One monitor from the four-channel installation, "Lay It Down".

Viral Painting, 2011
Michael Stoltz

This video is from a one night installation in UTSA's new media lab. Every monitor in the room was playing this video. As the title implies, the project imagines what a computer virus could look like. The video was created by changing the compression type of an appropriated video sequence several times and then edited in Final Cut Pro. This abstract aesthetic is very different from previous work in my portfolio. In the past my work has consisted of mostly autobiography. I wanted to make something that was just pleasing to look at and had nothing to do with me. As the visual information became more and more corrupted by the process I began to see a parallel between what was happening to the video information and what would happen to the information on a hard drive that was infected with a virus. This also solved the problem of presentation. When creating the video I hadn't yet thought of a way to present it. A single channel presentation didn't have the impact I was looking for and I couldn't think of an installation that would be relevant to the subject matter. The idea of the visual virus brought the piece together as a whole. In the future I would like to create more installations that appear to be mistakes that have taken over a space or disasters that have destroyed a space while utilizing this glitch aesthetic.

The CAM Video JAM.

It was March 22, 2011 The Video Jam team (Utah Snyder and Michael Stoltz) had been preparing for two months but, no one could have prepared for what happened. The biggest baddest Video Jam in Video Jam history, it was the second annual all-submission show. With sixteen submissions, a big backyard, about a hundred people and two coolers full of beer, the show began. For those of us involved though, the show really began two years ago with two friends and one idea. The idea, a video art show that had the potential to include everyone. From artist to critic, from intellectual to less intellectual... We would hook them with a funny video from youtube and then have them wade through a five minute, black and white, silent animation created from copy machine errors. Our first show was in May of 2009 and we have had a show every month since then. The Video Jam now has a small loyal following and the word is spreading. It's been two years and hundreds of videos and now we are changing it up a bit, no longer doing monthly screenings, The Video Jam will be focused on creating larger events and exploring different venues. We are currently scouting locations for the release of the feature length, "Visible Language", by artist Ken Adams. Why the change? For each show we would collect as many dvd's as we could from multiple sources and then watch each one and then choose the best stuff to put in the show. After two years of previewing videos it's easy to tell the good from the bad. Many times you can even tell by the opening credits if it's good or bad. Often a convoluted or boring synopsis will give it away as not worth watching. There is a lot more bad than good. It takes a long time to find an hours worth of videos for each month. Then there's the time of arranging the videos and rendering and burning a master disc. There's not much time left for promotion. So we end up investing so much time into these monthly shows and then about seven people show up to watch for an hour what took us weeks to put together. We love what we do but, we want more people to see the show, so we have decided to give ourselves more time for promotion. We plan on doing what we have done in the past just more spread out while expanding to doing more submission shows, shows that focus on one artist, themed shows, and moving to different venues exposing ourselves to other crowds. The Video Jam has grown and will continue to grow. We now have over one hundred followers on facebook and recently won an award for one of our shows during Contemporary Art Month.

Lay It Down, 2011
Michael Stoltz

Lay It Down is the first complete, cohesive and serious, work of art I have created in two years. The piece is about my struggle to come to a place where I can breathe and make art. It is a four-channel piece with one large projection and three television monitors evenly spaced below the projection. On the projection is two visual layers, one of abstract shapes of color and the other of a manipulated instructional meditation video. There are also several aural layers, a jumbled mash up of instructions on meditation. Below, each monitor has two visual layers and two aural layers. Each monitor has an image and audio of a spiritual leader of some sort that is giving advise interlaced with an image and audio of an abstracted dog that is barking. A dog barking can be one the most annoying and distracting sounds and also can be very frightening. I see the three dogs as a pack or as a three-headed dog representing the distractions and fears that keep you from your goals in life. The guru's and meditations represent the goal of living a meaningful life and attaining some sense of peace within one's self. When all four channels are viewed at once it becomes impossible to focus, the end is a stressful mess of mixed messages. For me being at peace and making art are one in the same and when involved in the process of art making it is meditation. In this piece I think I succeeded in combining aspects of autobiography and visual display without including my own image, bridging the two year gap between my life then and my life now.

Skimmed off the top of a War Zone. A Punishing experiment in pieces progressing toward a whole. There's light up there and I can see again.

Baby Vision from Michael Stoltz on Vimeo.

This video is meant to be projected as large as possible in order to light up the entire space it is being viewed in.

Lessons In Forgiving: Lesson#5 from Michael Stoltz

Proposal#1-
Lessons In Forgiving (lessons 1-5).
A 5 channel installation presented on television monitors. Each channel playing a continuous 15 minute looping action of the artist engaged in "everyday" activities. Equipment: 3 monitors, 5 dvd players, 2-5 rf modulators, 5 pairs of headphones and all connnecting cords. Inspired by Andy Warhol's Screen Tests.

What is an American dream?


Americans Dreaming from redwhiteblue

THE AMERICAN DREAM
Katherine, Matt, Ben and Michael.
We Will be meeting tonight to assign
each members specific contribution and responsibilities.