Call for Entries for the Festival of (In)appropriation 2012 here!
Whether you call it collage, compilation, found footage, detournement, or recycled cinema,the incorporation of previously shot materials into new artworks is a practice that has generated novel juxtapositions of elements which have produced new meanings and ideas that may not have been intended by the original makers,that are,in other words “inappropriate.”This act of appropriation may produce revelation that leads viewers to reconsider the relationship between past and present,here and there,intention and subversion. Fortunately for our purposes,the past decade has seen the emergence of a wealth of new sources for audiovisual materials that can be appropriated into new works. In addition to official state and commercial archives,vernacular archives,home movie collections,and digital archives have provided fascinating source material that may be repurposed in such a way as to give it new meanings and resonances.
Founded in 2009,the Festival of (In)appropriation is a yearly showcase of contemporary short (20 minutes or less) audiovisual works that appropriate film or video footage and repurpose it in “inappropriate”and inventive ways. The show,now in its third year,is curated by Jaimie Baron,Lauren Berliner,and Andrew Hall.
In addition to the Festival of (In)appropriation proper,we have also curated several themed shows about gender and the body and digital inappropriations.
Generously sponsored by Los Angeles Filmforum.
About the Curators
Jaimie Baron received her B.A. in Art-Semiotics from Brown University,her M.A. in Film Studies from the University of Iowa,and her Ph.D. in Cinema and Media Studies from UCLA. She is an Associate Programmer at the experimental film and video screening series,Los Angeles Filmforum. In 2009,she founded the Festival of (In)appropriation with the help of Andrew Hall. Her research interests include archival theory,appropriation,experimental film,documentary film,film and media theory,gender studies,digital media,and transnational cinema. She is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor in Film and Media Studies at the University of California Santa Barbara,and her work has been published in The Velvet Light Trap,Spectator,Eludamos,and the anthology Global Visual Cultures,among other publications.
Andrew Hall,originally from Miami Florida, earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Virginia,where he majored in history and minored in astronomy. Following a year spent wandering across the U.S.,he moved to New York where he taught science at a high school in East Harlem for the next four years and spent two summers conducting chemistry research at Columbia University.
After taking time off for extended backpacking trips through Southeast Asia and South America,Andrew enrolled in UCLA’s Cinema and Media Studies program,where he earned an MA in 2010. He also served as Director of UCLA's Melnitz Movies screening series,for which he programmed over fifty screenings of contemporary independent and international cinema. In addition to co-curating the Festival of (In)appropriation,Andrew supports his interest in avant-garde cinema through volunteer work for Los Angeles Filmforum.
Lauren Berliner holds a BA in Anthropology and English Literature from Wesleyan University and an MA in Visual and Media Art from Emerson College. She is currently a PhD Candidate in the Department of Communication at UC San Diego. Her research focuses on youth media production,gender and sexuality,memory,kinship and the archive. Also a filmmaker,she has screened her work internationally and has served on the judging committee for the San Diego Women's Film Festival. She is the educational director of Girls Empowered to Make Movies as well as the director of the media workshops at the Hillcrest Youth Center for LGBT teens.
Staff
Web Manager/Communications Strategist
Rachel Allen is a PhD candidate in the department of Film and Media Studies at the University of California Santa Barbara. Before entering the program,Rachel served as the Online Community Manager for The National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture (NAMAC) where she developed several online programs such as Open Dialogue. Rachel has been invited to present on social media strategy for the Emerging Arts Professionals/SFBA and the Sex::Tech Conference 2011. Last year,she was the recipient of the NextGen Arts Grant Award and the National Conference for Media Reform Scholarship. Rachel has a background in journalism and television production,having worked for CBS News and The Late Show with David Letterman. Her research interests include cultural citizenship,public media systems,and TV history. Rachel received her B.A. in English from Oberlin College in 2008.
Graphic Designer
Diana Pozo is a PhD student in Film and Media Studies at the University of California,Santa Barbara. Diana was the chief publicity officer for the Swarthmore Queer Union from 2006-2009,and received the Luís Eduardo Guerra/Taslima Nasrin Commnity Building Award for her activist artworks in 2009. She has written and presented at international conferences on topics including Hergé's Tintin in the Congo,Transwomen's video blogs,and multiplayer military video games. Her most recent article,"War Games at Home,Home Games at War:The Geography of Multiplayer Military First-Person Shooting Games"is forthcoming in Mediascape. Diana's interests include comic books,video games,queer theory,and sex with robots. Her next project will to parlay her interest in "sex with robots"into a dissertation about media that touch the body,including video game controllers,touchscreens,and sex toys as media.
Past Curators
Madeleine Gallagher is a visual artist,filmmaker and designer originally from Philadelphia,Pennyslvania. She holds degrees in Studio Art from MICA (Baltimore),where she focused on making paintings,sculpture and video art as well as studying french philosophy. She has exhibited her work internationally and has taught production since 2001 in the roles of Visiting Assistant Professor in the Film/Video Department at Mass Art in Boston,TV Faculty at Salem Public Schools in Massachusetts and Instructor of Telemedia at Carver Center for the Arts in Maryland.
In 2008,Madeleine moved to Los Angeles to expand her practice into the field of design and to explore the west coast. She recently completed an MFA in Design Media Arts at UCLA,where she met Jaimie Baron and Andrew Hall. She also volunteers her time to support avant-garde cinema and community based projects through volunteer work at iota,a non-profit arts organization devoted to Abstract Cinema and Visual Music.
