Nothing To See Here was a collaborative art project by Christina Battle and Adán De La Garza in Denver, Colorado from 2013 to 2016. Dedicated to exhibiting contemporary media art, Nothing To See Here offered a home for underrepresented artistic mediums including Sound, Performance, Media Installation, Film, and Video. By highlighting strong media artworks being made in Denver; exposing the Denver community to artists working outside of the region; and remunerating artists for their work, Nothing To See Here filled a void in Colorado’s Contemporary Art scene.
Exhibition record:
Video Syndrome
Curated by Nothing To See Here
Saturday, February 20, 2016 – doors @ 8pm [performance starts at 8.30pm]
Pay What You Can [$8 suggested]
Deer Pile [206 E 13th Avenue, Denver]
In this post-MTV (in its original context) world, we primarily engage with music videos in an uncurated way, online and disseminated through social media. Within these new forms of dissemination, the role of the music video as advertisement, as a trend, often dominates with artistic considerations a second thought. Video Syndrome considers how artists work within the format of the music video and what it means for the format to continue to exist today. The videos included within the program transcend the music video format with both traces and direct links to the histories and discourses found within experimental film, video art, and performance art.
Performance: “Ecdysis Blanket” by Cody Yantis (experimental sound) and Orchidz3ro (projections).
Music videos by:
Headlock & Roberta Frost “UME” by Headlock
Mike Mills “Top Ranking” by Blonde Redhead
Nika Kaiser “Guttuggering” by Prom Body
Jonathan Black with Gary Setzer “Ineffable (I Did Not Know The Green)” by Gary Setzer
Lara Jean Gallagher “Let’s Be Bad” by Childbirth
Felix Kalmenson “Youth Tunes” by Little Girls
Mitchell Pond “Cubicle” by Holophrase
Christina Battle + Adán De La Garza “II (excerpt)” by F A I N T I N G C O P S
Paolo Mongardi “Grindmaster Flesh” by ZEUS!
Linear Downfall, Tyler Blankenship, Brandon Greer “BLOODHEAD” by Linear Downfall
Leslie Hall “No Pants Policy” by Leslie And The Lys
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False Histories
Friday January 15th, 2016
7pm Doors, 7:30 show [real time not punk time]
Pay What You Can [$8 suggested donation]
Buntport Theater [717 N Lipan Street, Denver]
In a time when information about the past is (for most of us) easily accessible, there is also at the same time an overwhelming sense of misconception and half-truths about how things once were. False Histories investigates ways media artists investigate the history of lands (borders, wars), consciously manufactured narratives, memory lapses, and folklore. Through these ideas, the pliability of the past comes to the forefront and we can begin to address how one might see multiple iterations of the past. Constructed truths and accepted fallacies build on top of one another becoming part of our culture and propagating our legacy.
With works by: Felix Kalmenson (Canada), Karl Lind (America), Nahed Mansour (Canada), Nik Nerburn (America), Anri Sala (France), and Stina Wirfelt (Scotland).
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Fool me once you can’t get fooled again
Thursday, December 17, 2015, 7pm
MOCA Tucson [265 South Church Avenue, Tucson, AZ,]
FREE for MOCA members, $5 non-members
“There’s an old saying in Tennessee—I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee—that says, ‘Fool me once, shame on…shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.'” – George Bush.
On September 17, 2002, this now-famous quote was added to the string of gaffes Bush became famous for, now collectively classified as Bushisms. Our reading of these gaffes as humor, reinforced by the ironic and often sardonic tone now common in our dominant culture developed into a coping mechanism for his administration’s misdirection, serving as a tool to ease the blow of his cutthroat and horrific policies.
Whether personal, cultural, or political, the works in this program use humor as a method of dealing with larger issues. Considering the fine line between absurdity and humor, the program investigates where the difference between the two might lie.
Fool me once you can’t get fooled again was curated for an invitation by MOCA Tucson to present a screening as part of their Alex Von Bergen exhibition – December 17, 2015.
Including works by: Karen & Jaimz Asmundson, Rachelle Beaudoin, Adam Castle, LJ Frezza, Serena Lee, Brian Lye, Ryan Simmons, Jon Sasaki, Zak Tatham, Gwen Trutnau & Karen Asmundson, and Lee Walton.
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Field Niggas – by Khalik Allah
Wednesday, December 9, 2015
7pm doors, screening starts promptly at 7.30pm
Dikeou Collection [1615 California Street, Suite 515]
Pay What You Can [suggested $8 but no one ever turned away!]
Khalik Allah’s FIELD NIGGAS, which premiered at True/False Film Fest, is a stylized documentary chronicling summer nights spent at the intersection of 125th Street and Lexington Avenue in Harlem. Allah weaves together stylized portraiture and non-synch audio conversations with the neighborhood’s most oppressed and exhausted inhabitants, giving us a deeper sense of their dreams, regrets, opinions, arguments and observations. The film, which takes its title from Malcolm X’s lecture “Message to the Grassroots” – and was filmed in July 2014 with the death of Eric Garner occurring mid-production – serves as a passionate call to rise above our social constructs and view each other simply as humans. – American Film Institute
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Fool me once you can’t get fooled again
Friday, November 20, 2015
8pm door, screening starts promptly at 8.30pm
Dikeou Collection Pop Up Space [312 East Colfax Avenue Denver, CO 80203]
Pay What You Can [suggested $8 but no one ever turned away!] all proceeds go to exhibiting artists.
“There’s an old saying in Tennessee—I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee—that says, ‘Fool me once, shame on…shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.'” – George Bush.
On September 17, 2002, this now-famous quote was added to the string of gaffes Bush became famous for, now collectively classified as Bushisms. Our reading of these gaffes as humor, reinforced by the ironic and often sardonic tone now common in our dominant culture developed into a coping mechanism for his administration’s misdirection, serving as a tool to ease the blow of his cutthroat and horrific policies.
Whether personal, cultural, or political, the works in this program use humor as a method of dealing with larger issues. Considering the fine line between absurdity and humor, the program investigates where the difference between the two might lie.
Fool me once you can’t get fooled again was curated for an invitation by MOCA Tucson to present a screening as part of their Alex Von Bergen exhibition – December 17, 2015.
Including works by: Karen & Jaimz Asmundson, Rachelle Beaudoin, Adam Castle, LJ Frezza, Serena Lee, Brian Lye, Ryan Simmons, Jon Sasaki, Zak Tatham, Gwen Trutnau & Karen Asmundson, and Lee Walton.
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NTSH presents an exhibition in our bathroom: The Taste of The Name, a solo exhibition by Toronto-based Serena Lee, with exhibition essay by Leila Armstrong. The exhibition is part of an exhibition series called “Close Quarters,” taking place in three other artists’ bathrooms – Jenna Maurice, Kelly Sears, and Theresa Anderson instigated in response to the increasing lack of viable space available to artists here in Denver.
Exhibition Essay by Leila Armstrong (pdf)
The Taste of The Name
Serena Lee
Video installation, 3D virtual reality, viewed on Oculus Rift with audio
10:00mins, Canada, 2015
Installation will be on view: (this is not a screening)
Friday, October 2, 2015 – 1465 Jasmine Street, Denver
Supporters of the NTSH Fundraiser VIP hours: 6pm through 8pm
General Public: 8pm through 11pm
“The object is to name each of the three hundred and thirty shades of blue in every possible language, in order to ascertain the extent to which names for colour are universal. The task should take about forty minutes. It should be performed on a sunny day, if possible in the shade, not in direct sunlight.”
A study in universality, through translation and taste; for solo viewing pleasure.
credits:
The Taste of The Name was commissioned by Trinity Square Video, Toronto 2015
voice: Bodil Jensen
text excerpted from:
World Colour Survey by Brent Berlin and Paul Kay, Department of Anthropology, University of California, 1969
Vingt milles lieues sous les mers by Jules Verne, 1870
Serena Lee has lived and shared works internationally. Previous video installations include a train station storage closet, and a telephone booth. She holds an MA in Fine Art from the Piet Zwart Institute in the Netherlands, and Associate Certification in piano performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music in Canada. Serena has developed English and IT literacy workshops for and with migrant domestic workers in London; performative reading exercises with the Read-in research collective in The Netherlands, Germany, Austria, the UK, and Indonesia; and co-curated the Magic Bar in Rotterdam. Currently, Serena is based in one of Toronto’s many Chinatowns.
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Denver ≥ Denver
A screening of Denver-based (and area) artists
Thursday, September 3rd, 2015
Doors 7.30pm, Screening at 8pm sharp, Pay What You Can (suggested $8)
At Dikeou Collection [1615 California Street – Suite 515 (5th floor)]
Often referred to as one of the most vibrant upcoming cities in the US, the City of Denver’s population is projected to increase 87 percent over the next 35 years. With an art scene primarily dominated by two- and 3-dimensional works and largely driven by commerce, artists working in the realm of media art (film, video, performance, sound) are few and far between. Denver ≥ Denver brings together several artists working outside of Denver’s norm, tackling issues including the politics of the landscape; societal critique; explorations of form; and performance for the camera.
with works by: Christina Battle, Adán De La Garza, Michelle Ellsworth, Tobias Fike, Jeanne Liotta, Zak Loyd, Jenna Maurice, Ryan Wade Ruehlen, + Kelly Sears.
Denver ≥ Denver was initially curated for Toronto’s Regional Support Network – a nomadic screening series started out of a desire to show experimental moving images from other cities unmediated by a Toronto curatorial lens. RSN invites curators from other areas to present work from their community. The only condition is that the curator must be an active member of their community and that they must present their own work in the program. – Clint Enns + Leslie Supnet.
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Denver ≥ Denver
A screening of Denver-based (and area) artists
At Casa Maauad in Mexico City [20 Altamirano, Colonia San Rafael]
Thursday June 11, 7pm
Often referred to as one of the most vibrant upcoming cities in the US, the City of Denver’s population is projected to increase 87 percent over the next 35 years. With an art scene primarily dominated by two- and 3-dimensional works and largely driven by commerce, artists working in the realm of media art (film, video, performance, sound) are few and far between. Denver ≥ Denver brings together several artists working outside of Denver’s norm, tackling issues including the politics of the landscape; societal critique; explorations of form; and performance for the camera.
with works by: Christina Battle, Adán De La Garza, Michelle Ellsworth, Tobias Fike, Jeanne Liotta, Zak Loyd, Jenna Maurice, Ryan Wade Ruehlen, + Kelly Sears.
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NTSH presents an invite-only exhibition in our bathroom: CESSPOOL OF LOVE, a solo exhibition by Toronto-based Clint Enns, with exhibition essay by Leila Armstrong. The exhibition is part of a summer-long exhibition series called “Close Quarters,” taking place in three other artists’ bathrooms – Jenna Maurice, Kelly Sears, and Theresa Anderson instigated in response to the increasing lack of viable space available to artists here in Denver. We’re only inviting those who have come out to and/or supported NTSH over the past year. If you haven’t…you miss out.
Exhibition Essay by Leila Armstrong (pdf) (11MB)
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LOUD!!!
conspired by Nothing To See Here
Wednesday, March 25, 7:30 PM $8/ $5 Members + Students
Hosted by Pleasure Dome
@ Tallulah’s Cabaret, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre
[12 Alexander Street, Toronto]
One way or another, it is vibration, after all, that connects every separate entity in the cosmos, organic or nonorganic. – Steve Goodman – Sonic Warfare Sound, Affect, and the Ecology of Fear [2012]
I went to art school, not music school. I don’t think like a musician. – Christian Marclay in conversation with Kim Gordon [2005]
We often disregard sound’s imperialistic tendencies pushing it into the background as white noise or muzak but the possibilities of the exploitation and weaponization of sound are vast: sonic weapons; long-range acoustic devices; torture; psychological warfare; a tool to discourage loitering in public; sound has the power to dominate. To control.
Culturally we want to experience things sonically together, we congregate toward organized sound: parades; concerts; protests. Sound has the power to shape cultural experiences, and to disseminate ideas, it’s existence is directly tied to the air we breathe.
The videos in LOUD!!! focus on the notion of sound being a dominant element that drives a piece forward. Instead of prioritizing the image (which is often the case in moving image works) artists in LOUD!!! instead work more actively with sound, often incorporating it directly into the frame of the image itself. Instead of tuning sound out and pushing it toward the background, the works in this program remind us of the potentials sound offers.
including works by: Sebastian Haslauer, Max Bernstein, Deco Dawson, Paul Destieu, Kyle Kessler, Loud Objects, Adán De La Garza, and others, including a number of audience-based performances conspired by Nothing To See Here. Full program details below!
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Denver ≥ Denver
Nothing To See Here takes a screening of Denver-based (and area) artists to
Toronto’s Regional Support Network
Tuesday, March 24th, 2015
Doors 7.30pm, Screening at 8pm, Pay What You Can
[Video Fag, 187 Augusta Avenue, Toronto]
Often referred to as one of the most vibrant upcoming cities in the US, the City of Denver’s population is projected to increase 87 percent over the next 35 years. With an art scene primarily dominated by two- and 3-dimensional works and largely driven by commerce, artists working in the realm of media art (film, video, performance, sound) are few and far between. Denver ≥ Denver brings together several artists working outside of Denver’s norm, tackling issues including the politics of the landscape; societal critique; explorations of form; and performance for the camera.
with works by: Christina Battle, Adán De La Garza, Michelle Ellsworth, Tobias Fike, Jeanne Liotta, Zak Loyd, Jenna Maurice, Ryan Wade Ruehlen, + Kelly Sears.
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We Know You Are Watching
conspired by Nothing To See Here
Sunday, March 22, 2015, 7pm, $5
[Sugar City, 1239 Niagara Street, Buffalo, New York]
“We feel free because we lack the language to articulate our unfreedom.” —Slavoj Žižek
The works in we know you are watching offer a counter punch to surveillance culture, reminding us to acknowledge the presence of the camera and illuminating a path toward regaining autonomy. By drawing attention to tactics used to gather personal information, offering methods for avoiding, disrupting, and opting out of the all-pervasive culture of surveillance, the works provide multifaceted strategies for actively cloaking and disguising your identity.
Including works by: Surveillance Camera Players, Jacqueline Goss, Salise Hughes, Zach Blas, Adán De La Garza, Eva and Franco Mattes (0100101110101101.org), Camover.
*all descriptions from the artists.
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Inextinguishable Fire
Nothing To See Here’s One Year Anniversary Screening
A Night of Works by Harun Farocki
Saturday, February 21, 2015, 7pm doors, screening starts promptly at 7.30pm, $8 or Pay Way You Can
Dikeou Collection [1615 California Street, Suite 515, Denver]
“The essence of media violence […] which has become widespread on both surveillance monitors and television sets […] transform[s] the spectator – just like in times of war – either as an abettor or as a potential victim.”
Last year, Nothing To See Here began by examining the role that media plays in our collective political consciousness. the TV is with us was an abbreviated history of disrupted television airwaves, documents of pirated resistance, and televised hackings. A sampling of television interruptions was followed by a special screening of Harun Farocki & Andrei Ujica’s Videograms of a Revolution, a compelling look at the Romanian revolution of December 1989 in a new media-based form of historiography.
One year later and after Farocki’s recent passing, Nothing To See Here revisits his work, presenting three pieces spanning his almost fifty-year career. The works we have selected tackle dominant themes in Farocki’s overall body of work including issues of war, military engagement, capital and cultural ethics, and the corporate occult tied together by the camera’s role in documenting and shaping our relationship to the images that they produce.
“Over more than four decades, Farocki produced an extraordinary body of work that, for someone who continuously compared things, situations, and images to one another, is paradoxically incomparable. In all he did, he kept it simple, clear, and grounded. In cinematic terms: at eye level. His legacy spans generations, genres, and geographies. And the abundance of ideas and perspectives in his work does not cease to inspire. It trickles, disseminates, perseveres.” (Beginnings: Harun Farocki, 1944–2014; Hito Steyerl, 08, 14)
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Grim New World
[a video screening for the impending collapse]
conspired by Nothing To See Here [Christina Battle + Adán De La Garza]
Sunday, December 21, 2014 – 7pm doors, 7.30pm screening [real time not punk time]
8 bucks or Pay What You Can
Think Tank [1301 S 6th Ave Suite 133, Tucson, Arizona]
FORTUNE COOKIES OF DOOMFrom futuristic warnings about humanity’s current path to deconstructions of the human psyche, works in Grim New World navigate the terrain leading toward the end of society.
With Works by: Emily Vey Duke + Cooper Battersby, David Oresick, Reynold Reynolds + Patrick Jolley, Gonzalo Lebrija, Leslie Supnet, Christina Battle + Adán De La Garza, Jubal Brown, and Neïl Beloufa.
*All descriptions courtesy of the artists unless otherwise noted.
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title goes here
a video screening, part of the Failure Festival
Saturday, November 8, 2014, 7pm
madelife [2000 21st street, Boulder]
full festival schedule is here!
Not fixated on or preoccupied with emotional reflections on failing, the works in title goes here instead of co-opting the act of failing into one’s practice. Works in the program either set out to deliberately fail at a task impossible to succeed at, provide a social critique of society’s failures, or are byproducts of the trials and errors inherent in making.
The paradox of failure is that one cannot set out to fail, because the evaluation process of success – as measured by failure – becomes irrelevant. […] embracing failure offer(s) the possibility of refusing the primary drive of successful art […] the concept of which […] is a mis-construction at the core of our reception of art. [from Lisa Le Feuvre “Strive to Fail” (from FAILURE, 2010)]
With works by: 0100101110101101.org (Eva and Franco Mattes), Christina Battle, Nick Campbell, Adán De La Garza, Brian Lye, Jenna Maurice, Jon Sasaki, and Cooper Battersby + Emily Vey Duke.
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it’s not a phase
[an exploration of formative angst (a video screening) ]
conspired by Nothing To See Here
Saturday, September 20, 2014
8pm doors; 8.30 show [real time not punk time]
$8 or pay what you can
The Sidewinder Tavern [4485 Logan Street, Denver]
Drawing ties between underground subcultures and the construct of youth as direct contributors to the struggle to develop personal autonomy, the common thread across ‘it’s not a phase’ considers how these experiences lead toward a greater sense of empowerment and influence the person that one becomes.
With Works By: Leslie Supnet, Ben Russell, Scott Treleaven, Mike Mills, Adán De La Garza, Danny Plotnick, Harmony Korine and more.
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From Deep – A Video Essay by Brett Kashmere
conspired by Nothing To See Here [Christina Battle + Adán De La Garza]
Saturday, August 16, 2014
8pm doors; 8.30 show [real time not punk time]
$8 or pay what you can
Stay After for a Old School Hip Hop Dance Party with DJ Ultraviolet
The Sidewinder [4485 Logan Street, Denver]
Basketball is everywhere in American life. It can be found on driveways and playgrounds, in gyms and alleyways and backyard courts, across all avenues of popular media, and, recently, at the White House. Its style has been absorbed into mainstream fashion, language and music. Todd Boyd writes that the merger of basketball and hip hop “stands at the forefront of all that is hip, cutting edge, and controversial in contemporary American society.” The confluence of new media, marketable stars, compelling social narratives, and changes in the cultural landscape have made basketball the sport that most defines our current moment. Since its invention as a means for taming aggression during the long New England winters of the late-1800s, to rise of Dr. J, the slam dunk, and the integration of urban style into the pro game in the 1970s, to its emergence as the 21st century American pastime, basketball has become a shaping force in American life and a global phenomenon.
From Deep documents the presence of basketball within the sociocultural landscape of contemporary America. Combining self-shot “moving snapshots” of the game in its everyday form with a wide array of archival footage, highlight reels,movie clips, commercials, music videos, video game recordings, and found material, this audiovisual essay offers a layered, non-linear perspective on the merger of basketball and hip hop culture, focused through the wide angle lens of the game’s history.
CANADA/USA, 2013-14, 88 MIN, HDCAM
Concept / Edit / Production: Brett Kashmere
Camera: Toby Waggoner
Sound: Jeremy Fleishman
Music Direction: DJ /rupture
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We Know You Are Watching
conspired by Nothing To See Here
Buntport Theater [717 Lipan Street, Denver]
Sunday, June 22, 2014, 8pm
“We feel free because we lack the language to articulate our unfreedom.” —Slavoj Žižek
The works in we know you are watching offer a counter punch to surveillance culture, reminding us to acknowledge the presence of the camera and illuminating a path toward regaining autonomy. By drawing attention to tactics used to gather personal information, offering methods for avoiding, disrupting, and opting out of the all-pervasive culture of surveillance, the works provide multifaceted strategies for actively cloaking and disguising your identity.
Including works by: Surveillance Camera Players, Jacqueline Goss, Salise Hughes, Zach Blas, Adán De La Garza, Eva and Franco Mattes (0100101110101101.org), Camover.
*all descriptions from the artists.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Grim New World
[a video screening for the impending collapse]
conspired by Nothing To See Here [Christina Battle + Adán De La Garza]
Saturday, May 24, 2014
8pm doors; 8.30 show [real time not punk time]
$8 or pay what you can
The Sidewinder [4485 Logan Street, Denver]
From futuristic warnings about humanity’s current path to deconstructions of the human psyche, works in Grim New World navigate the terrain leading toward the end of society.
With Works by: Emily Vey Duke + Cooper Battersby, David Oresick, Reynold Reynolds + Patrick Jolley, Gonzalo Lebrija, Leslie Supnet, Christina Battle + Adán De La Garza, Jubal Brown, and Neïl Beloufa.
*All descriptions courtesy of the artists unless otherwise noted.
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LOUD!!!
Saturday, April 5, 2014
8pm doors; 8.30 show
$5 or pay what you can
The Sidewinder [4485 Logan Street, Denver]
One way or another, it is vibration, after all, that connects every separate entity in the cosmos, organic or nonorganic. – Steve Goodman – Sonic Warfare Sound, Affect, and the Ecology of Fear [2012]
I went to art school, not music school. I don’t think like a musician. – Christian Marclay in conversation with Kim Gordon [2005]
One way or another, it is vibration, after all, that connects every separate entity in the cosmos, organic or nonorganic. – Steve Goodman – Sonic Warfare Sound, Affect, and the Ecology of Fear [2012]
I went to art school, not music school. I don’t think like a musician. – Christian Marclay in conversation with Kim Gordon [2005]
We often disregard sound’s imperialistic tendencies pushing it into the background as white noise or muzak but the possibilities of the exploitation and weaponization of sound are vast: sonic weapons; long-range acoustic devices; torture; psychological warfare; a tool to discourage loitering in public; sound has the power to dominate. To control.
Culturally we want to experience things sonically together, we congregate toward organized sound: parades; concerts; protests. Sound has the power to shape cultural experiences, and to disseminate ideas, it’s existence is directly tied to the air we breathe.
The videos in LOUD!!! focus on the notion of sound being a dominant element that drives a piece forward. Instead of prioritizing the image (which is often the case in moving image works) artists in LOUD!!! instead work more actively with sound, often incorporating it directly into the frame of the image itself. Instead of tuning sound out and pushing it toward the background, the works in this program remind us of the potentials sound offers.
ncluding works by: Sebastian Haslauer, Max Bernstein, Deco Dawson, Paul Destieu, Kyle Kessler, Loud Objects, Adán De La Garza, and others including a performance by Denver-based R/A. Full program details below!
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the TV is with us
8pm, Saturday, February 22, 2014
The Sidewinder [4485 Logan Street, Denver]
5 bucks [or pay what you can]
conspired by Nothing To See Here
An abbreviated history of disrupted television airwaves, documents of pirated resistance, and televised hackings. Nothing To See Here presents a sampling of television interruptions followed by a special screening of Harun Farocki & Andrei Ujica’s Videograms of a Revolution, a compelling look at the Romanian revolution of December 1989 in a new media-based form of historiography. the tv is with us.
How To Disrupt Television Signals [pdf]
The Program:
Captain Midnight – 5 mins – 1986
On April 27, 1986, at 12:32 am EST, HBO had its satellite signal feed from its operations center in Hauppauge, NY interrupted by a man calling himself “Captain Midnight.” Lasting between 4 and 5 minutes, the interruption occurred during a presentation of The Falcon and the Snowman. The man, who during the interruption also threatened to hijack the signals of Showtime and The Movie Channel, was later caught and identified as John R. MacDougall of Ocala, Florida.
[link to video – click image or – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbruOe6Yii0]
The Media Reality – Ztohoven – 0.43 mins – 2007
In June, 2007 the Czech guerilla arts collective Ztohoven climbed up one of the transmitters of a Czech Radio-Telecommunications company and hacked one of the cameras used for automatic live forecast broadcast. On June 17, 2007, during the live morning public television show “Panorama,” they replaced the live feed of the Krkonose mountains with the image of an atomic explosion.
[link to video – click image or – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vObdyZmpoSE]
Porn Football – 1.07mins – 2009
On February 1, 2009, in Tucson, Arizona, NBC affiliate KVOA’s signal was replaced for about ten seconds with footage from the pornographic video Wild Cherries 5, interrupting Super Bowl XLIII between the Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers.
[link to video – click image or – http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=0c4_1233598904]
Investigate 9/11 – 0.25 mins – 2014
On February 2, 2014, after Super Bowl XLVIII, an unidentified man interrupted MVP Malcolm Smith’s press conference shouting: “Investigate 9/11. 9/11 was perpetrated by people within our own government,” before being pulled away from the microphone and forced out of the room.
[link to video – click image or – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNQlRseW2NA]
The Max Headroom Incident – 2.05 mins – 1987
On November 22, 1987, an unidentified man wearing a Max Headroom mask intercepted the signals of two television stations in Chicago: independent station WGN-TV, during its 9:00 pm sports report for about 25 seconds; and PBS station WTTW, close to 11:00 pm during an episode of Doctor Who entitled “Horror of Fang Rock” for almost 90 seconds. To this day, none of the individuals responsible for the intrusion have been identified.
[link to video – click image or – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWdgAMYjYSs]
Paul Yarrow – 2.51mins – 2010
Paul Yarrow has regularly appeared in the background of various live news reports in the UK since 2009. The first known instance was during an anti-BNP protest outside the BBC TV Centre. He has been recorded on BBC, BBC1, ITV, Channel 4, Skynews and Al-Jazeera. On July 21st, 2010, Paul Yarrow’s identity was finally revealed and he began to explain his constant television interruptions: “It is a statement about the image conscious media. I am overweight and people like me are treated as unsightly because of the way they look…The point I am making is that the more you push me aside, the more I’m going to be determined to make my presence known.”
[link to video – click image or – http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/paul-yarrow]
Day of Desperation – ACT UP – 0.34mins – 1991
On January 22, 1991, during Operation Desert Storm, ACT UP activist John Weir, along with two others entered the CBS Evening News studio at the beginning of a broadcast with anchorman Dan Rather. They shouted “AIDS is news. Fight AIDS, not Arabs!” before the control room cut to a commercial break.
[link to video – click image or – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im_VektDXqM]
Telewizja Solidarność (TV Solidarity) – 2.45 mins – 1985
In September 1985, four astronomers at Poland’s University of Toruń, Zygmunt Turlo, Leszek Zaleski, Piotr Lukaszewski and Jan Hanasz, used a home computer, a synchronizing circuit, and a transmitter to superimpose messages in support of the labor movement Solidarność (Solidarity) over state-run television broadcasts. Tests to check the range of effectiveness of the transmitter were carried out by broadcasting small geometric shapes. The messages read “Enough price increases, lies, and repressions. Solidarity Torun” and “It is our duty to boycott the election,” both along with the Solidarity logo.
[link to video – click image or – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lztemas2fFI]
Videograms of a Revolution – Harun Farocki, Andrei Ujica – 106 mins – 1992
In Europe in the fall of 1989, history took place before our very eyes. Farocki and Ujica’s Videograms of a Revolution shows the Romanian revolution of December 1989 in Bucharest in a new media based form of historiography. Demonstrators occupied the television station [in Bucharest] and broadcast continuously for 120 hours, thereby establishing the television studio as a new historical site. Between December 21, 1989 (the day of Ceaucescu’s last speech) and December 26, 1989 (the first televised summary of his trial), the cameras recorded events at the most important locations in Bucharest, almost without exception. As we know, the 20th century is filmic, but only the video camera, with its heightened possibilities in terms of recording time and mobility, can bring the process of filming history to completion. Provided, of course, that there is history. (adapted from – Dietrich Leder, Film-Dienst 24/92)
*Photo: “Videograms of a Revolution”, Harun Farocki/Andrei Ujica, 1992
TRT = approx. 122mins