We recently connected with Michael Mersereau and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Michael thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?
Learning film making, creative digital expressions, and building a language.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I am a media, film, and time based artist. But it is not just work that can be put on the screen. It is also installation, where the tools of video, film, and sound can highlight and engage a space, be it a room, gallery, or projection. This puts my work in the blurred line of a theatrical and passive viewing experience. The difficulty behind work like this, which I’m sure other artists in this realm may agree with, is the classification of my work and its presentation, specifically documentation and the appropriate venues. The work somewhat fits in film festivals, but that has a limited length of viewing. While in the gallery scene, often materials and dark spaces are difficult to come by. This is especially true when one is an emerging artist. Often media artists are asked to be in group shows but will be provided a monitor to display the work. On some occasions I’ve been given a room or separate space, but usually it is up to me to provide materials to darken the space or even supply projectors. I have found showing outside the U.S. has provided better conditions for the presentation of my work. I don’t know if this is how money for the arts is distributed compared to the U.S. or California or something related to my career level and discipline. As an artist I avoid interactivity and prefer to engage the audience as spectators. It is important that the viewer is witness to what transpires. Interactive work, especially work which incorporates technology operates as a mirror to the individual. I don’t mind some empathy, but I prefer work that has some alienation.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
Supporting artists is simple. Provide money. Money for rent, money for their work, and for those that make tangible objects money for their respective sculptures or pictures. To be an artist not unlike other jobs is labor. Yet the artist is expected to fund their own work. This leads mainly to the wealthy artists to become successful, or creating debt for those in middle class and working class scenarios. Making work with a full time job is incredibly difficult if not impossible. Everyone deserves a living wage and artists should be considered as a worker who deserves one as well. Of course this is a larger structural issue that cannot be simply implemented.
Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?
I generally do not have a favorable view of NFTs. However, the ability to embed a percentage of sales passed along to the artist puts some control back into the artist after their work has moved on. But on a whole, NFTs seem to be part of libertarian crypto mania. A NFT operates both opaque and transparent at the same time. The cognitive dissonance it creates is essential to its artificial value. Like all forms of money, as soon as the value is stripped of its meaning it crumbles and can leave the artists and buyers broke. Simply give artists money directly,
Contact Info:
- Website: https://michaelmersereau.net
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michaelmersereau/