The Weekly Beat

Here is an article about the project in the Weekly Beat - http://www.weeklybeat.net/

Desperately seeking video
Hyde Park project hoping to compile historic, contemporary video footage
By Babette Fasolino

Calling all Hyde Park video shutterbugs: If you have video footage of Hyde Park from any era, from Fourth of July town parades to grandma’s backyard barbecue in 1956, artist Matthew Slaats would like to hear from you.

Slaats recently received a grant from the Dutchess County Arts Council through the New York State Council on The Arts Decentralization Department to create a video art installation focusing on life in Hyde Park. Slaats will collect video from town residents that will be edited, transferred to a digital format and screened at the Hyde Park Drive-In this spring with the potential for future screenings at other Hyde Park locales.

The artist’s final work, which includes cutting-edge motion-activated technology, will depict everyday life in Hyde Park spanning generations; he is also hoping to gather historic footage from the Roosevelt Library and local historic sites. “I’m leaving it open – I don’t want to exclude anything,” said Slaats. “I think of home movies, people having a barbecue or just living their lives in town.”

Slaats is an academic computing consultant for visual resources at Vassar College, where he is working on a large-scale project with the art, drama and film departments converting archival images from slide format to a digital system. “A lot happens at Vassar – it’s an amazing place,” he said.

A native of Green Bay, Wis., Slaats moved to the Hudson Valley a year ago when his wife began studying at the Culinary Institute of America. Slaats is interested in creating art in public spaces and previously created an art installation at a Works Progress Administration (WPA) Sports Stadium in Wisconsin that had been slated for demolition. When he visited Hyde Park, Slaats saw the potential for an innovative public art project that could combine history and everyday life.

“You can’t even turn around in Hyde Park and not see something that has some historical significance,” said Slaats. Hyde Park’s drive-in was particularly interesting to him, so he developed an art project that could combine video, digital technology, the drive-in as well as participation from the community. “I’m collecting a visual history similar to an oral history, but through images,” he said.

Slaats has been busy making contacts with community members, including teachers at FDR High School who lead a program in documentary filmmaking with Upstate Films. Slaats is hoping that budding filmmakers will contribute clips for the project, as well as families with video footages from years past. “I’m really looking at what fills in that space between here and now,” he said.


Examples of life

Brandon Berrian, a freshman at FDR High School, recently recorded some video with a classmate that he plans to submit to Slaats. “It would be awesome to participate in the project,” said Berrian, who was filmed as he snowboarded down a hill, completed an impromptu somersault and managed to unintentionally break his snowboard in half upon landing. Berrian’s video, he says, is a good example of everyday teenage life in Hyde Park. “It would be cool to show people how we act away from school,” he said.

Berrian is also intrigued by Slaats’ idea of combining archival video of the past with contemporary video, particularly as it relates to teens. “I think that the project should show the difference between teenagers of then and now, show differences between what teenagers did then and what they do today,” he said. If his video is included, Berrian is certain that people, especially adults, may have questions. “They’ll probably look at our clip and say ‘What the heck are these guys doing? What’s wrong with them?”

While Slaats is first to admit that his project is somewhat risky because it relies on the collaboration of many individuals and organizations, his ability to take a chance also drew attention of the Dutchess County Arts Council when his grant application was submitted. Loretta Spence, director of programs and arts services for the Dutchess County Arts Council, served as facilitator for the grant panel that reviewed Slaats’ proposal. “I was really excited to see the project because it is cutting-edge and he is a promising young artist who could really benefit from the council’s support.”

Spence, who oversees hundreds of applications each year, said that Slaats’ project stood out among others. “His project exemplifies exactly what this grant is supposed to do: support a goal on a county level to that involves a brand new artistic project or individual artist like Matthew.” Spence sees Slaats an artist with incredible promise. “One of the things that is so exciting is his creative and dynamic use of resources, such as Scenic Hudson and the drive-in theater,” said Spence, who commended Slaats’ willingness to “think outside the box.” “He could become an artist of national or international stature,” she said.


Setting up roots

Slaats and his family recently purchased a home in Staatsburg and are looking forward to getting more involved in their new community. “I lived in a very small town in Wisconsin outside of Madison before I moved here. I was always in Madison and never got involved in the town I was living in. I want to get involved in the community, be an active member and do something fun and interesting,” he said.

Slaats is hoping his art project will allow him to learn more about life in Hyde Park. “I’m not a new person trying to push ideas. I want the community to tell its own story. I hope people see that I’m trying to learn and talk to them,” he said.

Greg Callahan, director of the Hyde Park Library, stepped forward when Slaats was seeking a partnering sponsor for his grant application. “Finding a sponsor was a pretty major hurdle for me to overcome,” said Slaats. “Greg was the first person to respond and it was the perfect connection.”

The library, which serves as Slaats’ home base of operations, is an ideal partner because it serves such a vital role in the Hyde Park community, said Slaats.

Slaats will be at the Hyde Park Library every Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon through March to collect video submissions and answer questions about the project. He prefers video in DVD format, but will accept other formats; videos should be under five minutes in length, he said. Slaats is encouraged by the support he has received so far and is eager to review video from residents. “I’m always interested in people’s stories,” he said. Slaats can also be reached via email at mbslaats@gmail.com.