nothings_nomeanings



Video Artist: Zach Duer
Video Genre: Country: Year: Duration: 4 min 45 sec
Video Specifications:

Description:

nothings_nomeanings is a multimedia collage of found sound and found video.

In my collages, I meld samples together to create new and unique entities – gestalts. Hundreds of sound and video clips are churned together, each providing their own distinct identity. The exact quality of every recording – the hiss, the static, the color – is kept intact. The samples represent exactly themselves, snippets of recorded media, no more and no less. A video sample is not a direct reference to the subject material. It contains within it the subject material, but it also contains all of the minutia of recording – the perspective (physical and cultural) of the author, the equipment, and the uniqueness of the conditions of the recording, with the arm positioned exactly thus, or the singer holding the note for an extra 1/100th of a second. All of these details comprise the character of the sample, and the amalgamation of these characters can be startling and beautiful. Yet, at the same time, they also often overwhelm me with nostalgia that I have trouble explaining.


Zach Duer

Zach Duer (b. 1986) is an educator, artist, musician, and performer.  His work focuses on experimentation in digital technology, multi-media instrument creation, and all forms of collage.

Duer holds the position of Immersive Environment Specialist at the Institute for Creativity, Art, and Technology and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State College in Blacksburg, VA.  He previously taught new media art as an instructor in the Kinetic Imaging department at Virginia Commonwealth University.  He holds an MFA in Kinetic Imaging from Virginia Commonwealth University (2014), an MA in Music Composition from Mills College (2009) and a BM in Music Composition from Minnesota State University Moorhead (2007).

He currently resides in Christiansburg, VA with his wife, son, and two dogs.