Describe karl / project /bioCV here.
Karl Baumann recently completed his B.A. in Film Studies and Cultural Anthropology at the Ohio State University. During the course of his studies, his video work evolved from narrative based productions to abstract and formalist works, focusing on the linguistic, temporal, and epistemological issues of 4d art and sound; as well as socio-political issues of military technology, social identity, and mass media meta-narratives.
His largest works though are documentary based, exploring social aspects of media, locally and abroad. The subjects range from independent cinema in Columbus, Ohio, to media and democracy in Madagascar, and film’s role in the politics of memory and representation of the last dictatorship in Argentina.
He would like to balance the progression of artistic formalism with social intervention and accessibility, adapting more interactive elements into future explorations of digital social structuring, collective archiving, and the migration of languages and symbols, especially in the Americas, Europe, and Africa.
As an Artist, Karl Baumann is obsessed with dismantling the preconceived institution of art. And of course he knows that Modernism began this project of re-injecting the practices of art into the social realm and away from the bourgeois and aesthetic worshipping realm of autonomous art, but feels that this project has yet to achieve its goal, though many others are working towards the same great feats.
Such a critical perspective is inspired by the social and historical context of a largely apolitical and apathetic population in the face of great human rights violations and unethical business practices by those larger state institutions and corporate bodies that govern our society and our existence. Simultaneously, personal experiences with certain contemporary art institutions and students has left a sense of disillusionment in practices that purely seek to expand upon self-contained formalist endeavors that will become museum worthy works, and/or stylistic breakthroughs that can become sites of salvation for an emerging desperation in corporate advertising, which seeks to co-opt the signs of a the new hip aesthetics of youth culture in order to combat the loss of a hegemonic television presence.
This does not mean that aesthetics cannot be socially applicable in itself, as certain designers seek to produce inexpensive and aesthetically pleasing materials for poor neighbors in developing nations in order to provide psychological support to such unlivable conditions. Yet, the absence of communicating larger socio-cultural and political discourses within much of what is considered high art practices is debilitating in terms of the mind altering expectations as well as the subversive necessity within the thin levels of discursive powers of art in society.
Especially considering the powerful potency of time based mediums at this point in history, art has an obligation to utilize such a powerful medium of communication to not merely better itself, formalistically and within the international market, but to also better those who seek to experience and understand the work without having the financial or educational resources to “fully appreciate” it. Art should not cease the expansion of a formalistic language, but it should be able to do so while retaining a sense of accessibility and socio-political relevance in its perception, utilizing its symbolic power to communicate contemporary political critiques and theoretical discourses.
For such a balance could be created and then transmitted to the general population as tools for constructing a new world of abstracted and more universal languages, communicating personal experiences and facilitating individual agency. Ultimately, such a realm of communication could develop into a highly nuanced and international sphere of personal communication and history, constructing a neo-democratic world that is not completely isolating to communicating in the terms of multibillion dollar produced popular cultural references and dominant memes.
The materialization of my current project proposal is blatantly obvious in the personal and social context of my past. A past history that has been a development of increasing abstractions of the psychosocial world of symbols that constructs our worldviews and identities. Beginning as a child, I’ve become increasingly interested in cultural constructs, from geography, to language and cognition, and now history.
This cultural relativity had developed early, as I had moved from my birthplace of Princeton, NJ to a small town outside of Savannah, GA at the age of 5 and then to Atlanta, GA at the age of 12, and then again to Cincinnati, OH a year later. During each move, I learned to adapt to the new social surroundings, while gaining insight into the material nature of cultural identity and the relativity of individual or collective worldviews. The experience of living in a small marshland town in Georgia, near an army base during the Persian Gulf War, was extremely different then living near New York City in the late 80s, visiting the Natural History Museum’s sea life and dinosaur exhibits. Of course my critical separation with these places and their beliefs didn’t become apparent until later.
At Ohio State, my studies in Film History and Cultural Anthropology helped to expand my interest in the power of visual language and time based media. The absence of university structures for film production combined with increasingly abstract film courses inspired me to move away from traditional forms of narrative cinema. This initial engagement with more analytical and abstract works was coupled with a profound discovery in the studies of languages fueled by the writings and works of Sergei Eisenstein and Russian formalist filmmakers, and the Czech School of Structural Linguistics, headed by Saussure.
The discourse of Russian formalism and structural linguistic enabled a new analytical and constructivist insight into the structuring and editing of moving images, which expanded as I became more engulfed by experimental cinema, especially Stan Brakhage and then the Structural filmmakers of the early 70s. Thus, it appears only logical and intellectually satiating that I’ve continued my interest in the studies of linguistics (though the influence of Russian formalism has somewhat waned) and have opted to utilize post-structuralist analyses and breakthroughs for my current project Liebesraum. The post-structuralist discourse will enable a personal evolution as well as continued formalist investigation, highly influenced by American experimental and avant-garde cinema.
Yet, though I’ve been influenced by the formalist and analytic practices of such cinema, I felt a political and social absence in much of the later abstract American work. The most politically inspiring piece I’ve seen is La hora de los hornos or “The Hour of the Furnaces” by Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino. This 6 hour radical militant documentary was produced in Argentina against the dictatorship of Oganía in 1968. This documentary, as well as an increasing moral objection to US military influence in the Americas, lead me to my most recent work, my thesis paper and documentary Mundos especulares: Filmic Reconstructions and Remedies of Historical Memory Trauma: Argentina and its Desaparecidos. This project enabled the fulfilled manifestation of my formalist and socio-political interest, as I was able to experiment with epistemological questions of memory and trauma, while thoroughly and personally exploring the complex social construction of history and identity. Therefore, it is at this point in my life, that I feel it absolutely necessary to critically and reflexively analyze our own contemporary identity and concept of western history.
Honors Film Studies, minor in Cultural Anthropology Current GPA: 3.71 (211 credit hrs) B.A. in Summer 2008, Honors Research Distinction
Buenos Aires/Santa Fe, Argentina 2008 Documentary: historical reconstruction and trauma memory. Supported by Ohio State Undergraduate Honors Research Grant
Anatanarivo/Tamatave/Ile d’Not, Madagascar 2007 Documentary: socio-economic effects of re-democratization. Independent travel through Peace Corp. contact
Columbus, OH 2007 Video collage: meta-narratives and memory in mass media. Exhibited at OSU Art and Technology Showcase
Columbus, OH 2006-2007 Documentary Feature: Meta-Analysis of Columbus independent filmmaking. Premiered at the Wexner Center for the Arts on September 25, 2007
Columbus, OH 2005-2007 Student run organization: short videos and yearly trips to Sundance Film Festival.
Columbus, OH 2006 Abstract Video: experimenting with first person visual narrative and audio layering. Exhibited at NOW 2.0: Video and Dance exhibition
Columbus, OH 2004 Lead antagonist in student television series.
NYFA Summer Workshop Princeton, NJ 2003 Three short films, theory classes, and technical aspects of 35mm production.
GIC: Volunteer Buenos Aires, Argentina 2008 Volunteer in educating underprivileged children levels K-9.
Navajoland: Service Project St. Mary, NM 2005 Volunteer in housing construction on Navajo reservation.
Working America Cincinnati, OH 2004 Canvasser for lobbyist group.
Appalachian Service Project Leslie County, KY 2002 Volunteer in housing construction in Appalachian region.
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