The Guggenheim Wants Your "Creative Videos" From YouTube

In the past five years, YouTube has facilitated your avoidance behavior with numerous cultural phenomenons such as impersonations and making fun of people. Now the Guggenheim is cashing in on the Internet's split-second-of-fame dumping grounds for their upcoming art exhibition, YouTube Play: A Biennial of Creative Video.

Their definition of "creative video" is broad:

"YouTube Play hopes to attract innovative, original, and surprising videos from around the world, regardless of genre, technique, background, or budget. This global online initiative is not a search for what's "now," but a search for what's next."

Well, if they're all about our bright and beautiful future, Kingsley's a shoo-in. Or this girl.

But other than deciding art's posterity, YouTube Play is also about democratization:

"It is the goal of YouTube Play to reach the widest possible audience, inviting each and every individual with access to the Internet to submit a video for consideration.

Yes, the entire >1 percent of the world population that has access to the Internet (plus video/video editing equipment) will be able to participate.

If they submit, our vote is for Kittens on a Roomba, but they might be borderline acceptable -- videos have to either be brand-new or made in the past two years. The Roomba Kittens first graced the Internet with their presence in July 2008.

OK. Our less-than-stellar taste in video art aside, this sounds pretty cool. The Guggenheim will produce a simultaneous exhibition of the 20 best videos from October 22 to 24 at their locations in Berlin, Bilbao, and Venice. We're just hoping for more videos like this and less like ... well, most YouTube videos regardless of genre, technique, background, or budget.

To submit from now until July 31, visit youtube.com/play.

[awerner@villagevoice.com]