VideoVortex, an artistic network concerned with the aesthetics and politics of online video, will gather again in Malta for a conference in late September 2019. In this edition we are in particularly focussed on bringing new research, theory and critiques of online video – in addition to questions around its integration with social media – to Malta. If you are a graduate student or researcher/critic that is engaged with the theoretical challenges of contemporary (moving) image cultures, please join us for the conference.

Given its ease of access and use, video has historically been aligned with media activism and collaborative work. Now, however, with video’s prevalence across social media and the web, its dominance of the internet of things, the role of the camera in both the maintenance and breaking down of networks, in addition to the increasing capacity of digital video to simulate that which has not occurred – we require novel theories and research. That is to say that rapidly changing technological formats underscore the urgent need to engage with practices of archiving and curation, modes of collaboration and political mobilisation, as well as fresh comprehensions of the subject-spectator, actors and networks constituted by contemporary video and digital cultures.

Conference and screenings: September 26-29, 2019.
Exhibition: September 13 until October 27, 2019 (in Spazju Kreattiv)
Website: http://vv12.org

If you are interested to attend the event and contribute to the discussions, please contact the vv12 team for details about accommodation etc.: submissions@vv12.org

Download the full program here.

All events are held at Spazju Kreattiv, except for “Session 2:
Activism”, on Day 2, which will be held at Aula Prima, University of
Malta Valletta Campus . Please refer to details below and in the program.

VV XII conference registration:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/video-vortex-xii-conference-tickets-63022752750

VV XII screening registration:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/video-vortex-xii-screenings-tickets-63025027554

Special: ASMR workshop
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/video-vortex-xii-special-asmr-workshop-tickets-63027029542

Schedule of Video Vortex #12 Conference:

Day 1: Thursday – September 26, 2019

15:00: Video Vortex Pre-Screening: Dance: Please refer to the screening pages for the detailed screening schedule.

17:00: Opening of Video Vortex Conference

• Geert Lovink (Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam)

• Wilfried Agricola de Cologne: Curated screening – The W:OW

18:30: Opening Lecture & Performance

• @lbert figurt: Lecture: Desktop Horror

• Annie Abrahams, Lisa Parra and Daniel Pinheiro: Performance: DISTANT FEELINGS #6

20:00: Meet the Video Vortex Artists

• Vince Briffa and Michael Alcorn: OUTLAND

• Ryan Woodring: The oldest new structure

• Q&A with video vortex artists: Werther Germondari, Letta Shtohryn, Pablo Núñez Palma, Bram Loogman, Tivon Rice & Hang Li (together with Caroline Rosello)

Day 2: Friday – September 27, 2019

09:00: Welcome, Registration & Coffee

10:00: Session 1: Online Video Theory I

• Andrew Clay: The Extraordinary Adventures of Mr. Oakley in the Land of the Video Bloggers

• Karla Brunet: Online Video Cartography

• Ana Peraica: Disinterested and Dead: Spinning Visual Media Reporting Events

• Kathy Rae Huffman: ON/IN Time – video art from outsider to insider

12:00: Break

13:00: Session 2: Activism

NOTE: this session is at a different Venue: Aula Prima, University of Malta Valletta
Campus

• Donatella della Ratta: The vanished image: who owns the archives of the Arab uprisings?

• Aishwarya Viswanathan: Staged Fear: Real and Imagined Audiences of Mob Lynching Videos in India.

• Confusion of Tongues: Moving Membranes

• Miguel Oliveros Mediavilla: Dictature 4.0: ‘La prison à plein air’

15:00: Break

16:00: Session 3: Streaming & Platforms

• Dino Ge Zhang: A Theory of Livestreaming Video

• Andreas Treske and Aras Ozgun: Narrative Platforms: Towards a Morphology of New Audience Activities and Narrative Forms

• Tomasz Hollanek: The Netflix Clinic: (experi)Mental Entertainment in the Age of Psychometrics

• Antonia Hernandez: There’s something compelling about real life: early webcam tropes on current sexcam platforms

Special: ASMR workshop (parallel session on invitation only)
Lucille Calmel & Damien Petitot: Soft Screens Soft Skins Soft: an ASMR workshop

18:00: Break

20:00: Video Vortex evening screening
Please refer to the screening pages for the detailed screening schedule.

Day 3: Saturday – September 28, 2019

09:00: Welcome, Registration & Coffee

09:30: Special: Breakfast Screening

• Colette Tron: Screening: Digital images and films, what’s the matter?

10:00: Session 4: Online Video Theory II

• Colette Tron: Digital images and films, what’s the matter?

• Mitra Azar: From Selfie to Algorithmic Facial Image

• Jack Wilson: PLAYING FROM ANOTHER ROOM

• Chris Meigh-Andrews: EDAU Artists’ Film and Video Study Collection

12:00: Break

13:00: Session 5: Experiments in Aesthetics

• Dan Oki: The Absence of Telepresence

• Hiroko Kimura-Myokam: Video hosting service as a presenting space and a repository

• Patrick Lichty: Not Really Like Being There

• Richard Misek: A Machine for Viewing: a virtual reality video essay

15:00: Break

16:00: Session 6: Workshops/lecture on tech issues

• Pablo Núñez Palma and Bram Loogman: Jan Bot

• Heiko Recktenwald: Montage der Sensationen

• Adnan Hadzi, Simon Worthington and Oliver Lerone Schultz: VV12 after.video book

Special: ASMR workshop (parallel session on invitation only)
Lucille Calmel & Damien Petitot: Soft Screens Soft Skins Soft: an ASMR workshop

18:00: Closing Ceremony

• Andrew Alamango and Andrew Pace: Magna Żmien (Time Machine)

• Judit Kis: Practices Beyond the SELF

Day 4: Sunday – September 29, 2019

14:00: Replay Day
Please refer to the screening pages for the detailed screening schedule.

Schedule of Video Vortex #12 Screenings:

Day 1: Thursday – September 26, 2019

15:00: Pre-VV12 Screening: Dance

• Rita Al Cunha: Error 500, 1:44

• Daniela Lucato: When I dance, 67 min.

• Vito Alfarano: I have a dream, 11:00

17:00: Curated screening – The W:OW

Wilfried Agricola de Cologne, 61 min

Day 2: Friday – September 27, 2019

20:00: Screening I: Structures

• Adam Fish: Points of Presence, 18:46

• Albert Merino: Bestiary, 5:10

• Lotte Louise de Jong: BRB, 5:25

• Esther Polak and Ivar van Bekkum: Go Move Be, 9:50

• Samantha Harvey: Auto tune me, 4:31

21:00: Screening II: Internet, Sadness, Love

• Andres Azzolina: Puntomov, 15:15

• Glasz DeCuir: Yes I saw an angel, 2:37

• María José Ribas: Torremolinos Match, 8:51

• Pedro Gomes: Mutilated Dreams, 10:22

• Salvador Miranda: Aim Down Sights, 7:30

22:00: Screening III: Myself Any Other Night

• Sofia Braga: I stalk myself, 13:26

• María José Ribas: Seismographical, 2:03

• Zimu Zhang & Zheng Lu Xinyuan: Just like any other night, 29:33