International Videoarts Festival Response

On September 12, 2018, the International Videoarts Festival was hosted here at UT. This was a display of short visual music films that were created by artists all around the world. For me, the festival was an introduction to visual music as an art form. I think that the very first film, Storms, did a very good job introducing the subject of visual music to me. It presented a form that would change according to the music. If the sounds were sharp and choppy, the form's edges became sharper in response. This showed me what to expect from the films, and also helped set the stage for what was to come. My favorite film from the display was Changes like the Shoreline. As the title implies, it was a representation of what you would see on a walk on the beach. I love the beach, so this film kept me interested. It used sounds of ocean waves lapping onto the sand, which was calming. The videos used were also serene, displaying a walking person and various beach plants. It felt like a dreamscape. However, after this film, the rest of them were a lot more abstract and used sounds that weren't as natural as the rainfall heard in Storms or the ocean heard in Changes like the Shoreline. Since I couldn't really relate to any of the other films, I didn't really like them as much. They were a bit too experimental for me. Overall, the International Videoarts Festival was interesting, even though I didn't really like all of the films.