Glendora Buell
A symposium exploring the promise of Public Access television and open network technologies, featuring cultural producers from the 1970s, to the present. Speakers include legendary Public Access host Glendora Buell, members of Colaborative Projects (Colab), as a panel made up of Robert Buck, Tara Mateik, Carmel Curtis of XFR Collective, and moderator Rebecca Cleman of Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI).
The symposium will include video screenings, and will be divided into three segments:
12-1PM: A Chat with Glendora
Glendora Buell in conversation with BRIC's Tony Riddle
1-2:30PM: Colaborative Projects on the Potential of Collectivity (including Colab members Julie Harrison, Coleen Fitzgibbon, Andrea Callard, Cara Perlman, and Mitch Corber)
2:30-4PM: New Media Activism with Electronic Arts Intermix panelists (including Robert Buck, Tara Mateik, Carmel Curtis of XFR Collective, and Rebecca Cleman from EAI)
BIOS:
Glendora Folsom Buell is a philosopher, judicial activist, and host of A Chat with Glendora, the longest-running cable access program in the United States. Over her nearly 50 years as a television host and producer, Glendora has used video capture and distribution technologies from the PortaPak—which she first used to cover community events—to YouTube. A dedicated self-producer, she is also the author of The Glendora Happy Book, Love & Physics, Be Perfect, and This is the Answer to Everything.
Colab is the commonly used abbreviation for Collaborative Projects, a multifaceted artist collective that challenged the increasing dominance of the art market by offering democratizing platforms. Colab’s work was dedicated to the development, production, and distribution of collaborative works through such iconic DIY exhibitions as The Real Estate Show (1980) and The Times Square Show (1980). In addition to these exhibitions, alternative art spaces and publications, Colab also produced several cable access television shows. Potato Wolf was generated entirely from Colab’s membership. Its original, often whimsical and critical, content was created using an improvisational, collective approach, with Colab members performing, writing, filming, editing, and creating costumes and set pieces for the weekly show. Potato Wolf aired on Manhattan Cable from 1979 to 1986. Colab additionally produced the cable access programs All Color News and Red Curtain.
Robert Beck graduated with a BFA from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Film and Television Department in 1982, and the Whitney Museum's Independent Study Program (ISP) in 1993. An early, catalytic project in his art-making career was The Space Program, an episodic series broadcast on Manhattan Cable Television from 1985-86. His visual art work has been exhibited widely, including most recently in the Whitney Museum's exhibition Human Interest: Portraits from the Whitney's Collection. Beck was employed by EAI from 1983 to 1994 in both administrative and distribution roles, and he was Technical Director and Chief Editor there from 1992-94. In 2008, Beck changed his father's name as a work, or act, of art by a single vowel to Buck.
Rebecca Cleman is the Director of Distribution of Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI). She has organized numerous screenings and events featuring media artists and media art history, most recently Attack of the Packs: TVTV & Ghostbusters for The Metrograph theater. She is a regular contributor to Screen Slate, a resource for daily listings and editorial commentary on New York City moving image culture.
Carmel Curtis is a moving image archivist and curator. She is a proud member of XFR Collective (pronounced transfer collective), a volunteer run group that works to increase community access to at-risk audiovisual media by providing low-cost digitization services and fostering a community of support for archiving/access through education, research, and cultural engagement. Carmel is currently working on co-curating a retrospective spanning five decades of work made by the legendary lesbian filmmaker/artist Barbara Hammer to open in the Fall of 2017 at the Leslie Lohman Museum.
Tara Mateik is an artist and Assistant Professor in the Center for the Arts, CUNY College of Staten Island. In his work in video, performance, and assemblage, Mateik casts himself as myriad theoretical and cultural transvestites from media culture, competition sports, and weird science. He has collaborated with Paper Tiger Television and the Sylvia Rivera Law Project to produce short videos that demystify and democratize the media, and in 2002 founded The Society of Biological Insurgents. Mateik graduated with an MFA in Integrated Electronic Arts from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The single channel version of Putting the Balls Away was produced during a BRIC Residency, and was broadcast on BRIC's public access television channel.
Presented in partnership with Electronic Arts Intermix, NY.
This program is taking place in conjunction with the Public Access/Open Networks exhibition, on view at BRIC House through May 7, 2017.
Venue Information:
The Stoop at BRIC House is a public cultural gathering space featuring free, drop-in programming, and offering a place to sit, observe, and participate in multi-disciplinary work.
Beginning Nov. 1, 2022, attendees of any BRIC House programming will no longer have to show proof of vaccination or a negative test to enter the building. Masks are encouraged but not required in all BRIC operated spaces. If you have questions regarding this protocol, please email Safety@bricartsmedia.org