Michael Bell-Smith, "Glitter Bend", 2008, still image from digital video loop, dimensions variable. Image via Foxy Production.

Michael Bell-Smith: Artist Talk + Screening
6:30pm Wednesday 6 February 2008
Electronic Arts Intermix - 535 W. 22 St, 5th Floor, New York NY

Michael Bell-Smith presents his first public New York artist's talk this Wednesday at EAI in Chelsea. Bell-Smith's interest in networked culture often informs his crafty, formal digital animations. At Foxy, for instance, Glitter Bend (2008), installed on a large flat-screen panel, presents a cosmic landscape populated by dozens of twinkling stars. The star field view is constituted not by any algorithmically rendered content but rather a composition of individual "hand-made" animated GIFs, a vernacular Internet media form whose small file size, seamless browser compatibility, and rewarding animation potential made the image format wildly popular in the early to mid 90s. The artist will speak about his work in relation to this sort of "net folk art" and other modes of contemporary media production and distribution along with screening several new and recent video works.