217 Views of the Tokaido Line
2010, 6 min. video loop with generative text
217 video and text fragments of a trip to Japan evoke the inner experience of contemporary travel.
The Walking Man
2010, 13 min. video
"Obstacles become playgrounds, playgrounds obstacles." A study of the pedestrian's everyday encounters with the city. A final iteration for the Electronic Literature Organization's 2010 conference in Providence, RI.
selected work
217 video and text fragments of a trip to Japan evoke the inner experience of contemporary travel.
The Walking Man (silent loop)
2009, 13 min. silent loop
A silent and looped version of the previous online (see below). Made for projection at the North Bank Artists' Gallery.
The Walking Man
2008, series of 9 one-minute videos
"Obstacles become playgrounds, playgrounds obstacles." A study of the pedestrian's everyday encounters with the city.
Steam, Light, Grid
2008, 3 min. layered collage
Urban drift collage. Audio from remixed tracks of Eno and Byrne's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts.
The Messenger
2007, 10 sec. loop
From a nine-part series exploring semi-static or ambient cinema: Time Quilts
Westward
2007, 10 sec. loop
From a nine-part series exploring semi-static or ambient cinema: Time Quilts
The Necklace
2007, 10 sec. loop
From a nine-part series exploring semi-static or ambient cinema: Time Quilts
Phantom Bench
2007, 10 sec. loop
From a nine-part series exploring semi-static or ambient cinema: Time Quilts
Bee Curious
2007, 2 min. text and video
An encounter on my windshield. Projected on a big screen at Pixelodeon 2007.
A Flea Market Album
2007, series of four three-minute videos
I showed the album to some friends and asked them to tell me what they see.
Haystack Rock
2006, single channel 1 min. video
A walk on the Oregon coast, the vast scales of time.
Twelve Stations
2003, interactive quicktime
I recorded the public enactment of a passion play in a Dominician neighborhood in the Bronx (New York City).
Commute Quad
2001, interactive quicktime, generative video
Four-paneled interactive version of commute.
Commute
2001, eight one-minute videos
The linear and cylical experience of the urban commuter lends itself to the database structure.
All This
2000, three separate 1 min. videos
My first video on the web. The linear and the cyclical in life processes was the foundation for thinking about narrative and the database.
blogs
Solublefish.tv
Theory and practice blog on digital cinema, networked video, database narratives and other hybrid forms. RSS
documentary
The
Father Divine Project
An ongoing database documentary about a communitarian and interracial
religious group. RSS
Web Documentary
Portfolio of short-form web documentaries.
teaching
Mobile Tech Research Initiative Summer 2011
Creation of an iPhone app using HTML5, CSS3 and the jQuery Moble Framework.
Remix Culture
Remix as art and cultural practice.
Language, Texts and Technology
The study of symbolic, iconic and indexical signs; theory and practice of digital and multimodal texts.
Narrative Walks
Designed and authored walks using video, audio, GPS devices and mapping tools.
Advanced Multimedia Authoring
Intro to mobile web design and native app developement using HTML5, CSS3, Javascript, Ajax and jQuery.
Multimedia Authoring
Intro to web design using XHTML & CSS.
about
artist statement
I am a media artist/researcher interested in the proliferating forms and expressive possibilities of web-based and digital cinema: database narrative, spatial montage, looping, multimedia hypertext, networked video and locative storytelling.
In my own drafting and redrafting of a poetics and practice, I am drawn to work that tries to pluralize narrative sequences. If an idea or story can be generated from a single sequence of images, what might be generated with multiple, linked sequences in a database? How does a non-linear juxtaposition of micro-narratives change our sense of identity, our sense of time and our experience of space? What new cinema forms can we grow with our new tools? Most of my material is captured from daily life, but it is in post-production that I try to push beyond continuity to open up a temporal and spatial sense that is multiple and generative.
bio
Will Luers is a visiting professor at the Creative Media & Digital Culture program at Washington State University, Vancouver where he teaches multimedia authoring, video production and mobile app design. His current research and artistic interests are in database narratives, remix video and the multimedia book. In 2010, he was awarded the The Vectors-NEH Summer Fellowship to work on his database documentary, The Father Divine Project. In 2005, he won Nantucket Film Festival and Tony Cox Award for Best Screenplay.