DOCUMENT is pleased to present In Circulation by Eric Fleischauer. The exhibition features a video installation, a series of animated gif’s, and custom screensavers. Together, the three works in the exhibition explore the malleability of the moving image, shifting modes of viewership, and the ways in which digitization has changed the dissemination, legibility, and reception of media.

In Circulation is a dizzying portrait of Expanded Cinema by Gene Youngblood, a book widely acknowledged for its insights into technology’s impact on cinema, attempting to broaden and liberate the medium from tradition, conventions, and standardization. Currently the book is out of print. However, the text has been made available by its author for free online. Eschewing profit for proliferation of ideas, this emblematic gesture extends the author’s philosophy beyond cinema into other realms of digital media and distribution prevalent today. Inspired and informed by Youngblood’s concepts, this installation creates an environment that holds the video-mirror up to Expanded Cinema, allowing viewers to reflect on its ideas and witness its impact. In essence, the text becomes a living example both articulating and celebrating Youngblood’s vision of how “technology is reshaping the nature of human communication.” // Internet Nostalgia consists of twelve animated .gif’s that manipulate the semiotics of digital imagery. Disrupting our expectation with immediacy, playboy centerfolds perform stripteases that provoke tension around our experiences online. // Finally, installed on the computers in Document’s adjacent print space is Screensaver Library. This work uses the screensaver’s utilitarian function to increase access to, and engagement with, video/art. By embracing this underutilized mode of dissemination and exhibition, the idle computer screen is transformed into a dynamic venue, where an unattended laptop creates an impromptu installation, or an office cubicle becomes a micro-cinema.

Eric Fleischauer is a Chicago-based artist, curator, and educator. Working in video, film, and digital mediums Fleischauer utilizes conceptually-driven production strategies in order to examine the ramifications of technology’s expansive influence on both the individual and cultural sphere. His work has been exhibited at venues including The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, threewalls, Interstate Projects, Rooftop Films, Microscope Gallery, Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Kunstmuseum Bonn, and is included in the Midwest Photographer’s Project collection at the Museum of Contemporary Photography. Currently he teaches in the Department of Film, Video, New Media, and Animation at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

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