Digilantism and the LA Digital Arts Movement

18th STREET CENTER Presents: *HTTL:// Hacking the Timeline / EZTV, Digilantism and the LA Digital Arts Movement--Exhibition of Digital Art in Print, Video and Installation *Victor Acevedo, Rebecca Allen, Denis Brun, Dave Curlender, Michael Dare, Loren Denker David Em, Kit Galloway, Kate Johnson, Tony Longson, Robert Lowden, Michael Masucci, Sherrie Rabinowitz, Nina Rota, Carolyn Stockbridge, Anneliese Varaldiev,* *Michael Wright; February 4 - April 8, 2006: OPENING RECEPTION: Saturday, February 4, 6-8:30pm.

This exhibition focuses on some of these key individuals involved in the creation, advocacy and exhibition of seminal digital art exhibitions over the last 25 years in Los Angeles. Many of these shows included artists who were among the very first to publicly articulate a unique digital and desktop aesthetic. They have served as activists who have spearheaded a dialogue between mainstream and experimental artmakers and who brought journalists and scholars alike into an awareness of the emergence of an international digital culture. From David Em's pioneering experimental artworks created at historical places such as Xerox PARC and JPL to EZTV's development of a desktop video and microcinema tradition to ECI's experiments in telecommunication arts to the work of the Digilantes, a term coined by artist/educator Michael Wright, who along with Victor Acevedo staged many guerilla style exhibitions and became a local force for Los Angeles digital art. Their concept of Digilantism, which they not only apply to themselves but also to the efforts of places such as EZTV and other artists/activists worldwide, best describes an art movement as genuine as Futurism, the Arts & Crafts Movement or Hip-Hop." Michael Masucci, 2006