I like to show Brian Springer’s 1995 video, Spin to my students at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, especially when Presidential election time rolls around. This video is housed in the collection of the Video Data Bank at SAIC, one of the foremost collections of video by artists in the United States. Last month I surprised to discover that Spin can now be seen online on Google Video.

Using 0ver 500 hours of raw, unedited satellite video feeds he recorded during the 1992 elections, Springer’s hour-long documentary video reveals the behind-the-scenes coaching political candidates receive from their media handlers, in order to “spin” a question. We see how they evade examination and obscure genuine understanding of their political positions. We also see how the American mainstream media, particularly Larry King, is often be complicit in manipulating public opinion.

Spin can also be seen online through these other Internet sites:

http://www.illegal-art.org/video/popups/spin.html
http://www.archive.org/download/ill-art/spin.mp4
http://www.archive.org/details/illegal-art
http://ia300129.us.archive.org/2/items/illegal-art/

Tags: documentary, elections, media, political, presidential, SAIC, satellite, Spin, video

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