Initialising history and peripheral visions
Initialising History is an overview of Peter Callas' art practice from 1980 to the present. Beginning with his earlier performance works such as, Our Potential Allies (1980, Sydney) and closing with his recent computer animation work-in-progress, Lost in Translation (1999, Karlsruhe/Brazii/Sydney), the program consists of twelve works selected by the artist. Peripheral Visions featured thirteen contemporary international video, electronic and computer works curated by Callas. Together with Eccentric Orbit commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art (New York) in 1994, the three part program, initiated by Alessio Cavallaro, Director of dlux Media Arts, and executed in conjunction with Peter Callas, premiered in Perth as part of Festival of Perth and PICA's Articulations Symposium.
The screenings of Initialising History and Peripheral Visions presented a valuable opportunity for the Perth audience, not only to view a diverse range of contemporary media arts, but also to discuss the current situation and future direction of screen practice-most significantly, its changing relationship with technology. It is evident in Callas' own works that this relationship is a pivotal one. In particular, the works made on a Computer Video Instrument (CVI) such as, Kinema No Yoru/Film Night (1986, Japan) If Pigs Could Fly/The Media Machine (1988, Sydney) and Neo-Geo: An America Purchase (1990, New York) exhibit Callas' vigorous imagination in stretching the possibilities of the technology, as well as taking advantage of its limitations.
In these works, pixels, which are generally seen as something to be avoided, construct vibrant ecstatic animated graphics on screen. Callas assembles fragments using CVI 's simple masking techniques to produce a multitude of collages. Temporal and spatial juxtaposition of these images creates fleeting visions, structured by intensely hypnotic sound