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The Web's Darkest Found Footage Finds A Place On The Silver Screen

The Spectacle theater in Brooklyn is showcasing the video art of Cory Arcangel, Jennifer Chan, and more with "From The Cloud."

[“From the Cloud,”](http:// http://www.spectacletheater.com/from-the-cloud/) a collection of “found footage” internet-based films is currently screening at The Spectacle in Williamsburg until July 18th. The emphasis here is on the alteration and manipulation of archival images and videos found the Internet, whether on YouTube or elsewhere. Artists such as Cory Arcangel, Lorna Mills, Yoshi Sodeoka, and others appear in the exhibition.

“In February 2005, YouTube was launched and forever changed our relationship to moving images, both as viewers and producers, but even well before then, the web had made a large variety of new materials accessible to see and to download, as well as upload,” reads The Spectacle Theater website. “'From the Cloud' is a video program that looks at found footage 'films' in the Internet Age. The proliferation of archived photographs, digital images, and videos made available to everyone online as well as an exponential increase in production has changed the way artists interact with pre-existing material.”

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“The artists in this program both pull material from the cloud and implicitly comment on the cloud by doing so,” the curators added.

For those unable to drop in on The Spectacle screening, we've selected a few videos worth viewing here on the Internet. Which, of course, is perfectly fine because what is the Internet if not every person's unique screening room?

Cory Arcangel

Cory Arcangel's Arnold Schoenberg's Drei Klavierstücke op. 11-I played by cats on pianos is exactly what the title suggests: a bunch of cats-on-pianos videos edited together until they collectively perform Schoengberg's "Drei Klavierstücke op. 11-I."

Jennifer Chan

If you can't stand Internet cats, then check out Jennifer Chan's A Total Jizzfest (2012). The title alone is amusing, but what follows in the video is even better. Chan compiles a super low-budget montage of, according to The Spectacle, the “richest and sexiest men in computer and Internet history.”

Jacob Ciocci

Witchy menace dominates Jacob Ciocci's single channel version of his Am I Evil? (2011) project. Witches in effigy and Harry Potter books burn, Wiccans dance in a circle, cats pop up as witches, and arch-Republican Christine O'Donnell makes an appearance, proclaiming “I am not a witch.” All of this is set to some dark, electronic heavy metal by Extreme Animals.

“This is the 3rd piece in Ciocci’s ongoing series Trapped and Frozen Forever, an investigation into the relationships between online and off-line images,” reads The Spectacle description. “Images trapped (not tangible) on-screen and images frozen (not moving) in the physical world. In this iteration Ciocci has scanned section by section each of the 2 large collages on the wall, using them as the basis for the animated projection.”

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Sebastien Schmieg

Search by Image, Recursively Starting with a Transparent PNG, directed by the Dutch video artist Sebastian Schmieg, starts with a transparent PNG image file and then gets all algorithmic. Schmieg ingeniously let Google's Search by Image algorithm “free associate” in order to understand how and what it “sees.” All told, Search by Image cycles through 2951 images at 12 frames-per-second over the course of its 4:04 running time.

Jesse Darling

Jesse Darling's Apocalypse Now serves as a roundup of visuals from 2012. A range of imagery from drones and Justin Bieber puking on stage to tear gas-infused riot footage can be found in this video. As proof that we're entering the apocalypse, Darling uses Carla Rae Jepsen's “Call Me Maybe” for some surreal juxtaposition.

Faith Holland

Analog Internet, a short video by Faith Holland, features a pyramidal structure of 3D-rendered CRT televisions, each playing well-known cat videos.

“This is the core of the Internet: an Egyptian site of worship for cats,” reads The Spectacle description of the video. “Considering the Internet’s obsession with cats, Analog Internet re-imagines having the same relationship to cat videos in physical, not digital, space.”

For the full list of the “From the Cloud” videos, check out The Spectacle's website.

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