Video 'paintings' emerge as new art form

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Contact: Jim Bizzocchi, 778.782.7437; jimbiz@sfu.ca

Video 'paintings' emerge as new art form

The next decade will be a rich test-bed for new forms of domestic visual art, says a Simon Fraser University assistant professor studying the growing genre of ambient video.

Jim Bizzocchi is a researcher with SFU Surrey's HDTV project, which is tracking the evolution of ambient video — the use of flat-panel displays as backgrounds for everyday life.

He predicts that beyond use for home theatre, we will also spend part of our time watching ‘video paintings’ — beautiful images that hang on the walls of our homes in elegant flat-panel displays.

Remember that burning Yule log on VHS tape that you could tune into at Christmas?

"The quality and the impact of the home video experience is on the verge of making a double quantum jump," says Bizzocchi.

"The first is the gradual introduction of high-definition television standards for broadcasters and producers of consumer electronics. The second is the increasing size and decreasing price of flat-panel display screens. That obtrusive box in the corner with the marginal picture will become an elegant and large frame on the wall."

Bizzocchi has produced two sets of ambient video works: Rockface, a sequence of classic scenics of the Canadian Rocky Mountains, and Streaming Video, also photographed in the Rockies but featuring water that gradually grows in scale, power and speed from gentle streams to an impressive waterfall.

He is currently working on a third work — Winterscape, based again on mountain scenes, and planning a fourth, Cityscape, which will be based on urban imagery.

The works are part of Bizzocchi's 'bigger picture' — further research on the future of the moving image.

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Bizzocchi's work will be on display at the SFU Surrey Grand Opening, Saturday, September 9, 12 noon - 4 p.m.