In Conversation: Ericka Beckman and Tony Oursler

Ericka Beckman:
So it's been super fun. Tony [Oursler] and I have been talking over the last couple of weeks about what we're doing and catching up in our respective new projects. And I just have to say it's been really a tremendous, fun time to be able to be talking about the future. And so I wanted this talk to be in a way about technology, our interest in technology, how it's changed through the years, and especially the relationship that we have with art practice and technology. So I think we'll do the first slide. This talk is going to be chronological, actually, it's going to start here. This is when both of us were students at CalArts. And of course, I'm two years older than Tony. This is me on the right. And that's Tony on the left.

Tony Oursler:
Significantly younger. Yeah.

Ericka Beckman:
Yeah [Laughs]. But anyway, we both came to CalArts coming from a painting background, and during this time at CalArts with the sort of wide-open program, we were able to just explore any possible thing that we wanted to do. And I was working in super 8. And so what you have here is a video monitor that is filmed in a super 8 camera. So super 8, you can't edit it, I mean you can, but it's a pain in the butt. So I made what's called edit in camera movies, where I took the camera and I put it on a wall with a jacket, and I put next to it a video monitor. And that became a scene in the film, so it's split screen between something flat and a performance. So Tony, you also were working in black and white. You were working with Portapak, and I just was wondering if you could share one thought about what you did at CalArts that has stayed with you.

Tony Oursler:
Well, I think that there was this gestalt moment for me when it was introduced to the Portapak, and that was already 10 years old in 1976, when I got my hands on it. So they were like, "It's burnt out, it's destroyed. Let's give it to the art department." And somebody suggested that I fool around with it. And I immediately started drawing, painting, making things, and I was just fascinated by the way the camera transformed it.

Ericka Beckman:
Because it's very flat, right? The image is super flat.

Tony Oursler:
Yeah. It's flat, but it was also political at that time because we were the kind of TV generation, watched more TV than did anything else except sleep. And there was an aspect to that that was very political in that it kind of destroyed society as it once was, and was rebuilding it. And it was impossible to get those tools.

Ericka Beckman:
Right... At CalArts.

Tony Oursler:
Yeah, and in general. I mean, that was the first time I touched a video camera was when I was there.

Ericka Beckman:
But these tools, like the Portapak was used pretty much in counter-revolutionary movement, like counter-culture movement for documenting grassroots organizing and public broadcast. I mean, cable television eventually took it up, but it was a political tool. And it made its way into the art department, somehow.

Q&A