MTAA: VitoAcconciUpdate
December 2001
MTAA: VitoAcconciUpdate
MTAA’s VitoAcconciUpdate reimagines the basic “script” of Vito Acconci’s Seedbed, a 1972 performance at the Sonnabend Gallery in New York. In the original work, a low ramp extended across the gallery, beginning two feet up the side of one wall and slanting down to the middle of the space where it merged with the floor. For three weeks, Acconci lay hidden beneath the ramp, masturbating while his spoken fantasies about the visitors above him were conveyed by loudspeakers in the gallery.
MTAA’s update launches a window with strobing effect that stands in for the ramp of the original performance. Across the top of the window, a narrow band produces a visual “crack” on the surface of the “seedbed ramp” and gives a view of snippets of multiple browser frames. Appearing within those frames are visuals such as eyes peeking back at the viewer or human skin labeled “Hot Young Hot,” referencing the voyeuristic qualities of the web. Embedded in VitoAcconciUpdate is a “moaner function” that allows viewers to activate a moaning sound. Following MTAA’s OnKawaraUpdate (also 2001), the work was the second in a series of online works by the artists that automated time-based art from the 1960s and ’70s.
MTAA (M.River & T.Whid Art Associates), formed in 1996, is a conceptual and net art collaboration of Michael Sarff (b. 1967; Iowa City, Iowa) and Tim Whidden (b. 1969; Elyria, Ohio). MTAA has presented work in New York at the New Museum, MoMA PS1, Postmasters Gallery, and Artists Space; as well as at the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York; the 2010 01SJ Biennial, San Jose, California; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; the Beall Center for Art and Technology, University of California, Irvine; the Getty Center, Los Angeles; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). Their work also has been shown at international venues including ARTBOOM Festival, Krakow, Poland; iCommons Summit ’07, Dubrovnik, Croatia; Split Film Festival, Croatia; and the Second International Video Art Biennial, Tel Aviv. They have earned commissions, grants, and awards from Creative Capital, 01SJ Biennial, EMPAC, SFMOMA, Rhizome, Eyebeam, and New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc (1981–2017).
Gate Pages
Every month from March 2001 to February 2006, the Whitney invited an artist or collective to present their work in the form of a “Gate Page” on artport. Each page was meant to function as a portal to the artist’s own sites and projects. The Gate Pages comprise a range of artistic approaches to the format—while some of them are designed as entry points to the respective artist’s website or promote a recently launched work, others take the form of a more complex stand-alone project.
Wherever necessary and possible, these works are made functional through emulation and reconstructions from the Internet Archive. Not all of them have been restored to their original state and their conservation is ongoing. You can also view the original Gate Pages archive to see how they were presented at the time of their creation.
artport
View more on artport, the Whitney Museum's portal to Internet and new media art.