Hot Focus

Media theorist Marshall McLuhan suggested that there are two kinds of video consumption: “hot,” demanding our focused attention (such as a big-screen theatrical film), and “cool,” ingested passively (like TV). Now well-established as an artistic medium, video is, in McLuhan’s terms, decidedly hot. The best work engages the viewer’s focus and imagination, a give-and-take in which the viewer meets the artist halfway. Event Horizons, a video exhibition at the Urban Culture Project Space at 21 East 12th Street, showcases work by Thomas Comerford, Sabine Gruffat and Bill Brown. Commerford, a Virginia native, has made a film called The Indian Boundary Line about the 1816 border established between the United States and “Indian Territory.” Gruffat and Brown present an installation and performance work called Time Machine, deploying an arsenal of film, analog and digital video, and vinyl audio to simulate traveling between environments real and imagined, past and future. The touring show hits at 8 p.m.; admission is a $5 suggested donation.— Chris Packham

Fri., June 18, 8 p.m., 2010