met with Jacob Ciocci, a new fellow. He showed us some of his old work, along with some of his projects he is going to be working on at Eyebeam, and to say the least his work is intense. As he explained to us, he enjoys working with color, especially the neons of the '80's, and uses remixed VHS tapes to make his audience investigate certain ideas which straddle of the border of cliche and meaningful. But his work is not limited to video; he has published 'zines, books, paintings, music, and the list continues. Below is a sample of his work.

Although it cannot be seen from this picture the right wall is actually an animation. The process involved is not easy. He digitally records every image from 1980's VHS tapes- old spiderman cartoons, disney movies, workout videos, etc.- and then animates each image on top of another in time to music. The end piece is an eruption of distorted faces, childhood memories, and neon lights. Pretty cool if you ask me.

He then preceded to show us the VHS recording process and a plastic container full of around 50 VHS tapes, all of which he was in the process of taping and recording for future projects. He also explained that he records all the music in the videos and in fact that his band would be touring sometime in the future, and that he is going to be working on creating a system so that he can sync videos clip while playing live music. Sounds simple but I am sure there is some reason it is not.

Anyway, it was a really interesting meeting and I really enjoy Jacob's art work. Luther seemed really interested as well, so maybe there will be an animation project in the future...maybe?

Later in the week we will be meeting more new artists at Eyebeam, and there will probably be another blog post about that.

So until then,

-Spencer

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