Smoke Screen

Description

Michael Bell-Smith's digital video examines the increasing circulation of images and digital media, from the first computer games to the latest computer software. Bell-Smith's work often incorporates the visual vocabulary found on the Internet (animated GIFs and lower quality), and aesthetics and semiotics of computer programs as Powerpoint and internet sites like YouTube. Through the appropriation of material from commercial videos, classic films and contemporary art, he re-evaluate the cultural meaning of the material in a "post-personal computer", "post-internet", "post-Google" time. The Smoke Screen, On The Grid, and Grid Panic uses his "ready made" materials found in the image data banks, which he then put together in an abstract, organic whole.