HollyWOULDn’t It Be Nice: Freewaves Hollywould Media Art Festival

October 09, 2008 - October 13, 2008

The mythology of America’s movie capital is at the center of Freewaves’ 11th experimental media arts biennial, which comes with the subtitle: Hollywould. That mythology, along with its pejorative fictions and storyboard symbols, conflates the complexities of the Hollywood industry, the Hollywood brand and the Hollywood neighborhood itself.

But Hollywood's glitz-and-glam as myth isn't the only feature of Hollywould. The gentrification of the Hollywood Boulevard, its zones of friction and the re-imagining of what WOULD be the iconic Los Angeles neighborhood are lead actors in this site-specific, international effort, which runs October 9-13.

With dozens of locations participating and 160 experimental videos, films, and media art from international sources, the world’s most famous boulevard will become a massive, multi-faceted screening room. Over 40 venues will host special events, screenings and site-specific happenings with selected works projected onto buildings, displayed on LCD screens inside stores, and installed in storefront windows.



Sara Wookey is a mixed media performance artist featured in the festival, and she is co-leading a walking tour of the street with urban designer Deborah Murphy (Oct 13, 5pm). Wookey’s current artistic practice is interested in “activating public spaces through a corporeal approach that considers the body and sensory perception as important components for how we navigate, experience and locate ourselves within the visual density of cities.” For Wookey, “Hollywould takes a close-up view of Los Angeles by focusing on Hollywood Boulevard and encouraging a re-imagining of the space.”

Another happening designed to add an extra layer of activation to the street is Fabian Wagmister and Jeff Burke’s Cultural Civic Computing project, which is the result of in-person interviews and workshops with a wide array of local residents, including street cleaners, neighborhood youth, lesbian and gay seniors, Business Improvement District employees, property owners and superhero impersonators.



Hollywould also comments on commercialism and how Los Angeles is branded both indoors and out. Freewaves’ Executive Director Anne Bray states that, “The street [Hollywood Boulevard] is a very commercial environment. There exists a capitalist thirst within the gentrifying neighborhood and Hollywould points toward a strange friction between media, particularly advertising and video art. The challenge has been to place art in these unusual venues [along Hollywood Boulevard], calling into question certain definitions and dissolving the boundary between audience and art.”

Founded in 1989, Freewaves is a grassroots yet global nonprofit arts organization connecting innovative, relevant and independent new media from around the world. The most ambitious of Freewaves’ biennials to date, Hollywould, uniquely integrates two environments: the virtual via the Internet and the physical via the street. (Of the 160 works being presented, 100 will be shown in venues on the Boulevard and another 60 will be online because of limited space on the street.) As an organization, Freewaves promotes the “free waves” of motion and mobility and challenges the culture of exclusion as presented by L.A.'s bureaucratic infrastructure—a celebrity in its own right. This year’s festival is trying new things, like mapping exercises, walking tours and a full spectrum of YouTube, DIY projects, cell phone-captured works and sophisticated animation. All of which are aimed at liberating media from the large screen, mobilizing it in the streets and allowing for new connections between people and place.



All images courtesy of Freewaves

Filed Under: See Events Hollywood

Posted by: Tiffany Barber on October 08, 2008

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