Scott Kildall (born 1969) is an American conceptual artist working with new technologies in a variety of media including video art,

prints In molecular biology, the PRINTS database is a collection of so-called "fingerprints": it provides both a detailed annotation resource for protein families, and a diagnostic tool for newly determined sequences. A fingerprint is a group of conserve ...

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

and

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

. Kildall works broadly with virtual worlds and in the

net.art net.art refers to a group of artists who have worked in the medium of Internet art since 1994. Some of the early adopters and main members of this movement include Vuk Ćosić, Jodi.org, Alexei Shulgin, Olia Lialina, Heath Bunting, Daniel Gar ...

movement. His work centers on

repurposing Repurposing is the process by which an object with one use value is transformed or redeployed as an object with an alternative use value. Description Repurposing is as old as human civilization, with many contemporary scholars investigating tha ...

technology and repackaging information from the public realm into art. He often invites others to participate in the work.

Early life and education

Scott Kildall is the son of computer innovator Gary Kildall. He graduated with an undergraduate degree in

Political Philosophy Political philosophy or political theory is the philosophical study of government, addressing questions about the nature, scope, and legitimacy of public agents and institutions and the relationships between them. Its topics include politics, l ...

from

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

in 1991 and received a

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admini ...

through the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in the Art and Technology Studies department in 2006.

Career

From 2006 to 2008, Kildall produced “Video Portraits”, a video piece where Kildall asks strangers to pose for a photograph but instead shoots video. The purpose was to record the act of constructing a pose for recorded memory. In 2006, Kildall produced Future Memories, a single-channel video work that uses in-between moments from iconic Hollywood movies. The clips are black-and-white with an ambient soundtrack, which result in a feeling of displaced familiarity as the viewer registers the clips on a subconscious level. In 2007, Kildall's video works were displayed in his first solo show, Imaginary Souvenirs, at Mission 17 gallery in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. The socio-historical impacts of media play a role in some of his creations. For example, his 2007 piece, “Uncertain Location”, recreates the

Apollo 11 Apollo 11 (July 16–24, 1969) was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module ''Eagle'' on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC, an ...

lunar landing in response to an announcement by NASA that it was unable to find the original tapes of the event. In 2008, he was part of the Mixed Realities exhibition in Boston at Huret & Spector Gallery, curated by Jo-Anne Green from

Turbulence.org Founded in 1981 by Helen Thorington, New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. (NRPA), and its satellite project Turbulence.org,Mirapaul, Matthew (2003)How to Make a Sonic Purée From Pop Snippets The New York Times. Retrieved on 2010-06-8 was an Amer ...

. In the same year, he exhibited "Hand Work", a performance video based on a film by

Andy Warhol Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...

at The

Textile Museum of Canada The Textile Museum of Canada, located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is a museum dedicated to the collection, exhibition, and documentation of textiles. History The Textile Museum of Canada was founded as the Canadian Museum of Carpets and Textiles ...

. Kildall was an artist-in-residence at Eyebeam in 2009. Kildall created “After Thought” in 2010, a portable personality testing kit which uses a brainwave-reading headset to test stress and relaxation levels with a customized video for each participant. In 2010, Kildall also created “Playing Duchamp”, a

chess computer Computer chess includes both hardware (dedicated computers) and software capable of playing chess. Computer chess provides opportunities for players to practice even in the absence of human opponents, and also provides opportunities for analysi ...

that plays as if it were French artist

Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...

. Kildall used the recorded matches of Duchamp to mimic the artist's chess style.

Art work

Kildall and Second Life

Kildall has produced artwork using the video game, ''

Second Life ''Second Life'' is an online multimedia platform that allows people to create an avatar for themselves and then interact with other users and user created content within a multi player online virtual world. Developed and owned by the San Fra ...

''. He is a co-founder of the performance art group, Second Front. His 2006–2007 “Paradise Ahead” print series recreates classic

conceptual art Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. Some works of conceptual art, sometimes called insta ...

Yoko Ono Yoko Ono ( ; ja, 小野洋子, Ono Yōko, usually spelled in katakana ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking. Ono grew up i ...

, Vito Acconci,

Bas Jan Ader Bastiaan Johan Christiaan "Bas Jan" Ader (19 April 1942 – disappeared 1975) was a Dutch conceptual and performance artist, and photographer. His work was in many instances presented as photographs and film of his performances. He made perf ...

and others. In 2010, as part of his “No Matter” project with Victoria Scott, Kildall produced “Gift Horse,” a 13-foot high replica of the

Trojan Horse The Trojan Horse was a wooden horse said to have been used by the Greeks during the Trojan War to enter the city of Troy and win the war. The Trojan Horse is not mentioned in Homer's ''Iliad'', with the poem ending before the war is concluded, ...

. It was built in Second Life and then translated into

reality Reality is the sum or aggregate of all that is real or existent within a system, as opposed to that which is only imaginary. The term is also used to refer to the ontological status of things, indicating their existence. In physical terms, r ...

Video activism

In 1999, along with several others, Kildall founded Sleeping Giant Productions in San Francisco, a video organization dedicated to the production of social justice documentaries, which helped establish the video branch of the

Independent Media Center The Independent Media Center, better known as Indymedia, is an open publishing network of activist journalist collectives that report on political and social issues. Following beginnings during the 1999 Carnival Against Capital and 1999 Seatt ...

. Kildall produced and edited a number of documentary shorts and a feature-length film called “In The Dark”.

''Wikipedia Art''

In February 2009, Kildall and collaborator

Nathaniel Stern Nathaniel Stern (born 1977) is an American/South African interdisciplinary artist who works in a variety of media, including photography, interactive art, public art interventions, installation, video art, net.art and printmaking. He is current ...

created ''Wikipedia Art'', a

piece as a live article on Wikipedia. Site editors quickly concluded that the project violated Wikipedia's rules and opted to delete it 15 hours after it was initially posted. A month later, Kildall and Stern received a letter from a law firm representing the

Wikimedia Foundation The Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., or Wikimedia for short and abbreviated as WMF, is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization headquartered in San Francisco, California and registered as a charitable foundation under local laws. Best kno ...

, claiming the domain name, wikipediaart.org, infringed on their trademark. The ensuing controversy was reported in the national press. ''Wikipedia Art'' has since been included in the Internet Pavilion of the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

for 2009. It also appeared in a revised form at the

Transmediale Transmediale, stylised as transmediale is an annual festival for art and digital culture in Berlin, usually held over five days at the end of January and the beginning of February. Transmediale takes the form of a conference (sometimes called ...

festival in Berlin in 2011.

''Tweets in Space''

In 2012, Kildall and Stern again partnered on a project called ''Tweets In Space'', inviting participants to submit tweets to be transmitted to the planet GJ 667Cc, whose conditions scientists believe may be capable of supporting life. Tweets In Space will take place in September 2012 at the International Symposium on Electronic Art in

Albuquerque Albuquerque ( ; ), ; kee, Arawageeki; tow, Vakêêke; zun, Alo:ke:k'ya; apj, Gołgéeki'yé. abbreviated ABQ, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Mexico. Its nicknames, The Duke City and Burque, both reference its founding in ...

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...

. Kildall and Stern used

RocketHub RocketHub was an online crowdfunding platform launched in 2010, its first use was September 1, 2009. Based in New York City, its users included musicians, entrepreneurs, scientists, game developers, philanthropists, filmmakers, photographers,Hai ...

to fundraise the money needed to access a transmitter capable of reaching the planet. In addition, code developed is planned for release to

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...

. According to Killdall and Stern, the goal of "Tweets In Space" is to activate "a potent conversation about communication and life that traverses beyond our borders or understanding".

References

External links

Scott Kildall's website

Wikipedia Art web site

No Matter project website

KQED Television: Spark Artist Profile
(television segment) {{DEFAULTSORT:Kildall, Scott New media artists American video artists American multimedia artists Postmodern artists Place of birth missing (living people) Living people American digital artists American performance artists Brown University alumni 1969 births