Megan and Murray McMillan

Still from The Stepping Up and Going Under Method, 2006

Megan and I are pleased to launch an updated portfolio site and blog. In addition, we’ve added a YouTube video channel, Flickr page and a MySpace site. We retired the green/brown motif, which had such a loud flavor.

Our hesitation with YouTube, Flickr and Myspace has been the informality. But after a lot of research and thinking over the issue, we’ve come to realize that informality is the strength of these sites. They are the ideal locations for older projects, sketches, failures and experiments — none of which work on a portfolio site. Also, YouTube and Flickr are perfect when direct links are needed (impossible with the Flash portfolio site). Additionally, having a location for older projects honors the work of the people who helped us make them.

This started with Tyler Green’s post questioning why more video artists don’t take advantage of YouTube. We actually spent a lot of time writing a long counter-argument before we realized we didn’t have any strong points. So we changed our position. Cheers, Tyler.

In our new portfolio site, we’re now showing 10-second excerpts of videos instead of their full duration. For work that we’re currently showing in brick-and-mortar venues, we feel like it’s a good compromise to show abbreviated versions online. When we retire a work from our active portfolio, we’ll post it on YouTube in its full duration. This allows the work to keep living, while creating more of a reason to see our new work in galleries, where its exhibited in full resolution and designated scale, with powerful sound.

The MySpace site is the biggest risk in my opinion. But we’ve seen how many museums, galleries, and artists are now using MySpace sites as a front door and a direction marker pointing to other sites. It seems like a good approach, considering the popularity of MySpace.

So join us in this process, we’ll be adding new content weekly, and plan on keeping the new sites experimental and fun.