I recently led a ten-week class at the School for Poetic Computation called Infinite Video, along with Jonathan Gray and Ilona Brand.

In the course we used the command-line tools, Python libraries like MoviePy, VidPy, and Videogrep, and various machine learning models to explore video archives, thinking through the possibilities (and limitations) of analyzing, filtering, sorting, editing, and composing video with code.

The full syllabus, readings and example code are available on GitHub.

To conclude the ten weeks we celebrated with a showcase screening at LARPA, my shared studio space. The screening featured work from 29 of the participants, who each submitted a 2-3 minute long video piece that made use of the techniques we covered in the class. Some chose to fully automate the creation of their videos, while others combined automated and manual techniques. You can watch the full screening, or as individual clips below!

The Videos

a history of change (magical), by Ada Zhou

An initial exploration into magical girl transformations. This timeline places transformation objects with pivotal consumer technology device advertisements to study the aesthetic and commercial progression of the transformation objects and the idea of a transforming girl.

Ekaterinburg: Animal World ‘96-‘01, by arkadiy kukarkin, huge thanks to @tauekb3 for uploading, Jonas Beile for last minute NLE rescue, Sarah Friend for infinite patience

A hallucinatory journey through the violence and wonder of growing up in the ruins of post-soviet Russia. Featuring extracts from "9 1/2" nightly news (1996-2000) for the Ural region and "В мире животных" nature documentary program.

Pick Three, by Beth Fileti

true crime, by Carrie Hott

This video is a combination of video and audio clips pulled from television episodes in which I was an actor. Overlaid on the production clips are behind the scenes images, as evidence of the production process.

and i was like oh, by Chloé Desaulles

poem reading, by Connie Liu

Contrasting a poem about using nature as a metaphor for temporality with the literal temporality of the current state of our natural world due to climate change

Men Explain Peat to Me, by Emily Saltz

Somewhere in the world right now, there's a man standing(/sinking) in the middle of a bog, espousing the wonders of peatlands. At least that's what Emily Saltz discovered over many months [collecting bog videos](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1F1fRVRohORnDD7AdSxoju5nVQjCCR_26Mr4NX9-FJNI/edit#heading=h.wsysrme7uie4) from YouTube as creator of the bog-themed radio show "Discobog." This is a video collage of some of her favorite men (+ a few bonus women!) talking about peat, its extraction, and its restoration.

Brown Noise, by Esteban Arellano

untitled (the way we [hold/touch/embrace] technology), by esther bouquet

Small moments of intimacy between two hands and a “technological” object that are captured and re-enacted, creating both a friction with the inherently capitalist environment of QVC's home shopping set, and an archive of gestures that either disappeared, faded or evolved through today's.

More! More! More! by Fee Christoph

this memory doesn’t exist, by gonzalo moiguer

This chaptered documentary depicts an infinite number of childhood memories. These memories may or may not exist; they are the result of precise extraction from the public domain paired with descriptions dreamed by machines and read by humans. Viewers are invited to reject these memories as false and fabricated, or perhaps question whether there's any truth about themselves in these AI-assisted narratives.
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Home Video, by Irena Wang

An exploration of the many functions home videos serve for me as a mother, followed by a visual essay framed as a defense of walking behind, observing (and recording) someone who isn’t observing you.

NarrowMinded, by Jingyi Wang

a Python-based video tool that enables users to perceive sensorial barriers to technology through the existence of beings in digital videos.

wilding, by jonathan gray

A speculative exploration of online media on forest making and its unanticipated consequences.

30th Avenue, by Kaelan Burkett

30th Avenue is a video/hypertext document, archiving impressions of 30th Avenue in Queens, New York. Videos from this location are broadcast at the original time of their recording. You can view the live broadcast at: http://kaelanburkett.com/30th-avenue.

Analogue Reminisce, by Kayla Henry-Griffin

Images, videos, and sounds from my memories growing up. These visuals have shaped me and morphed me as a person. As I shape and form,the visuals may change and new variations of the work will occur.

I get paid to exist, by Leslie Predy

A document of the existential absurdity seen when capitalism, modern "wellness" culture, and social media intersect

Home, by Made by Kin Marie

God shaped hole, by music by Tavener (Funeral Canticle); video by Shakti

WOAHMONE Sampler, by Nica Ross (2010 - 2016)

WOAHMONE was a monthly party that ran from 2010 - 2016 in New York City. WOAHMONE's name and aesthetic inverts the theme of radical lesbian separatism by creating a space for radical lesbian inclusion. The event focuses on a night of music that spans and expands upon queer social and sexual history, curated by Savannah Knoop and Nath Ann Carrera and accompanied by video composed of found films, homemade porn and YouTube clips selected and mixed live by Nica Ross.

444Hz Artist Affirmations, by Rebecca Picanso

Meditation track to price your paintings to, sourced from an archive of 14 hours of Sotheby livestream footage.

Studies, by Ryan Woodring

Silent Sermon, by Sabrina Sommer

dance yrslf clean, by Sahar Khraibani

good boy!! by shalin shah

Hard Times Ahead [wip], by Sim

The beginning of a study on individual safety preparedness culture & the issues it may both respond to & exasturbate at once.

say it like u mean it, by Syd White

Mr. Beast Saying Increasingly Large Amounts of Money, by WTTDOTM (Morry Kolman), Mr. Beast (Jimmy Donaldson)

A study in the structure of virality by taking the most popular YouTuber in the world - Mr. Beast - and distilling the content of his videos into one of their strongest themes: increasing amounts of money,

Let Us Quit! by yifan wang