Video Garden

Video Garden is an exhibition that featured the works created by students in the Spring 2019 School of Visual Art and Design course MART581A: Site-Based and Installation New Media Art, taught by Jennifer Tarr. This advanced new media production class developed video and new media works specifically for the SVAD Studio at Stormwater Studios. Participating artists include: Dana Berry, Cody Catoe, William Craig, Ponder Davis, Robert Diepholz, Jack Frazier, Kinley Fuqua, Matthew Girardeau Smith, Andrew Graybil, Calli Hendricks, Thulani Hillario, Kimmie Hilton, Amanda Kisby, Hope Kutkus, Josh Lewis, Erich Nuzum, Cole O'neil, Jimmy Poluszek, Zach Spencer, Emily Staton, Lindsay Wright, and Chandler Yonkers. 

Jennifer Tarr describes the final exhibition assignment and its concept to visitors of Video Garden:

“Back in January, on the first day of class, I sent the 22 students in my media installation class on a scavenger hunt. They were to photograph screens and cameras out in the world. An hour later I was bombarded with images of security cameras, digital signage, television screens, projected images, and screens of all types. One group had over 100 images to show.

This experience set the tone for the rest of the semester. Over the course of the last few months I’ve observed the complicated relationship my students have with media. Their lives have bridged the transition from analog to digital. Their first steps were recorded on grandma’s vhs camcorder while now YouTube permeates their daily life. They embrace it, even major in the creation of it, but there is an uneasy sense of the impact of this media on their world and themselves.

Each student presented a proposal for the group installation you are about to experience. Themes of decay, a dying natural world, a world where interior and exterior, rural and city, nature and technology invade upon each other. No one proposal was chosen, parts and ideas of several were pursued; some ideas worked, some changed, others fell by the wayside; but the final piece you are about to experience I feel is a reflection of them; as a class, as individuals, of a moment in time. We hope you enjoy exploring in our video garden.”