AGÕæÈ˰ټÒÀÖ

Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

After Cat Video Film Fest, Art World Asks: Is This The End?

YouTube, http://bit.ly/14GzVFN
A still from YouTube video "Cute Cat Thinks Its a Dog," one submission to the Walker's cat video festival.

Scott Stullen and Katie Hill, co-curators of the now legendary  of 2012 spoke to a room full of cat lovers at SXSW Interactive. Their session featured…adorable cat videos! The questions the project raised were inevitable: Why cats? and Is this art?

What made the event significant was not only that it was the first, but also that the event took place at the highly renowned . The cat video festival was a new translation of the center’s formal experimental program. This particular experiment was a runaway success.

 

The call for video nominations went viral and the center received 10,000 videos to review. A group of jurors made selections and organized the selected videos into categories. The 79 winners were presented in a 75-minute screening before a crowd of 10,000 people. The winners can be viewed on the Walker Art Center’s  YouTube page.

 

Some more #catvidfest facts:

  • It was the most covered event in Walker history. But the art world overwhelmingly ignored it.

  • Web traffic for entries and the event exceeded all other programming traffic.

  • The #catvidfest went on tour last fall and is still roving about.

  • Minnesota’s 2013 festival will take place at the where cats will share the stage with Garrison Keillor and Maroon Five. 

A cat themed party is planned during SXSW, sponsored by Animal Planet. It's today, March 9th

from 5-7 p.m. at  on W 4th St. Below, watch the Walker's top-ranking video, "Henri 2, Paw de Deux:"

 
 

Related Content