Sometimes I wonder about the comparative social relevance of finished experimental video works vs. quickly slapped together demos. I’m talking about myself here, but we could extend it to anyone working primarily with processes that generate video content in realtime. In the former case, there are usually multiple takes from a live-recorded process, edited together with some sort of sound design applied to it. In the latter case, results from the process are just recorded to disk, sometimes a soundtrack is quickly slapped on, and it’s encoded for the internet. In the case of these sketches and demos, there is less mediation after the fact, but the composition is less coherent, more diffuse in its focus. You might also say that these are closer to the process, and are more authentic in their eager display of the underlying algorithms. These clips also serve as part of a dialog with other video content creators and enthusiasts as a statement of “this is what I’m on right now, let me know what you think.”

It also marks innovations or ideas I’ve had at different times. Often, were it not for these off-the-cuff clips, much of my daily work or cool ideas would never make it past my computer screen. With the more completed works, there is more concern over consistency with my body of work, wanting there to be a cohesive compositional structure, creating some specific and refined experience, relating some content, however abstract. Within online spaces though, it is difficult to discern what is the completed work and what is “just a test” as each is equally embeddable in alternate pages, visible alongside one another on my Vimeo profile, and ultimately equal in all other respects, except for my intention. So the questions remain: What is the importance of making a distinction? Is it relevant to the viewer what my intention is in creating the work? Is it in fact possible to familiarize one’s self with my official body of work without being influenced by the other videos I’ve produced, and that exist within the same online structures?