Early media art in Czech Republic

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(under construction)


Predecessors

  • Jan Amos Komenský
  • Juda Loew ben Bezalel (Rabbi Loew), invented the Golem, experimented with the camera obscura.
  • Karel Capek wrote a sci-fi drama R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) on robots in 1920s.
  • Zdeněk Pěšánek wrote about electronic machines fulfilling miracles in his book Kinetismus from 1940.


Experimental film, avantgarde film


Interactive environments and installations

  • Theatergraph by E.F.Burian and Miroslav Kouřil. Performance stage with integrated projection surfaces on which films and slides were projected during theater performances, and established a direct visual relationship to the onstage action. This technology was first used in 1936 for Wedekind’s production of Spring’s Awakening, and later for Pushkin’s Eugen Onegin.
  • Laterna magika by Alfréd Radok (film director) and Josef Svoboda (stage designer). First introduced in the Czechoslovak pavilion at the Expo '58 in Brussels, this entity combined ballet, theater, several film projections, and sound background. [...] LM transformed the concept of virtual and physiological time. The medium of virtual time included a real actor with whom the spectator could identify and thus gain a direct paradigm on which to model his own behavior, should his physical body ever find itself in a virtual interactive space. [...] It was a highly synchronized program, coordinated to the last detail, with everyone having his exact spot in a precisely marked space. Later presented at Expo '67 Montreal, Expo '70 Osaka.
  • Josef Svoboda: Diacran (1958), Polyecran (Expo 1967 Montreal), Polyvision (with Frič, 1967).
  • Jaroslav Frič: Polyvision (with Svoboda, 1967), Kinoautomat (with Činčera, 1968), Spherorama - a slide projector with only a single lens was able to create a 360-degree dome projection (Expo 1970 Osaka), Vertical Cinemascope (Expo 1970 Osaka), Rondovision (1984).


Computer and computer-aided art

  • Miroslav Klivar, painter, graphic artist, poet, curator. Organised Computer and Art exhibition in Prague 1968. Started to use computer in early 70s.
  • Zdeněk Sýkora is considered the first Czechoslovak artist to use computer. In 1964 in collaboration with the mathematician Jaroslav Blažek he began creating the visual computer-aided structures. In 1972 he created his first computer generated line paintings. The results of computations, spatial compositions of alphanumerical symbols were interpreted by the two dimensional shapes manually painted or used as a mosaic tiles at the architectural objects.
  • Zdenka Čechová, studied Art and Mathematics. Started using computer in the early 70s and used computer generated images at the textile and ceramics design.
  • Aleš Svoboda, Stanislav Zippe, Pavel Rudolf, Lubomír Sochor, Jan Moučka, Zdenek Frýbl
  • Radomír Leszczynski, painter. Since 1995 he has concentrated on the brushwork realization of "subjacent" work on a computer. Also produces electronic prints.
Computer art exhibitions


Video art

  • Woody Vasulka, artist. After producing a pioneering body of tapes in collaboration with Steina Vasulka since 1969 in the USA, he has investigated the narrative, syntactical and metaphorical potential of electronic imaging. Co-founded The Kitchen in 1971.
  • Petr Skala, video artist, film director, screenwriter. In late 1982 began to work systematically with the video technology, which he had not previously regarded as an artistic medium, but only as a tool for preserving his abstract moving images.
  • Radek Pilař, bought video camera and VCR in 1983, then first video experiments. Since 1988 organised exhibitions of video art.
  • Video Salon. A famous animation producer and illustrator Radek Pilař was making video art tapes from 1987 and gathered a number of artists to form a video group. This "Video Salon" made their first exhibition in the summer of 1989 with numerous screenings and four video installations. The members had access to information on video installation because one of the members, Dr. Vancat, was then working for the National Art Archive where there were photos of works by Paik and Bill Viola. Filmmakers Petr Skala, Tomáš Kepka, Ivan Tatíček, photographers Pavel Scheufler, Pavel Jasanský, Michal Pacina, Jasoň Šilhan, visual artists Lucie Svobodová, Věra Geislerová, Lenka Štarmanová, Kateřina Scheuflerová, Roman Milerský, René Slauka, and architect Miro Dopita. Active til mid-1990s. Since 1993 directed by Petr Skala.
  • Original Video Journal, the dissident video magazine started in 1986 with Vaclav and Olga Havel's initiative, was being edited and copied secretly on school equipment.


Electroacoustic and experimental music, sound art

  • 18. ledna 1961 byla povolena jednorázová diskuze odborníků o experimentální hudbě v Literárních novinách. Zúčastnili se Jarmil Burghauser, Svatopluk Havelka, Jan Rychlík, Vladimír Šrámek, Václav Trojan, Eduard Herzog, Vladimír Lébl a ing. Antonín Svoboda. Následně byla zřízena komise, která měla posoudit prospěšnost této hudby.
  • Alois Piňos, composer. Patří k zakladatelské generaci české Nové hudby šedesátých let. Na svém kontě má i několik zajímavých prvenství: první česká kompozice kombinující orchestr s magnetofonovým pásem (Koncert pro orchestr a magnetofonový pásek, 1964); první týmové kompozice (1969–1971); první české audiovizuální dílo – ve spolupráci s výtvarníkem Daliborem Chatrným vytvořil triptych Statická kompozice, Mříže, Geneze (1970); hudba vytvořená ze zvuků krápníků (Speleofonie, 1976) atp.
  • Experimentální studio v Plzni bylo zřízeno v roce 1965. Miloslav Kabeláč, Karel Odstrčil, Miroslav Hlaváč, Jan Hanuš a Milan Slavický a další. Toto studio však zůstalo uzavřeno pro autory, kteří nedokázali předložit dostatečně socialistické projekty. Ještě v roce 1963 však v mnohatisícovém nákladu vyšla kniha, jejímž hlavním cílem bylo zostudit a zesměšnit všechny experimenty prováděné ve světě.
  • Miloslav Kabeláč
  • Rudolf Růžička
  • Milan Knížák, Broken Music (1979) (Fluxus). "In 1963-64 I used to play records both too slowly and too fast and thus changed the quality of the music, thereby, creating new compositions. In 1965 I started to destroy records: scratch them, punch holes in them, break them. By playing them over and over again (which destroyed the needle and often the record player too) an entirely new music was created - unexpected, nerve-racking and aggressive. Compositions lasting one second or almost infinitely long (as when the needle got stuck in a deep groove and played the same phrase over and over). I developed this system further. I began sticking tape on top of records, painting over them, burning them, cutting them up and gluing different parts of records back together, etc. to achieve the widest possible variety of sounds. A glued joint created a rhythmic element separating contrasting melodic phrases... Since music that results from playing ruined gramophone records cannot be transcribed to notes or to another language (or if so, only with great difficulty), the records themselves may be considered as notations at the same time."
  • V průběhu 70. let vzniklo mimo oficiální půdu v prostředí undergroundu několik hudebních experimetů Milana Knížáka (skupina Aktual) a Pavla Zajíčka s Milanem Hlavsou (skupina DG 307). V 80. letech se v Praze kolem skladatelů Petra Kofroně a Martina Smolky vytvořila skupina Agon, která dodnes interpretuje původní tvorbu českých a světových autorů. V Brně se v 90. letech podařilo zavést tradici Expozice nové hudby, která jednou ročně nabízí přehlídku nejnovějšího vývoje v oblasti experimentální tvorby.


Media theory


1990s

  • In 1990, when the Fluxus artist, deconstructivist Milan Knizak, was elected as a dean of the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague all the professors of the old regime were removed. He replaced them, and set up an atelier of video art with Fluxus star Paik's student Michael Bielicky, fulfilling his iconoclasm against the authorities and the hierachy in both politics and art-history. Another provocative, ex-banned performing artist, Tomas Ruler, received a TV studio at the Technical University in Brno after the revolution and now runs an atelier of video art and multimedia performance there. Video was also the most effective media for him. [1]
  • Michael Bielický, New Media AVU academy program since 1991 (til 2007). "In 1991 I was called by the Prag Academy of Art to found and lead a section for new media. Nam June Paik donated quite a large amount of money for the equipment. As well, other (private) people from Germany supported this project. Thanks to the DAAD in Bonn, a longterm instructer for my department was made available for several years. The department is situated in a Cubist influenced villa. The first students reacted very individually in their way of using the new technology. From videotapes to video installations, interactive video sculpters, live video performances to communication art, they use their new techniques in a serious, but detached way."
  • Keiko Sei, head of Video/Performance/Multimedia Studio in Brno 1998-2001.
  • Miloš Vojtěchovský - Orbis Fictus, Dawn of the Magicians?, LABoratory
  • Silver, Lucie Svobodová, Milan Slavický composer..
  • experimental film: Martin Blažíček, Emil Kubiš, Vít Pancíř, Martin Ježek, Martin Čihák, Petr Marek
  • Video/Performance/Multimedia Studio. "In 1994, the receipt of a grant enabled us to take the initial steps towards creating a long-term program integrating modern technology and a Multimedia laboratory built in cooperation with Woody Vasulka, pioneer of video and electronic art. Developments include the aquisition of real-time multimedia interactive equipment and links to an academic network and the World Wide Web. Thanks to the support and financial assistance of Silicon Graphics, the VMP studio has been able to upgrade its equipment and increase its number of projects including interactive works and installations. In addition, opportunities to collaborate with other institutions have also been created and an academic metropolis net involving several universities is being developed."
  • Milan Guštar, he's been providing technical support for the works by David Černý, Silver, Federico Diaz, Miloš Vojtěchovský, Michael Bielický and others since 1987.
  • Orbis Fictus new media art exhibition Prague 1994, organised by SCCA. Curated by Ludvík Hlaváček and Marta Smolíková.
  • Dawn of the Magicians? exhibition Prague 1996-7, organised by National Gallery. Curators: Jaroslav Anděl, Miloš Vojtěchovský, Ivona Raimanová.
  • Hi-tech/Art Brno 1994-97, annual international exhibition and symposium, organised by Video/Performance/Multimedia Studio Brno.
  • Terminal Bar venue Prague.


2000s

Bibliography

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