MLYT

October 24, 2010 10:52 AM

Developed by YouTube and the Guggenheim Museum, Youtube Play - A Biennial of Creative Video - aims to discover and showcase the most exceptional talent working in the ever-expanding realm of online video.

An 11 man jury has selected The ultimate YouTube playlist - the most unique, innovative, groundbreaking video work being created and distributed online during the past two years.

posted by fearfulsymmetry (10 comments total)

The thing about lists is they are subjective. For instance, it's hard to imagine Make Sure The Kiddies Are Sleeping Before ..... was left out.
posted by netbros at 11:07 AM on October 24, 2010

This morning CBS Sunday Morning had a segment [video | 01:43] of this weekend's exhibit at the Guggenheim: the video-mapping of the videos on the curved exterior of its Frank Lloyd, as well as the video displayed inside.

The 25 videos were selected out of 23,000 submissions.
posted by ericb at 11:11 AM on October 24, 2010

So they expect me to watch through 20 videos or so without any sort of framing, no preview, and an average run-time of 3-5 minutes? They only include stuff that can be attributed to an extant artist? This shows that the Guggenheim doesn't get what any sort of social media site is about. It's about split second sharing and browsing, not expert mediated curation.
posted by codacorolla at 11:14 AM on October 24, 2010

Video of the exterior video-mapping.

Judges discuss their involvement in the selection process.
posted by ericb at 11:18 AM on October 24, 2010

I fully expected this list to be pretty out of touch with what's really happening, but I'm pleasantly surprised. It also seems natural that a good portion of these seem to have come through metaFilter already.

Of course due to the effectively infinite nature of online video the list has to be incomplete, but all of the videos I've watched so far are pretty remarkable.

Framing most of these would be... difficult, but not posting them as pointlessly tiny thumbnails would not have been.
posted by cmoj at 12:36 PM on October 24, 2010

This shows that the Guggenheim doesn't get what any sort of social media site is about.

They're not trying to - they're judging the content hosted by YouTube by higher artistic standards. I'd say YouTube's success as a "social media site" is pretty secure; what the Guggenheim is promoting is the ongoing debate in the arts community about the lasting value of YouTube content - sure, it's fast, but is any of it actually any good as capital-A-Art? Is there any "lasting" value, or it it only what it seems: pirated music videos and skateboarding bulldogs? You can criticize their selections, but criticizing them for not understanding they never intended to explore is silly.
posted by OneMonkeysUncle at 12:47 PM on October 24, 2010 [1 favorite]

The selection Deuce is wonderful. I'm glad there's some attempt to filter signal from noise in Youtube space.
posted by bodywithoutorgans at 12:56 PM on October 24, 2010

The presence of Die Antwoord's video: a prank, or proof positive that they're "blowin' up...all over the Interweb"?
posted by pxe2000 at 1:32 PM on October 24, 2010

Metafilter: Expert Mediated Curation.
posted by empatterson at 9:53 AM on October 25, 2010

Personal favorites include Bryce Kretschmann's nightmarish mashup of news anchor footage, Martin Kohout's ethereal and recursive Moonwalk, and Josh Bricker's chilling juxtaposition of video game and war footage.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 7:37 AM on October 31, 2010