What is Ambient Video ?
A New Experience...
The next generation of visual art, fusing digital technology with the raw expressiveness of abstraction...
The proliferation of flat screen and high-resolution televisions is transforming the video experience. This technology is
providing new media content producers and artists with the opportunity to push the limits of artistic expression and bring
cinematic size and quality to our homes.
The effects of this technology have been amplified by rapid developments in a variety of related technologies:
inexpensive high-resolution video cameras, sophisticated and widespread post-production software, and improved
video storage, playback and distribution platforms like HD DVD and Blu-ray players. This shift to revolutionary video
experiences has artists and producers taking advantage of these new technologies to express themselves in ways
unheard of just a few short years ago.
In this new age of "video as the canvas" traditional cinematic experiences are being transformed into new video forms
such as visually layered productions and new forms of ambient video.
Video Painting...
Just as painting began as a medium used to represent reality and gradually diverged to abstraction...
these digital art works deal with the inscription of painting in time Video paintings are video works that are presented
on televisions, flat panel screens and LCD monitors that are wall-mounted in the same manner as traditional
paintings. These new large-scale high-resolution devices are becoming less expensive and more plentiful in both
domestic and public spaces. As this trend continues to accelerate we are seeing the renewal of a vital form of video
art, the living video painting, and new ways of viewing traditional art from Rembrandt to Warhol.
The content in this emergent art form is designed to work either as a foreground experience of which we are fully
aware, or as a passive background experience. These art forms can act as the focus of attention, or be totally
overlooked and submerged within the surrounding environment. Depending on the viewer’s preference, there may or
may not be sound accompaniment, so that at its core, ambient video is an exercise in the creation of new and exciting
kind of “customizable room tone”. Like traditional paintings, video paintings hang on the wall to be viewed or ignored
- depending on the desired experience of the viewer.
