Digital New School a program of contemporary moving image art for the 41st Ann Arbor Film Festival Thursday March 13, 2003 curated by Leslie Raymond sponsored by the University of Michigan School of Art & Design and the AAFilmFest

artists & works the program PDF press release PDF

This is an exciting time to survey the current landscape of moving images.

Our time is a Time of Change. Consider recent changes to our environs: a geography of cell-towers and development of cell phone etiquette; a new #1 shopping-day-of-the-year created by e-commerce (the first day back to work after Thanksgiving vacation); and the pervasiveness of computers in the workplace, domestic front, and public space; an evolution from pinball parlors to playstations and online gaming.

Analog shifts to digital with the escalation of computer technologies in everyday life. We may sense that we are living in the future. It is unfolding everywhere around us, including the realm of the arts.

Digital New School is a screening which showcases experimental motions pictures which have been created using digital technologies.

Many filmmakers, including shown shown in past Ann Arbor Film Festivals, have ventured into newer technologies; and a new generation of artists is confronting these media in ways reminiscent of film's younger days.

It is an honor to include toe work of the AAFF's own Board of Advisors member Leighton Pierce, who's recent digital video work was included in the 2002 Whitney Biennial.

Additional works in the program hail from around the country as well as around the planet, and demonstrate that the art of the moving image has become a crossroads for many media such as film, video, animation, motion graphics, sound arts, performance art, installation art, fine/visual arts, and netart.

In keeping with the Ann Arbor Film Festival's mission of bringing independent and experimental expressions to the screen, and honoring artists for their individual voice, Digital New School casts its net with intent to present a diverse range of voices and expressions.

My hope is that this screening will open a dialogue about how digital technologies have impacted experimental expression of the moving image.

-Leslie Raymond
Ann Arbor
February 2003