University of Hertfordshire Research Archive

        JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

        Browse

        All of UHRABy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitles

        Arkivum Files

        My Downloads
        View Item 
        • UHRA Home
        • University of Hertfordshire
        • Research publications
        • View Item
        • UHRA Home
        • University of Hertfordshire
        • Research publications
        • View Item

        Stadium : Video Installation

        Author
        Marsh, Lynne-Marie
        School of Creative Arts
        Social Sciences, Arts & Humanities Research Institute
        Art and Design
        Research into Practice
        Attention
        2299/15662
        Abstract
        The significance of Stadium lies in its critical interrogation of the legacy, use and infiltration of historical socialist imagery in contemporary imaging. The work is filmed in the Olympiastadion in Berlin, the infamous site of Leni Riefenstahl's 1936 film Olympia. The work takes the buildings history and form as a starting point for an analysis of the modern idea of “mass” (Kracauer), the fascist conception of “crowds and power” (Canetti) and contemporary digital techniques of replication and multiplication in the virtual worlds of the web, computer games or the Hollywood film industry. Stadium has been exhibited in international museums and publicly funded galleries including; the The Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal –with a monograph catalogue; CONTACT, Toronto International Photography Festival, 53 Art Museum, Guangzhou, China. The originality of Stadium lies in its exploration of the effects of choreographies of mass spectacle on the imaginary and the political discourse. In ‘The Mass Ornament’, Kracauer speaks of mass performances as cultural manifestations of capitalism’s negation of the individual. The opening ceremony at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing was a recent example. The idea of the mass ornament is echoed throughout Stadium where rhythmic repetitive gesture, anonymity and abstraction are recurring strategies. If Kracauer saw these staged events as “the aesthetic reflex of the rationality to which the prevailing economic system aspires,” Stadium asks how are we to view representations in our own post- capitalist society where, more than negated, the individual is rendered virtually obsolete? Rigor is evident in the use of a combination of footage including 3D animation and techniques favoured by Riefenstahl, such as crane shots, long circular travelling shots and low-angles. The resulting footage exhibits the persistent legacy of representations of power and control in photography and cinema all the way up to contemporary imaging from video games to epic films. “Stadium” was funded by the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and the Künstlerhaus Bethanien, International Studio Program, Berlin.
        Publication date
        2008
        Other links
        http://hdl.handle.net/2299/15662
        Metadata
        Show full item record
        Keep in touch

        © 2019 University of Hertfordshire

        I want to...

        • Apply for a course
        • Download a Prospectus
        • Find a job at the University
        • Make a complaint
        • Contact the Press Office

        Go to...

        • Accommodation booking
        • Your student record
        • Bayfordbury
        • KASPAR
        • UH Arts

        The small print

        • Terms of use
        • Privacy and cookies
        • Criminal Finances Act 2017
        • Modern Slavery Act 2015
        • Sitemap

        Find/Contact us

        • T: +44 (0)1707 284000
        • E: ask@herts.ac.uk
        • Where to find us
        • Parking
        • hr
        • qaa
        • stonewall
        • AMBA
        • ECU Race Charter
        • disability confident
        • AthenaSwan