Amy Alexander
Amy Alexander is an artist working in computing, video and audiovisual performance. Her background is in filmmaking, information technology, and music. She is Associate Professor at UC San Diego. Her work takes place in a variety of settings: in festivals and museums as well as in nightclubs, on the street and on the Internet. See Amy’s interview with UCSD senior Emilyn L. Edquilang below.
Artist Interview
1. Why did you want to be a part of Filmatic Festival?
The term “Expanded Cinema” has been popular since Gene Youngblood’s 1970 book of the same name. Yet the idea never gets old - cinema keeps expanding and shifting along with culture. The blurring of audience vs. artist vs. art is an important way cinema is currently “expanding.” So it’s great to be part of a festival that hits that head on.
2. What themes do you explore in your work?
An overall theme is amorphousness - that you never know where the boundaries are between one thing and another. In SVEN, for example, I’m playing with the boundaries between surveillance and exhibitionism, and between video as “art” and video as utility.
3. Who inspires you?
Just about everyone!
4. What advice can you give to aspiring artists?
It’s like learning to drive. You have to look a bit down the road, or you’ll crash into things. On the other hand, if you look too far down the road, things will have changed by the time you get there. And you’ll crash into things.
5. What are you listening to? …watching? …reading?
Everything at once! Political gossip, contemporary music discussion, cinema theory, philosophy, tech, political gossip… oh, did I mention that already?
6. “If you could have one drink with one person, who would it be and what
would you two be drinking?”
Mary Hallock-Greenewalt, and I’d definitely let her pick the drink.
7. “Where is the future of digital media heading?”
Where does an 800 pound gorilla sit? Hmm, no that’d be defeatist…. Ok, anywhere *we* want.