Video Melee works as follows:
1) From 4/28-4/30, from 11-7, bring the means to display your imagery, i.e. DVD player/screen combos, TV’s, projectors, etc.
2) Plug your equipment in and set up your equipment to loop.
3) This will go on until all space and available electrical power is exhausted.
4) Enjoy the opening reception on 5/1.
5) After 5/28, remove your equipment.
Video Melee is a democratic experiment, less about claims to “firsts” than about the enactment of small rituals and gestures in downtowns everywhere.
Some possible themes for use as points of departure:
Liquid Crystal, meaning the ubiquity of devices with screens, more specifically the modern usage of screen-equipped devices in a wide variety of nondomestic, nontheatrical contexts, including public conveyance such as metro subways and long-distance charter buses. This nondomestic usage creates views of the silent or near-silent gestures of actors and dancers displayed on small portable screen/player devices held by the device owner, who wears headphones.
Plenitude and Comparative Deprivation, such as in imagery, in attention spans, in inexpensive consumer grade equipment, in screen size and concurrent aspirational spending, and in the sometimes-vacuous language of open calls for artistic participation.