Benton C Bainbridge (born January 22, 1966) is an American artist known for new media art including single channel video, interactive artworks, immersive installations and live visual performances with custom digital, analog and optical systems of his own design.[1][2]
He is faculty at School of Visual Arts MFA Computer Arts department.[3] His work is collected in the Turbulence.org collection and The "ETC: Experimental Television Center Archives" in the Rose Goldsen Media Archives at Cornell University and The Kitchen Archive at the Getty Research Institute.[4][5] From 2006 to 2007, Bainbridge was Education Fellow at Eyebeam.[6] He has since realized many projects there, including the inaugural MIXER event[7] and VHS portraits.[8]
His early career focused on the live creation of electronic cinema in collaboration with other artists and anticipated today's VJ collectives.[9] Bainbridge's aesthetic technique is characterized by extensive realtime manipulation analog and digital media.[10] His work is presented in both art and entertainment spaces ranging from museums to stadiums.[11][12]
Bainbridge has founded and is currently focused on developing the FEED arts and media center at 1307 State Street in Erie, Pennsylvania.[35] Previously the 50,000 sq ft building was owned by Epp Furniture company before being renovated.[36]
Bainbridge was born in Cleveland, Ohio, where his father was an electronics and computer engineer with NASA's Lewis Research Center (now Glenn Research Center) and his mother wrote, photographed and made artwork with paint and fabric. He was first exposed to abstract video art on Public Television through the analog effects of The Electric Company. Later, Bainbridge's family moved to the exurbs of Erie, Pennsylvania where he met and began making drawings, plastic sculptures and food art with Philp R. Bonner. He attended General McLane High School, in Edinboro, PA, where he began collaborating with his fellow artist students, presenting several multimedia performances in the school incorporating Super 8mm film, 35mm slides, 1⁄2" Reel to reel and VHS video technology, along with performers, costumes, art objects, and music. At this time, Bainbridge also made Comix, performance art, and electronic music, showing at Erie area galleries and art spaces as well as non-art venues like swimming pools and other public spaces.
After high school, Bainbridge moved to New York City and immersed himself in New York's Lower East Side art scene while studying film and TV at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. As an undergrad, Bainbridge chose video as his primary medium and began presenting work at art spaces and clubs like Space 2B (aka "The Gas Station") and Danceteria. Working at Rafik as an engineer, editor and salesperson introduced him to many artists, personalities, ideas and esthetics. At Rafik, Bainbridge worked on projects for Robin Byrd, Richard Kern and Boogie Down Productions' "The Bridge Is Over" video.
In 1989, Bainbridge graduated from Tisch with a Bachelor in Fine Arts. That same year his short video "Betabet" was screened at Museum of Modern Art in the Film/Video Arts 21 program and he was awarded his first residency at Experimental Television Center.[37] As part of this residency, Bainbridge began his first live video performance experiments with collaborators Philip R. "Bulk Foodveyor" Bonner, Jonathan "Naval Cassidy" Giles, Chad Strohmayer and Andrew Koontz.[38][39] These early experiments convinced Bainbridge that video art can be made much as music: in real time, in collaboration, in public, via the free manipulation of all the tools of the medium.
Bainbridge co-designed multichannel, realtime video for two Beastie Boys' global tours and TV appearances including nearly all of MTV Networks' channels on four continents. For the Beasties' "The Mix Up" tour, Bainbridge's video designs used RGB LED technology to play visuals on Spike Brant's (Performance Environment Design Group) giant video mobile. For Vh1, CMT and other networks, Bainbridge designed and performed video for numerous live televised performances, first VJing for Beastie Boys' 2004 MTV VMA performance and then TV appearances promoting "To the 5 Boroughs".[40]
Lo-fi interactive installation of 50 original VHS tapes made with Erin Law, Perrin Ireland, Tony Youngblood, Ryan Hogan, Johnny Invective, Ezra Bainbridge-Powers: an electronic sketchbook.
Crystal Garden (all)
BronxArtSpace, NYC.
DVD edition premieres in group show.
Brother Islands
Eyebeam & Longwood Gallery, NYC.
HD video "painting" loop and QR code texts with quotes from Bill Etra: an "expanded documentary" about quarantine islands.
Daytime
Armory Weekend, NYC.
Abstract narrative collaboration with Steve Nalepa & V. Owen Bush.
Live video and Komungo performance "Digital Buddha" with Jin Hi Kim.
VH1 Hip Hop Honors
NYC/Worldwide.
Design and perform multichannel video for Beastie Boys live performance as honorees.
Points in a circle
New York.
Bobby Previte and Benton C improv a/v sample-trigger performance at Issue Project Room using Stephan Moore's hemispherical speaker grid.
NArt Showcase
Seoul, Korea
Video for Seongah Shin's computer music composition "Sarah 90" premieres at Sojang University's Mary Hall.
Mixology Festival
New York.
"Landscaping" a/v performance, Benton C and Evidence, presented by Roulette at Location One.
LUX2006
Sevilla, Spain.
Duo a/v improv with Once11 for VJ Festival.
Infinito Nero
Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Video Design for Martin Bauer's production of Sciarrino's opera, presented in Minou Maguna's set and performed by VJ_Anibal Kelvo.
Bentfest
New York.
Trio with Dafna Naphtali and Alex Waterman at circuit bending festival on the MoFoPro system.
Brakhage
Dallas
Live remix of Stan Brakhage's films and lectures at Magnolia Lounge presented by Dallas Video Association.
Sun Khronos
New York.
Premiere of "Dark Star" at Millennium Film Archives.
Live Processing
New York.
Visual design and video performance with choreographer Koosil-ja, musician Geoff Matters, and dancer Melissa Guerrero at Lower Manhattan Cultural Council "Swing Space".
VJ/Visuals design for Madison Square Garden holiday variety show with many artists including Kanye West, Destiny's Child, Sean Paul, Backstreet Boys, Fall Out Boy. [also 2004]
Video in Twilight. Analog of No Return
Karlsruhe.
Screening of VJ/DJ performance excerpt with Venetian Snares. Curated by Woody Vasulka for OASIS/ZKM.
VH1 Hip Hop Honors 2005
USA.
Screens Visuals with FUEVOZ for all the music performances for this TV tribute - rescan, mixing and clip scrubbing with Big Daddy, Kane, Ice-T, LL Cool J and many more Hip Hop legends.
EMPAC 360
Troy, NY.
Live audiovisual performance with 6-channel music and programming by Stephan Moore, dance by Flyaway Productions and pyro by Pierre-Alain Hubert and Grucci.
Visual Music/ Cosmic Drift
Washington D.C.
Live video 'remix' of Stan Brakhage's lectures as member of rev.99 for live event at Smithsonian Institution's Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.
TEST-PORTAL 2005
Amsterdam.
Present a program of SYNAESTHESIOLOGISTS and performances with Johnny DeKam, 2/5 BZ and solo.
Videos Experimentales Contemporáneos de Nueva York.
Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Screenings of works by Benton C Bainbridge, NNeng/NNeng-M and Bill Etra at PROA FUNDACION. Coordinadora: Minou Maguna.
Convergence: IFFB/Boston Cyberarts
Boston.
Live video with Walter Wright and United States of Belt (Ross Goldstein) for meeting of International Film Fest of Boston and Boston Cyberarts Fest.
Byron Carlyle Theatre
Miami Beach.
Live video design and performance for "Nervous City Orchestra," by Composer Livio Tragtenberg. Commissioned by Tigertail.
"La Belle Captive"
THE KITCHEN, New York City.
Live video design and performance for an electronic audiovisual opera by John King.
3 channel live video for "El Malogrado", Martin Bauer's musical theater based on Thomas Bernhard's "The Loser", at Teatro San Martin.
VH1 Hip Hop Honors
USA
Visuals Jockey for musical performances on program honoring the pioneers of hip hop. Live image processing, mixing and clip scrubbing with Public Enemy, Grandmaster, Flash and Beastie Boys.
Fronteras Festival
London
Live video for experimental opera "La Belle Captive" at ICA.
SYNAESTHESIOLOGISTS
New York
Co-curated a screening, live a/v performances, installations and a Video Jukebox for The 2004 New York Video Festival with David Last. Also featured at Virginia Film Festival.
"To the 5 Boroughs Tour"
Worldwide venues
TV performances on VH1, MTV, MTV2, MTVJapan, MTVLA, MTV Europe, Steve Harvey Show. Co-design visuals with artfag, llc and live Oscilloscope tweaking and VJ'ing for Beastie Boys.
SONIC VISION, San Francisco. "Karma" screens in Kathleen Forde's program at SFMoMA.
Monkeytown Invitational
New York City
Live a/v synthesis on custom hybrid analog/digital system (with V. Owen Bush) for 4 projection walls and gourmet appetizers.
Realtime 3D & video for "mech[a]" & "OUTPUT" with choreographer/dancer Koosil-ja Hwang and musician Geoff Matters.
New Genre XI
Nightingale Theater, Tulsa.
Live video and music for "Annotations" with dancer/choreographer Helena Thevenot.
SonicVision
American Museam of Natural History, New York City.
Contributing artist to Hayden Planetarium's "SonicVision" fulldome show.
Theatre of Musical Comedy.
St. Petersburg, Russia.
Live video for "Tattooed Tongues" opera with Dutch ensemble LOOS & eNsemble from St. Petersburg, music by Martijn Padding, libretto by Friso Haverkamp.
Celcit Festival.
Managua.
"The Moment Prior" with Helena Thevenot as part of "Apuntes" show.
Test-Portal
Amsterdam.
Several performances, including improv with Hoppy Kamiyama & Kirilola, screening of 'origins' performance with Walter Wright.
The New York Video Festival
Lincoln Center
Screening of 'SUBTALK' (short by Bainbridge, Abigail Child and Eric Rosenzveig) in "History Makes a Comeback" program.
MIXOLOGY Festival
New York City.
Solo and group live a/v in various collaborations with dancers, musicians and musicians at Performing Garage for the hausofouch's curation of the Roulette annual intermedia series.
The New York Video Festival
Lincoln Center
Screening of 'SUBTALK' (short by Bainbridge, Abigail Child and Eric Rosenzveig) in "History Makes a Comeback" program.
Boston CyberArts Festival "Origins and VIsual Improvisation Symposium"
Boston.
Live performances (including duo with Walter Wright), workshops, panels, screenings and an installation of the "TRIGGERS" video jukebox.
Splice Festival
Pittsburgh
Live 2 channel a/v performance at Carnegie Mellon University Fest, solo and with Colongib + Shiv and the students of CMU.
Centro de Experimentación del Teatro Colón
Buenos Aires.
Live video composition/performances for John King's experimental opera "La Belle Captive."
Projection design for video opera inspired by Adolf Wölfli with text and music composed by Matthew Ostrowski.
FLA/BRA Festival
MOCA, Miami.
"The Moment Prior" with choreographer/performer Helena Thevenot.
Unitygain
The Kitchen, NYC.
Co-produced event with David Linton and live video mix with Jeremy Bernstein and Anney Bonney along with electronic musicians.
One Step Beyond
American Museum of Natural History.
Visual designer, co-producer of video/lighting (with Glowing Pictures) for American Museum of Natural History's monthly party since its inception in 2007.
Bainbridge also curates, teaches and advises on video art and tech. For Lincoln Center's New York Video Festival, Benton C co-curated Synaesthesiologists, a festival of dozens of shorts in a feature-length overview of the global audiovisuals scene. At UAMA high school in Brooklyn, Bainbridge started the first VJ class in the U.S. public education system, going on to teach students ranging from pre-teen to post-graduate as Eyebeam Art and Technology Center's inaugural Education Fellow.[48]
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