Materials for CAA Professional Development Grant for Graduate Students:

http://www.collegeart.org/fellowships/

STATEMENT

Ann Bartges

Statement

A statement that describes or relates to the images of work(s), submitted on no more

than two standard double-spaced pages. Please use Times New Roman font and 12-

point size and save the file as a Word document. The statement must be in narrative

form:

Distance has invited technology into my closest relationships. From my home in

Ann Arbor, I live my friendships and my marriage from my computer, relying on video

chat, email and social media to keep these loved ones present in my life. My current

studio work examines the human presence of mediated connection. Many recent projects

take form as combinations of video, projections, printed photographs and live

performance.

I marvel over the ways that video chat virtually collapses the miles between two

people, yet am unsettled by emotions I feel toward my unemotional laptop, as it takes the

form of my husband, my mother and my close friends. In deep conversation, the laptop

disappears as mediator, and the real-time video I’m watching of my mother becomes her.

I feel her eyes on me despite knowing that her gaze is cast on her screen or webcam.

There becomes a certain “unhumaness” to this mediated human. Misinterpretation comes

more easily, and a frozen image marks the return of her absence.

In recent projects, I work to unravel the complex relationships developed between

my Skyped-in companion, her real-time image, my real-time image, myself, my server,

and my computer, all working to maintain emotional closeness at a physical distance.

“Siren Song” is a video installation where I use the natural allegory of the moth to the

bulb to presents an illustrative mirror of my Skyped-in relationships. Here, a light bulb

hangs in a room with a projection screen just underneath. A mini-projector locates a

video of circling moths just below the bulb. I ask the viewer to want to believe that those

mediated video moths are interacting with the physical bulb in the room.

Another video installation, “Via Satellite” presents choreographed imagery of

human arms moving through holes in two opposing walls in cycles of reaching out into

communal space and retreating back behind the walls. This imagery depicts the way I

imagine myself reaching for meaningful connection through online media. Here, this

desire is metwith a mirrored attempt, but ultimately left with an empty hand. The video is

synchronized to an unsettling musical score that references the sounds of disabled

communication such as poor reception and the static between radio frequencies. In the

gallery, “Via Satellite” is projected on a large concave screen to enhance the illusion of

actual dimension and to give the viewer a feeling of embrace.

Lately, I’ve been experimenting with face projections. Live performance is

critical to this work. The performer’s physical presence confronts her simulated video

presence in real time. My performance, “Remote Connection,” takes place in an elevator.

My husband and I are the performers. We each wear an apparatus on our head that

projects a video of our face back onto our face. We wear these face projections as masks

of ourselves. A projection of our open eyes now fall on our closed eyelids. We face each

other, our projected eyes staring ahead. I have extracted our spoken script from my

experiences of our own extended long-distance relationship. Conflict rises as we seem to

either not hear or not understand one another. We repeat our lines over and over. Our

loop of language becomes familiar, yet unsatisfying. The performance goes on for three

hours.

Through “Remote Connection”, I question mediated presence and the limitations

of video chat to communicate and nurture intimacy. As viewers encounter us in the

elevator, I hope to invite them into these questions as they overhear our conversation,

observe our digitally masked condition, and consider the liminal space of emotion passed

from mouth to ear, from closed eye to closed eye, as we all ride together from floor to

floor.

I again use the concept of wearing a mask of one’s mediated image in my most

recent performance, “Until Then Now.” In the form of a happening, three performers

form a conversation circle that crowds the exit at a gallery opening. Each wears a

photographic mask of their eyes over their eyes. Their conversation is an extended,

lingering “farewell,” as each promises the others that their impending separation will not

distance them from one another. The conversation dwells on the ways in which they will

maintain access to each other by text, email, phone, Skype, gchat, Facebook, Instagram,

Twitter, etc. Occasionally, they will snap pictures of each other in order to capture the

moment. Their lingering goodbye lasts for 40 minutes. Here, I use the eye masks to

suggest an early metamorphosis of one’s physical to mediated self. The frozen open eyes

of the mask look straight ahead, referencing undivided attention while cutting off access

to actual eye contact. Their dialogue promises a continuous closeness, yet their masks

show that a critical change has already begun, as the mediated self becomes the self.

These projects are not intended to cast a negative perspective on tools of remote

connection, rather I intend for these hypothetical scenarios to help expose the complexity

of ways that mediated versions of ourselves become ourselves. I use these works to

explore my own experienced limitations of closeness and intimacy, and challenge the

promises of valiant telecommunications to keep my relationships alive.

VIDEO LINKS:

http://annbartges.com/Siren-Song

http://annbartges.com/Via-Satellite

http://annbartges.com/Remote-Connection

IMAGE LIST:

1. Siren Song, 2012

video documentation of installation (00:01:00)

Distance has invited technology into my closest relationships. I seek intimacy via satellite

while my own reflection stares back at me in the shiny plastic screen. Siren Song is an

abstract comment on video chat, using the natural allegory of the moth to the bulb. This

piece mirrors my relationship with a skyped-in companion.

A bulb hangs in a room with a projection screen just underneath. A projector locates a

video of circling moths below the bulb. I ask the viewer to want to believe that those video

moths are attracted to this bulb in this room.

2. Via Satellite, 2012

clip from video (00:00:40)

Via Satellite exists as a video installation. The video presents choreographed imagery of

human arms moving through holes in two opposing walls in cycles of reaching out into

communal space and retreating back behind the walls. The video is synchronized to an

unsettling musical score that references the sounds of disabled communication such as

poor reception and the static between radio frequencies. The video is projected onto a

large concave screen. The dimensional screen introduces an apparent physical depth of

field to the projected imagery. Via Satellite approaches the question of what is gained and

what is lost as our society becomes more reliant on remote channels of communication to

fulfill our human desires for connection.

3.Remote Connection: Performance for Elevator 2013

video documentation of performance (00:02:19)

Remote Connection takes place in an elevator. My husband and I are the performers. I

have prerecorded video of our faces. Video projections of our open eyes now fall on our

closed eyelids. We wear these videos as projections of ourselves. We face each other, our

projected eyes staring ahead. I have extracted our spoken script from our own extended

long-distance relationship. We repeat our lines over and over. Our loop becomes familiar.

The audience rides with us.

Through Remote Connection, I question mediated presence and the limitations of video

chat to communicate and nurture intimacy. As viewers encounter us in the elevator, I hope

to invite them into these questions as they overhear our conversation, observe our digitally

masked condition, and consider the liminal space of emotion passed from mouth to ear,

from closed eye to closed eye, as we ride together from floor to floor.

Performance time: 3 hours

4. Until Then Now, 2013

video documentation of performance (00:00:45)

Three performers crowd the exit at a gallery opening. Each wears a photographic mask of

their eyes over their eyes. Their conversation is an extended, lingering “farewell,” as each

promises the others that their iminate separation from eachother will not distance them

from one another. The conversation dwells on the ways in which they will maintain access

to eachother by text, email, phone, skype, gchat, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.

Occasionally, they will snap pictures of eachother in order to capture the moment. The

lingering goodbye lasts for 40 minutes.

RESUME:

EDUCATION
2014 (expected) MFA Stamps School of Art & Design, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
2005 BFA Magna Cum Laude, School of Art & Design, Alfred University, Alfred, NY

AWARDS, GRANTS2013 2nd Year Graduate Student Award given by Stamps School of Art & Design, University of MI
2012 Smucker-Wagstaff Project Grant awarded by Stamps School of Art & Design, University of MI
Rackham Conference Travel Grant awarded by Rackham Graduate School, University of MI
Rackham Centennial Fellowship Award given by Rackham Graduate School, University of MI
2011 1st Year Graduate Student Award for Outstanding Work given by School of Art & Design, U of MI
2008 Artist Grant “Award II” given by Guldagergaard International Ceramic Research Center, Denmark
Artist Grant awarded by the Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT
2005 Alfred Scholar, Alfred University Honors Program
Bishop/Merrit Scholarship Grant awarded by Haystack Mtn. School of Crafts, ME
2004 M. M. Miller Fellowship awarded by the School of Art & Design, Alfred University
2003 Sophomore Art Award given by the School of Art & Design, Alfred University
2002 Howard H. Gertz Award for Excellence in Writing awarded by Alfred University
2001 Presidential Scholarship (four year scholarship) awarded by Alfred University

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS2013 Test Kitchen, Work Gallery-Ann Arbor, University of Michigan 
NOW 13 New Media Art Now, Dark Horse Experiment, Melbourne, Australia
A&D 13: First & Second Year MFA Exhibition, University of Michigan
2012 Prologue Yields: Prospectives ’12 Digital Media Festival, University of NV, Reno
Artscapade Student Film Festival, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor, MI
10 Degrees: First Year MFA Exhibition, University of Michigan
2011 All-Student Exhibition, Work Gallery-Ann Arbor, University of Michigan
2010 Free Samples, Threewalls, Chicago, IL
2009 Project Network 2008-09, Guldagergaard Symposium Exhibition, Grimmerhus Museum, DK
2008 Network 2008, Guldagergaard Resident Artist Exhibition, Botex Galleri, DK
From the Other Side of the Fence, Larson Art Gallery, University of Minnesota
2007 An Odyssey Experience, Grove Arcade Arts and Heritage Gallery, Asheville, NC
2006 Archie Bray Resident Show, Kolva Sullivan Gallery, Spokane, WA
Resident Artist Exhibition, Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, MT
Odyssey Goes West, The Clay Studio of Missoula, Missoula, MT
Thresholds: Innovative Clay, NCECA Exhibition at Ogle Gallery, Portland, OR
Odyssey Resident Artist Show, Roswell Arts Center West, Roswell, GA
Viewpoint: Ceramics 2006, Hyde Art Gallery, El Cajon, CA
7th Annual Handcrafted Juried Exhibition, Rocky Mount Arts Center, Rocky Mount, NC
2005 Constant Flux, Odyssey Resident Show, Sky People Gallery, Asheville, NC
Gateway Exhibition, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, ME
Bachelor of Fine Arts Thesis Exhibition, Alfred University
Treemont Hotel, Robert Turner Gallery, Alfred University

ARTIST RESIDENCIES2012 Institut fur Alles Moglich, Berlin, Germany
2010 Threewalls, Chicago, IL
Cite Internationale des Arts, Paris, France
2008 Guldagergaard International Ceramic Research Center, Skaelskor, Denmark
Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT
2006 Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, MT
2005-06 Odyssey Center for the Ceramic Arts, Asheville, NC 

RELATED EXPERIENCE2012 Presenter: Prospectives ’12 Digital Media Festival, University of NV, Reno
2011 Instructor: Youth Summer Program, Visual Arts Center of Richmond, Richmond, VA
2009 Visiting Artist: Performance and discussion, Bennington College
Technical Assistant: Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Gatlinburg, TN
2008 International Symposium Participant, Project Network: Guldagergaard, Denmark
2006 Instructor: Youth Summer Program, Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, MT
2005 Technical Assistant: Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer Isle, ME
2004 Apprentice: Moravian Pottery and Tile Works, Doylestown, PA

COLLECTIONS
2008 Guldagergaard International Ceramic Research Center Collection, Skaelskor, Denmark
2006 Archie Bray Foundation Collection, Helena, MT
Odyssey Center for Ceramic Arts Collection, Highwater Clays, Asheville, NC
2005 Alfred University School of Art & Design Collection