Tag Archive for 'betterbadnews'

ARTISTS, PROGRAMMERS AND ACTIVISTS CONSIDER A GENERAL STRIKE: BUT IS IT ART?

author: GEORGE COATES – duration: 05:04

Amongst the strangest and most intriguing vlog shows we find BetterBadNews. How to explain it? Maybe it’s best to quote it’s creator, George Coates, who is a well known theater director, working and living in San Francisco, USA:

“BetterBadNews is a video blog using voice, character and audio visual support to extend and recontextualize the conversation… Text is swiped into teleprompter software enabling a panel of on-camera talking heads or “blog speakers” to bring voice and character to moderated discussions and forums taking place online…”

“Why? To develop new strategies for surviving the ongoing culture war responsible for the steady and strategic de-funding of independent creative voices in the arts, including small presses, experimental theaters, and alternative media and to provide opportunities for non-commercial voices to be heard in networked media environments.”

BetterBadNews is somehow mimicking and ridiculing television; the ‘talking heads’ read from a teleprompter (aka as an autocue, a device used in television to project a speaker’s script out of sight of the audience). The talking is mixed with a mash-up, combining different audio tracks (coming from old movies and such) and clips of video.

Maybe it is best that you just watch our revlog, for it is both funny and enlightening. We choose this particular one because it is reflecting on videoblogging as an art genre, and more in particular on Jay Dedman’s video ‘Looking at things’, which you find below. Check!

Permalink to the original posting: CLICK HERE
BetterBadNews home page: CLICK HERE
George Coates’s info website: CLICK HERE
Jay Dedman’s video ‘Looking at things’: CLICK HERE