Re: (Video Positive) Archiving Video Positively

Various artists
FACT, Wood Street, Liverpool
11 September - 4 November 2007, Tues-Sun

Reviewed by Desmond Fitzpatrick

Ok so in the spirit of the event I’m going to try and match my review to this show’s opinion affirming title by applying something constructive, here goes; “This show has ran bi-annually from 1989 to 2000; it forms a major part of FACT’s, Liverpool’s and the UK’s cultural heritage.”

Now I’m going to stay upbeat as the exhibition also has a reincarnation of positivity in its sub-deck reaffirming its intentions. Did you know; “Video Positive provided production, research, equipment and invaluable networking possibilities to out standing artists”?

I’m also positively positive that being bombarded with two encouraging affirmatives would disorientate the senses long enough to somehow accept what was happening as animated lively fun. Isn’t that how the Mad Hatter spoke sending Alice round and round the table?

The exhibition celebrates “the launch of FACT’s new online archive, it illustrates current issues in preservation and presentation of ‘old’ media art displayed in the two gallery spaces and the media lounge.”

It wasn’t til I realised that the latter part of the title referred to the noun positive - a film showing a photographic image whose tones correspond to those of the original subject and that the adverb positively was probably just some simple alliteration.

Confident now that I hadn’t been brain washed, I thought the whole thing was like watching the flashy graphics of MTV in the 90s; you don’t know what is going on, it's possible you're having a fit, but it's here and it's cool and so are you for watching it. Dude that’s ostentatious!!! I added the extra exclamation marks because I couldn’t find the symbol for high five or air guitar.

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