Some Kind of Ether is a video piece that utilizes appropriated and original material to create a meditation on, as the artist puts it, “the origin of cybernetics as we know it, and the way we imagine technology as a result.” The cybernetics of the 70’s was heavily developed by the military to aid their conflict with Soviet Russia in the Cold War. The military-industrial complex, along with the counter-cultural communities of the 70’s, influenced the development of system’s thinking; and later the digital sphere as we know it.
Pezzulo’s use of footage and sound from the 60’s and 70’s creates a sense of both fear and optimism that were present in the era. The interaction of text, sound, and video reinforce a sense of contradiction between the ethereal web of connected networks and the concrete materialism that the network relies on; however, the contradictions occasionally fall away to reveal clarity. The artist speaks with nostalgic and contemporary voices that are not hers to create a non-linear narrative about cyberspace. Ultimately, Some Kind of Either leads us to question our current relationship to cybernetics, utopia, failure, and how we view the “ether” that surrounds us.
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Isabella “Izzy” Pezzulo is an artist based in Richmond, VA. She works primarily in video and sound, but her interdisciplinary practice also includes printmaking and installation.
Currently, her work brings together appropriated and original content through video collage/installation to talk about visions of utopia, liminal states, and how the past haunts the present, creating a wealth of interpretations and possible futures.
