Among the hundreds of thousands of videos uploaded daily to YouTube, surely a work of art is in there somewhere.
Such is the premise behind “YouTube Play: A Biennial of Creative Video,” the first curated search for videos of a higher brow on the popular Google Inc.-owned website. From among more than 23,000 submissions from 91 countries, 125 videos were shortlisted for the inaugural biennial.
A curatorial team from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York selected the videos, which will play at kiosks in Guggenheim museums in New York; Berlin; Bilbao, Spain, and Venice, Italy, beginning Monday.
A jury that includes filmmaker Darren Aronofsky and visual artist Takashi Murakami will whittle the results down further to about 20 videos. Those will be presented at the Guggenheim in New York on Oct. 21.
“It’s become increasingly obvious that this kind of creative video is completely core to YouTube,” said Anna Bateson, director of marketing for YouTube. “It’s a fundamental part of what the site is doing, and yet it wasn’t really being celebrated.”
The chosen videos vary wildly, from well-known YouTube hits to little-seen works by students and amateurs.
More familiar selections include the OK Go music video “This Too Shall Pass,” which features a Rube Goldberg apparatus, a complicated machine designed to perform a simple task, and the “Human Mirror” video, in which a subway car is lined by apparent twins mimicking each other’s movements, by the comedy troupe Improv Everywhere.
Others are less heralded, like a jogging video by multimedia performer Jillian Mayer, in which rural video is projected against the urban landscape along her path.
Many videos utilize various forms of animation, particularly stop-motion animation. Joe Penna, known to most as MysteryGuitarMan, pieces together a classical guitar piece one shot — and one note — at a time.
Joan Young, associated curator of contemporary art at the Guggenheim, said the selected videos show the breadth of the materials on YouTube.
“We focused on works that really were conceived from the start for an online medium, so not necessarily works that were to be projected in a museum space or works that simply documented a performance,” she said. “The idea really is working with the medium.”
The videos are assembled here.
Utah Leaders and Locals Rally To Keep Sundance Film Festival In The State
With the 2025 Sundance Film Festival underway, Utah leaders, locals and longtime attendees are making a final push — one that could include paying millions of dollars — to keep the world-renowned film festival as its directors consider uprooting.
Thousands of festivalgoers affixed bright yellow stickers to their winter coats that read "Keep Sundance in Utah" in a last-ditch effort to convince festival leadership and state officials to keep it in Park City, its home of 41 years.
Gov. Spencer Cox said previously that Utah would not throw as much money at the festival as other states hoping to lure it away. Now his office is urging the Legislature to carve out $3 million for Sundance in the state budget, weeks before the independent film festival is expected to pick a home for the next decade.
It could retain a small presence in picturesque Park City and center itself in nearby Salt Lake City, or move to another finalist — Cincinnati, Ohio, or Boulder, Colorado — beginning in 2027.
"Sundance is Utah, and Utah is Sundance. You can't really separate those two," Cox said. "This is your home, and we desperately hope it will be your home forever."
Last year's festival generated about $132 million for the state of Utah, according to Sundance's 2024 economic impact report.
Festival Director Eugene Hernandez told reporters last week that they had not made a final decision. An announcement is expected this year by early spring.
Colorado is trying to further sweeten its offer. The state is considering legislation giving up to $34 million in tax incentives to film festivals like Sundance through 2036 — on top of the $1.5 million in funds already approved to lure the Utah festival to its neighboring... Read More