Guess what? We’re joining the ranks of other events and organizations that have nothing to do with basketball and jumping on the March Madness bandwagon!
This is what’s happening: we’re pitting our Walker Channel videos against each other in fierce competition to find THE VERY BEST ONE. Using the strict guideline of videos uploaded in the last year, we’re seeding them based on type of video and ranking (total views). Over the next week, viewers will vote for their preferred video and as the polls close, we will be closer to finding out which video will emerge victorious.
Scientific? Indubitably.
Competitive? Oh, you bet.
Exciting? YEAH!
Meaningful? The most meaningful competition in the world!
What is the Walker Channel, you say? It provides live webcasts of Walker programming and is home to an archive of nearly 300 video and audio recordings featuring a wide range of public programs, including lectures, readings, and presentations involving artists, scholars, and critics of contemporary art and culture. It’s been around for eight years, when live video streaming was still a rare, sketchy technology. You can find the HD videos online at channel.walkerart.org, on the Walker’s YouTube channel, or from iTunes U.
Now I present to you: THE BRACKET.
(Click for full size.)
THE PODS:
Dialogue/Performance: artist interviews and performances
Lecture: lectures by artists, designers, thinkers, and other special guests
Trailer: videos made and produced especially for the Channel, like exhibition previews and performing arts trailers
Up Close: behind-the-scenes videos, like short curator talks and artist interviews and insights
The tournament will run from March 16 thru April 1, with the first round of 16 taking the majority of the time (because you will have to watch the videos.) The week of March 28 will be a whirlwind of competitive activity, with the Round of 8, the Final 4, and finally, the Final on April 1.
Polls and videos will be embedded in a blog post for every day of competition. You will also be able to find them on the Walker’s Facebook page and linked from our Twitter feed, but voting is strictly on the blog poll.
So go ahead and start an office pool and come back on March 16, when the madness kicks off with Alec Soth’s Opening Day Dialogue vs. Making Music with Dave King, and Four Visions of the Minneapolis Riverfront vs. Lorna Simpson’s Artist Talk.
Live match-ups:
Game 1: Alec Soth vs Dave King
Games 2 & 3
Questions? Concerns? Confused? This may be possible. Holler below.
P.S. I hope you like the tournament logo I made, based on a quick Google image search.