Michael Betancourt
Encyclopedia
Michael Betancourt is a critical theorist
, art and film historian, and animator. His principal published works focus on the technologies of visual music
, new media art and theory, and formalist study of motion pictures.
Betancourt's father is archaeologist Philip P. Betancourt, and his brother is author John Gregory Betancourt
. He spent his summers in Crete
, Greece
, working as a photographer on his father's excavation at Pseira. His first film exhibition was Archaeomodern, shown in the Ann Arbor Festival of Experimental Film in 1993. In 1995, his film a self-referential film in 30 sentences won a Director's Citation award at the Black Maria Film Festival.
In addition to scholarly work, he has written popular articles and reviews on art, art theory and culture for the Miami Art Exchange http://miamiartexchange.com/ and Art Scene magazines.
produced the earliest hand-painted films known to still exist. However, these were not movies but films produced specifically to be performed by her earliest version of the Sarabet which was a machine for automatic accompaniment to records. This device was an early music visualizer of the type now included with computer audio-players. Even though these films were not designed to be motion pictures, they were produced with templates and aerosol sprays, producing repeating geometric patterns in the same way as the hand painted films of Len Lye from the 1930s.
He has also published a short monograph, combined with a large collection of short essays, pictures and other archival material about the visual music group Lumonics that was organized and run by Mel and Dorothy Tanner in South Florida.
Most of his other visual music-related scholarship takes the form of anthologies of technology patents, or reprints of earlier texts on visual music
machines designed for live performance.
and Peter Paul Rubens present the type of motion effect identified by Betancourt as being psychologically the same as real motion of actual objects in the world.
Betancourt's construction of formalism suggests a broader scope for applications of film theory
than simply motion pictures since it focuses on both painting and experimental film
. This approach was developed in his book, Structuring Time: notes on making movies. He approaches the motion picture as a series of distinct, but related domains of aesthetic manipulation: camera, image, editing, projection, screen, and sound.
of the economy based on debt.
Part of this analysis is a discussion of the relationship between affective labor
and what he has termed "agnotologic capitalism
." Affective labor is the enabler for a the creation of the bubbles that are characteristic of the digital capitalist economy. Where the reduction alienation of alienation is a precondition for the elimination of dissent. Affective labor is part of a larger activity where the population is distracted by affective pursuits and fantasies of economic advancement.
. He has claimed these videos are related to his work as a theorist. http://www.sensesofcinema.com/2007/44/michael-betancourt/ He has been exhibiting his work since 1992 when Archaeomodern screened at the Ann Arbor Film Festival
, since then he has produced many videos that have screened on television, in festivals, galleries and museums.
He has described his video Telemetry as a "documentary whose subject is those things that fall outside our direct perception. It adopts an abstract form precisely because what is represented has no direct physical form...instead our electronic intermediaries, satellite and deep space probes, send back numerical data we interpret intellectually to understand what it is like in those places we cannot go, what those things we cannot see look like." http://www.omahacityweekly.com/article.php?id=627
The Experimental TV Center's Video History Project has a biography.
Critical theory
Critical theory is an examination and critique of society and culture, drawing from knowledge across the social sciences and humanities. The term has two different meanings with different origins and histories: one originating in sociology and the other in literary criticism...
, art and film historian, and animator. His principal published works focus on the technologies of visual music
Visual music
Visual music, sometimes called "colour music," refers to the use of musical structures in visual imagery, which can also include silent films or silent Lumia work. It also refers to methods or devices which can translate sounds or music into a related visual presentation...
, new media art and theory, and formalist study of motion pictures.
Betancourt's father is archaeologist Philip P. Betancourt, and his brother is author John Gregory Betancourt
John Gregory Betancourt
John Gregory Betancourt is a writer of science fiction, fantasy and mystery novels as well as short stories. He has worked as an assistant editor at Amazing Stories and editor of Horror: The Newsmagazine of the Horror Field, the revived Weird Tales magazine, the first issue of H. P...
. He spent his summers in Crete
Crete
Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...
, Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
, working as a photographer on his father's excavation at Pseira. His first film exhibition was Archaeomodern, shown in the Ann Arbor Festival of Experimental Film in 1993. In 1995, his film a self-referential film in 30 sentences won a Director's Citation award at the Black Maria Film Festival.
Early life and education
Betancourt was born in New Jersey in 1971. He attended Temple University in Philadelphia, PA to study motion pictures, and then received an MA in Film Studies at the University of Miami in Miami, FL studying under film historian William Rothman. He also received his Ph.D. from the University of Miami in Interdisciplinary Studies, focusing on Art History, Communications/Film Studies and History.In addition to scholarly work, he has written popular articles and reviews on art, art theory and culture for the Miami Art Exchange http://miamiartexchange.com/ and Art Scene magazines.
Visual Music
Betancourt has discovered that the inventor Mary Hallock-GreenewaltMary Hallock-Greenewalt
Mary Elizabeth Hallock-Greenewalt was an inventor and pianist who performed with the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh symphonies as a soloist...
produced the earliest hand-painted films known to still exist. However, these were not movies but films produced specifically to be performed by her earliest version of the Sarabet which was a machine for automatic accompaniment to records. This device was an early music visualizer of the type now included with computer audio-players. Even though these films were not designed to be motion pictures, they were produced with templates and aerosol sprays, producing repeating geometric patterns in the same way as the hand painted films of Len Lye from the 1930s.
He has also published a short monograph, combined with a large collection of short essays, pictures and other archival material about the visual music group Lumonics that was organized and run by Mel and Dorothy Tanner in South Florida.
Most of his other visual music-related scholarship takes the form of anthologies of technology patents, or reprints of earlier texts on visual music
Visual music
Visual music, sometimes called "colour music," refers to the use of musical structures in visual imagery, which can also include silent films or silent Lumia work. It also refers to methods or devices which can translate sounds or music into a related visual presentation...
machines designed for live performance.
Formalist Motion Pictures
Using psychological studies of motion perception, Betancourt has argued http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=349 that the motion seen in motion pictures is identical to the motion seen in paintings. He terms this second type painterly motion and argues that both kinds are invented by the subjective viewer: "Unlike motion in the real world that is physically eminent, the motion we see in movies and through the technique of painterly motion is entirely a result of a human perception. The motion we see does not exist outside our perception." Work by painters Francis BaconFrancis Bacon
Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Albans, KC was an English philosopher, statesman, scientist, lawyer, jurist, author and pioneer of the scientific method. He served both as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England...
and Peter Paul Rubens present the type of motion effect identified by Betancourt as being psychologically the same as real motion of actual objects in the world.
Betancourt's construction of formalism suggests a broader scope for applications of film theory
Film theory
Film theory is an academic discipline that aims to explore the essence of the cinema and provides conceptual frameworks for understanding film's relationship to reality, the other arts, individual viewers, and society at large...
than simply motion pictures since it focuses on both painting and experimental film
Experimental film
Experimental film or experimental cinema is a type of cinema. Experimental film is an artistic practice relieving both of visual arts and cinema. Its origins can be found in European avant-garde movements of the twenties. Experimental cinema has built its history through the texts of theoreticians...
. This approach was developed in his book, Structuring Time: notes on making movies. He approaches the motion picture as a series of distinct, but related domains of aesthetic manipulation: camera, image, editing, projection, screen, and sound.
The Digital
In a series of articles starting with "The Aura of the Digital," Betancourt has criticized what he called the “immaterialism” of digital technology, specifically the claims that digital technology ends scarcity through being able to create value without expenditure, unlike the reality of limited resources, time, expense. It is based on denying the actual costs of access, creation, production, and maintenance of computer networks and technologies. He sees the “aura of the digital” as both the capitalist fantasy of continuous expansion made possible by digital technology and as the anti-capitalism fantasy of a world without scarcity or need for capitalist production.The Aura of Information
Betancourt’s concept of the “aura of information” is the separation made possible by digital technology of the information and the ways that information is carried by technology. This idea claims the digital transcends physical form by separating meaning from the physical objects that present the meaningful information to its audience. It is the tendency to ignore the particular physical details of how we encounter information, in favor of just paying attention to the information itself.Digital Capitalism
In "Immaterial Value and Scarcity in Digital Capitalism," Betancourt proposed that the illusion of a rupture between physical and virtual production posed by the aura of the digital can be observed in the political economy of the United States, most especially in the Housing Bubble that bust in 2008. His analysis states that Financial "bubbles" are an inevitable result of a systemic shift focused on the generation of value through the semiotic exchange and transfer of immaterial assets. This economy is marked by several features: (1) a disassociation between the physical commodity and its representation in financial markets that is global in scope, (2) a reliance on fiat currency, (3) a financializationFinancialization
Financialization is a term sometimes used in discussions of financial capitalism which developed over several decades leading up to the 2007-2010 financial crisis, and in which financial leverage tended to override capital and financial markets tended to dominate over the traditional industrial...
of the economy based on debt.
Part of this analysis is a discussion of the relationship between affective labor
Affective labor
Affective Labor is a term identifying work carried out that is intended to produce or modify emotional experiences in people. Coming out of Autonomist Feminist critiques of marginalized and so-called "invisible" labor, it has been the focus of critical discussions by Antonio Negri and Michael...
and what he has termed "agnotologic capitalism
Agnotology
Agnotology is the study of culturally-induced ignorance or doubt, particularly the publication of inaccurate or misleading scientific data. The neologism was coined by Robert N...
." Affective labor is the enabler for a the creation of the bubbles that are characteristic of the digital capitalist economy. Where the reduction alienation of alienation is a precondition for the elimination of dissent. Affective labor is part of a larger activity where the population is distracted by affective pursuits and fantasies of economic advancement.
As Artist
Betancourt is a video maker whose movies are usually abstract and belong to the tradition of visual musicVisual music
Visual music, sometimes called "colour music," refers to the use of musical structures in visual imagery, which can also include silent films or silent Lumia work. It also refers to methods or devices which can translate sounds or music into a related visual presentation...
. He has claimed these videos are related to his work as a theorist. http://www.sensesofcinema.com/2007/44/michael-betancourt/ He has been exhibiting his work since 1992 when Archaeomodern screened at the Ann Arbor Film Festival
Ann Arbor Film Festival
The Ann Arbor Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Ann Arbor in the U.S. state of Michigan. Established in 1963, it is the third-oldest film festival in North America ; and the oldest experimental film festival...
, since then he has produced many videos that have screened on television, in festivals, galleries and museums.
He has described his video Telemetry as a "documentary whose subject is those things that fall outside our direct perception. It adopts an abstract form precisely because what is represented has no direct physical form...instead our electronic intermediaries, satellite and deep space probes, send back numerical data we interpret intellectually to understand what it is like in those places we cannot go, what those things we cannot see look like." http://www.omahacityweekly.com/article.php?id=627
The Experimental TV Center's Video History Project has a biography.
Videos
- Aurora, 2001 Microcinema International
- She, My Memory, 2002 review, IMDB
- Year, 2003 review
- Telemetry, 2005 review
- Casual wave, 2007 http://thepoisonarrows.com/profile.htm
Free Art Project
- In 1999, Betancourt created a "project" that invited artists to release their art using a license modeled after software licenses. This project was a forerunner to the Creative CommonsCreative CommonsCreative Commons is a non-profit organization headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons...
public licenses. http://www.art.net/lists/artists/0337.html
Aesthetic Hazard Project
- Betancourt's Aesthetic Hazard is a public installation project that imitates the more common barrier tapes marked "Caution" or "Police Line - Do Not Cross," but instead states: Aesthetic Hazard--Do Not Look. He has installed this project in a variety of locations in Miami and Chicago. website
Books
- Two Women and a Nightengale: a novel in collage, 2004
- Structuring Time, 2004, second edition, 2009
- Re–Viewing Miami, 2004
- Visual Music Instrument Patents (Volume 1), 2004
- The Lumonics Theater, 2005
- Mary Hallock–Greenewalt: The Complete Patents, 2005
- Thomas Wilfred’s Clavilux, 2006
Essays
- Educating Buffy: The Role of Education in Buffy the Vampire–Slayer, 1998
- Disruptive Technology: The Avant-Gardness of Avant-Garde Art, 2002 http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=336
- Motion Perception in Movies and Painting: Towards a New Kinetic Art, 2002 http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=349
- Labor/Commodity/Automation: A Response to "The Digital Death Rattle of the American Middle Class", 2004 http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=428
- Abstract Film Palimpsests: On the Work of Rey Parla, 2006 http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/53/reyparla.htm
- The Aura of the Digital, 2006 http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=519
- The Valorization of the Author, 2007 http://www.hz-journal.org/n10/betancourt.html
- The Valorized Artist: Incorporation into the Perpetual Art Machine http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/57/pam.html
- The State of Information http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=611
- Immaterial Value and Scarcity in Digital Capitalism http://www.ctheory.net/articles.aspx?id=652
Exhibition Catalogs
- Jose ParlaJosé ParláJosé Parláb., 1973, Miami, FL is an artist who assumes several roles in order to create his work; he acts as a historical transcriber, and a visual raconteur. As a transcriber, he records his experiences in calligraphic and palimpsestic code...
, Adaptation / Translation, Elms Lesters Paining Rooms, London, 2008 - Rostarr, Oculus Velocitas, Il Trifoglio Nero, Genova, Italy, 2009
See also
- Cultural studiesCultural studiesCultural studies is an academic field grounded in critical theory and literary criticism. It generally concerns the political nature of contemporary culture, as well as its historical foundations, conflicts, and defining traits. It is, to this extent, largely distinguished from cultural...
- Culture industryCulture industryCulture industry is a term coined by critical theorists Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer , who argued in the chapter of their book Dialectic of Enlightenment, 'The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception' ; that popular culture is akin to a factory producing standardized cultural goods...
- Critical theoryCritical theoryCritical theory is an examination and critique of society and culture, drawing from knowledge across the social sciences and humanities. The term has two different meanings with different origins and histories: one originating in sociology and the other in literary criticism...
- Popular culture studiesPopular culture studiesPopular culture studies is the academic discipline studying popular culture from a critical theory perspective. It is generally considered as a combination of communication studies and cultural studies....
External links
- Artist site
- Aesthetic Hazard Information site
- Microcinema International Director Profile
- Experimental TV Center biography page
- Chromatic Involution, Roman R Liedl
Academic Commentary on Work
- How to Write an AvantGarde Manifesto (A Manifesto), Lee Scrivner
- Zoï Kapoula and Louis-José Lestocart, Space and motion perception evoked by the painting “Study of a dog” of Francis Bacon, intellectica 2006/2, n° 44: Systèmes d’aide: Enjeux pour les technologies cognitives, pp. 215–226
- Summarizing Motion in Video Sequences, Kevin Forbes
- Piotr Zawojski, "Cyberculture as the vanguard of our time," published in The age of avant-garde, ed. L. Bieszczad. Edited by L. Bieszczady Mountains, Krakow 2006.
- Arthur Kroker, Simon Glezos and Michael Betancourt, The Future of Digital Capitalism, Digital Inflections, CTheory Global, Online Seminar on Critical Digital Studies, 2010.