Vasulka Steina
Since the mid-1970s, Steina has explored intricate transformations of vision, space and sound, through a dynamic confluence of digital technologies, mechanical devices and natural landscape. After producing a pioneering body of work with Woody Vasulka in the early 1970s, Steina has pursued several distinct inquiries in her more recent videotapes and installations: The electronic interrelation of sound and image; the use of mechanized, pre-programmed image devices for phenomenological explorations of perception, space, and modes of seeing; and the textural fusion of digital and "real" imagery and sound to create layered spatial and temporal systems. In many of her works, the natural landscape of the American Southwest is integral visual material.
In 1975, Steina began Machine Vision, a series of tapes and installations for which she devised mechanical systems with programmed functions -- optical, motorized or rotating devices that include spherical mirrors, prisms, and cameras with lens mobility. Used with her signature electronic manipulation and landscape imagery, these devices resulted in exhilarating redefinitions of physical and representational space. In richly textured works such as Voice Windows (1986) and
Lilith (1987), Steina manipulates digital and camera-generated images, "real" and altered sound with haunting effect, constructing dense layers and multiple perspectives that fuse the natural world and technology in space and time.
Steina's project of manipulating and fusing the "real" and the electronic, sound and image, has in recent years taken the form of performances in which she returns to her roots as a musician. Transposing the strategies of her early Violin Power to a theatrical scale, Steina performs on a violin that digitally generates and controls a progression of projected images.
Steina Vasulka was born in Reykjavik, Iceland in 1940. She studied at the Music Conservatory in Prague, 1959-63, and emigrated to the United States in 1965. With Woody Vasulka, she has won numerous awards; their collaborative works have been widely exhibited internationally (see Steina and Woody Vasulka). Exhibitions of her individual works have been seen at festivals and institutions including Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; The Kitchen, New York; Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh; The Jonson Gallery, University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque; and the Whitney Museum of American Art Biennial, among many others.
Steina lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Steina explores transformations of image, space and sound through a dynamic confluence of digital technologies, mechanical devices and natural landscape. After producing pioneering work with Woody Vasulka in the 1970s, Steina focused on the electronic interrelation and manipulation of sound and image. Fusing digital and "real" imagery to create layered spatial and temporal systems, she often uses pre-programmed devices to explore perception and vision.
Violin Power 1970-78, 10:04 min, b&w, sound
Orbital Obsessions 1975-77; revised 1988, 24:25 min, b&w, sound
Flux 1977, 8 min, color, sound
Steina: Selected Works 1979-82, 29:52 min, color, sound
Bad 1979, 2:14 min, color, sound
Urban Episodes 1980, 8:50 min, color, sound
Summer Salt 1982, 18:48 min, color, sound
Cantaloup 1980, 27:54 min, b&w and color, sound
Selected Treecuts 1980, 8:11 min, color, sound
Voice Windows 1986, 8:10 min, color, sound
Lilith 1987, 9:12 min, color, sound
A So Desu Ka 1994, 9:40 min, color, sound
Orka 1995, 16 min, color, sound
Pyroglyphs 1995, 27:20 min, color, sound
The West 1998, 28:25 min, color, sound
Trevor 1999, 11 min, color, sound
Warp 2000, 4:30 min, color, sound
http://www.vasulka.org
http://www.artscilab.org/VasulkaArchive.html
http://www.fondation-langlois.org/e/collection/vasulka/archives/index.html
In 1975, Steina began Machine Vision, a series of tapes and installations for which she devised mechanical systems with programmed functions -- optical, motorized or rotating devices that include spherical mirrors, prisms, and cameras with lens mobility. Used with her signature electronic manipulation and landscape imagery, these devices resulted in exhilarating redefinitions of physical and representational space. In richly textured works such as Voice Windows (1986) and
Lilith (1987), Steina manipulates digital and camera-generated images, "real" and altered sound with haunting effect, constructing dense layers and multiple perspectives that fuse the natural world and technology in space and time.
Steina's project of manipulating and fusing the "real" and the electronic, sound and image, has in recent years taken the form of performances in which she returns to her roots as a musician. Transposing the strategies of her early Violin Power to a theatrical scale, Steina performs on a violin that digitally generates and controls a progression of projected images.
Steina Vasulka was born in Reykjavik, Iceland in 1940. She studied at the Music Conservatory in Prague, 1959-63, and emigrated to the United States in 1965. With Woody Vasulka, she has won numerous awards; their collaborative works have been widely exhibited internationally (see Steina and Woody Vasulka). Exhibitions of her individual works have been seen at festivals and institutions including Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; The Kitchen, New York; Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh; The Jonson Gallery, University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque; and the Whitney Museum of American Art Biennial, among many others.
Steina lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Steina explores transformations of image, space and sound through a dynamic confluence of digital technologies, mechanical devices and natural landscape. After producing pioneering work with Woody Vasulka in the 1970s, Steina focused on the electronic interrelation and manipulation of sound and image. Fusing digital and "real" imagery to create layered spatial and temporal systems, she often uses pre-programmed devices to explore perception and vision.
Violin Power 1970-78, 10:04 min, b&w, sound
Orbital Obsessions 1975-77; revised 1988, 24:25 min, b&w, sound
Flux 1977, 8 min, color, sound
Steina: Selected Works 1979-82, 29:52 min, color, sound
Bad 1979, 2:14 min, color, sound
Urban Episodes 1980, 8:50 min, color, sound
Summer Salt 1982, 18:48 min, color, sound
Cantaloup 1980, 27:54 min, b&w and color, sound
Selected Treecuts 1980, 8:11 min, color, sound
Voice Windows 1986, 8:10 min, color, sound
Lilith 1987, 9:12 min, color, sound
A So Desu Ka 1994, 9:40 min, color, sound
Orka 1995, 16 min, color, sound
Pyroglyphs 1995, 27:20 min, color, sound
The West 1998, 28:25 min, color, sound
Trevor 1999, 11 min, color, sound
Warp 2000, 4:30 min, color, sound
http://www.vasulka.org
http://www.artscilab.org/VasulkaArchive.html
http://www.fondation-langlois.org/e/collection/vasulka/archives/index.html