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Movies in the Mix Film meets club culture in digital festival James Sullivan, Chronicle Staff Writer |
Thursday, December 3, 1998
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San Francisco gallery impresarios William Linn and Michaela Collins were in Tombstone, Ariz., for a family gathering over the Thanksgiving weekend.
``If you can imagine,'' says Collins, ``it's the most low-tech place in the world.''
Of course, they brought their laptop; this working couple is never unplugged. With the help of a small staff and a growing circle of affiliates, Linn and Collins run Blasthaus, the 3- year-old South of Market gallery that's acknowledged around the globe as one of the few gallery spaces wholly devoted to technology-based art, or ``tech art.''
Artists who have exhibited at Blasthaus incorporate fax machines, Internet hoaxes and mechanical body organs into their work. Applying that synthetic vision to the world of commerce, the Blasthaus brain trust has ventured into special-events planning, re-creating life-size versions of video games for corporate clients and staging unique raves, including a huge one earlier this year at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art for its Keith Haring exhibit.
Tonight through Saturday at the Victoria Theatre, Blasthaus sponsors Transcinema, a celebration of digital-age filmmaking featuring groundbreaking directors from Europe, Australia and the Bay Area. The group has dubbed the multimedia happening a ``crossover.''
The Transcinema concept calls for ``going beyond the movie screen'' and using the entire theater as a creative space, says Linn. Among other audio and visual attractions, video ``mixologists'' will be altering virtual-reality sequences live, in much the same way that DJs scratch records.
``There's always been that connection between club culture and visual artists,'' says Linn, 31. ``It started here in San Francisco, actually -- in the '60s, with psychedelia.''
Transcinema will mark the U.S. premiere of new films by such noted international filmmakers as Australian David Cox, whose cyberpunk short ``Otherzone'' features performance artist Stelarc, and Canadian twins Mauro and Marco La Villa, whose ``Hang the DJ'' documents the culture of electronic dance.
Also on tap: new work by locals Craig Baldwin (creator of the sampling documentary ``Sonic Outlaws''), Lynn Hershman Leeson (director of the much-discussed forthcoming film ``Conceiving Ada'') and Nick Philip (designer of the stunning Om Records CD-ROM ``Radical Beauty'').
Turning art into a participatory activity has been one of the keys to Blasthaus' success. Unlike the work shown at traditional galleries, Linn notes, tech art is more an exchange of ideas than commodities.
``The question is, how do you support yourself? We've never tried to portray the work as collectible, a hot item to buy. It's more about the fact that the work is being done.''
Other attempts to make salable sense of the computer age have failed miserably, says the gallery owner. ``Cybercafes -- all those have flopped.''
When he first began promoting shows at Blasthaus, in its old walk-up space on Second Street -- the gallery recently moved to a converted garage-and-loft space in an alley at Fourth and Brannan -- Linn was surprised to find that no one seemed to know how to present tech art properly.
``Early on, it was really cheesy,'' he says. ``Artists would tell me, `There's this show I'm going to be in called Information Superhighway.' ''
In hindsight, Linn's future as a tech art visionary seems preordained. Growing up near Atlan ta, he ``definitely had all the latest gear'' -- his father was a cutting-edge computer scientist who founded Cullinet, one of the first publicly traded software companies.
After studying business and art history at Vanderbilt, Linn headed to San Francisco, where he began his career as a commercial art dealer. As tech art became more prevalent, he says, ``I decided to focus on that.''
Collins, 28, whose background in the rave scene includes work with XLR8R magazine and the promoters Toon Town, says she met Linn as a Blasthaus volunteer, running the lights at a fashion show produced by the gallery.
As she settled into her unofficial role as Blasthaus' events director, she says, Linn would ``come to me with ideas, and I'd say, `That's not possible.' Somehow, he'd make them happen, and he would inspire me to reach further.
``That's a lot of what drew me to him. Hopefully I've inspired him as well.''
In addition to its gallery exhibits and special events, Blasthaus produces a pocket-size magazine called Phazer and promotes a new monthly music series at the Justice League called Electromechanik, featuring members of such experimental groups as Can and Negativland.
The gallery also runs a ``preservation society'' called b.o.l.t. (the Bureau of Low Technology), providing a safe haven for computer-related products headed for obsolescence, such as outdated arcade games.
``This low-tech, `dead-media' thing is something we're kind of obsessed with of late,'' says Linn. ``These are already primitive things from a historic point of view.''
For example, he says, the Macintosh clone is now obsolete. Such an innovation ``appears one day, and the next day it's gone.
``It's really amazing to think about.''
MULTIMEDIA EVENT
TRANSCINEMA: The event takes place 7 p.m.-midnight today through Saturday at the Victoria Theatre, 2961 16th St., San Francisco. Film screenings run 8-10 p.m., followed by music and other performances. Tickets: $7 per night. A limited number of presale tickets for all three shows are available for $15 at Housewares, 1322 Haight St., and Open Mind Music, 342 Divisadero. Call (415) 789-7690 or go to www.blasthaus.com/events.