The Thesis has been finished.

Yep. Finally. Some never thought it would actually happen. The title I am not so sure about, but whatev' : The Ubiquity of New Media Forms Allows for More Pervasive Video Art to Occur: a look at new experimental documentary and its roots in consumer practices and experimental movements.

The image to the right is one of the spreads. Two texts run concurrently through the entire thing. It begins like this: ‘The medium [video] is becoming more pedestrian,’ stated Bill Viola in 1981. (Viola 1995, 70) If in 1981 video was becoming more pedestrian, then where is video today in 2008? Because of the success of VHS and Camcorders (leading to DVD format and smaller, cheaper, easier to use camcorders), video is accessible and familiar to the public as well as artists and professionals. This is a hindrance as well as an advantage. The medium is available to people who do not see themselves as artists, yet they can make contributions to the medium (i.e. youtube). Often these creators do not take the medium seriously (for them it is a hobby), therefore devaluing the work of video artists (i.e. youtube). I will concentrate on these advances as an asset. These benefits allow for a different type of documentary to occur: one where the subjects are oblivious to the camera, not because they do not see it, but because they simply do not acknowledge it. Camcorders have become almost invisible/unperceivable. This tendency has enabled me to produce a body of work that challenges ideas of video art, the gaze, the Other, and the familiar. It has allowed me to create the body of work An Infinite Ordered Set of Events.

After the intellectual part comes the show documentation. And thanks to Robbie, I had a real person experiencing the work. After the documentation come the Bibliography and Works Cited. Somehow everything worked out perfectly. And finishes evenly. I still need to figure out what to do with cover, though.....

It feels great to finally be finished. I am now only a few signatures away from actually having my MFA. And what next? What next.