Artist Talk: Julie Perini

As you know, Julie Perini is a collaborator, and an inspiration. on June 28, 2023 she gave an artist talk to Graduate students at the Pacific Northwest Collage of Art. The General Public was also invited - so I went!

Julie started off 4.5 billion years ago, skipped ahead to hundreds of years ago, then Nov 11, 1977 - her birthday! There was a lot of talk about high school and college experiments and getting her mind blown by independent music and using the postal system to exchange culture. We learned (more) about her grad school experiences including her experience with state repression and the FBI, a real turning point in her life. We saw so much cool footage and glimpses of her past experimental and documentary work, and saw a glimpse of the coolest data base of 11 years of daily “Minute Movies”.

You can watch the talk here.

My review will include spoilers.

It was so great! I liked the emphasis on art as live saving, on community history and how we are our own archivists - the mainstream misses the importance of our existence, and they come to our achievements much later. Lucky for them we’re great archivists of our own lives. I learned more about the Young Julie as Artist, and it was cool to hear her talk about our collaborative projects. She talked about how she’s watched technology and platforms change, how media artists explore new technology, and how her process is slow and slows her down for reflection and understanding of her life in the moment, and the past. How it makes her more present. I like that reminder that cameras and audio recorders may seem like distraction but they don’t have to be! The list of feelings on her Air Table Data Base is a true work of art.

I was glad to be in attendance. Thanks to PNCA and Ryan Pierce for the event.