Visual Arts Professor John Sturgeon’s contribution to the field of video art is widely acknowledged. It is included in the permanent collections at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In 2009-2010 Professor Sturgeon worked with the IRC to produce two new works funded by UMBC’s Lipitz Scholarship program.
Archivist: Cleaving Among the Houses is a poetic video narrative, revealed through a multi-stream collage of individual 4×3 video frame (standard DV video) sequences choreographed within the space of a single 16×9 HD, high-definition video frame. In some respects, Archivist is an anti-war piece, not for a specific war, but from a perspective that attempts to approach the essence of why war has been an essential expression of the human psychological landscape.
Sam Janesko, a graduate of UMBC’s Visual Arts program, was the project’s editor; this position gave him post-baccalaureate experience in the IRC. The video was premiered in the IRC and was also screened at the Maryland Film Festival in 2011.
Researchers and Creators
Project Director: John Sturgeon
Editing Assistant: Sam Janesko
Video Consultant: Lee Boot
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