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Philip Mallory Jones's practice spans several decades and mediums, including experimental video, graphic novels, and digital animation. After earning an MFA in Creative Writing from Cornell University in 1971, he began making and presenting new media art, joining the vast yet niche network of experimental video artists living in Western New York from the late 1960s to the mid '80s. In 1990, he began incorporating digital elements into his innovative video practice, using mapping tools to extend the lives of his novels, his virtual environs, and his interests in cultural memory. On the occasion of his artist residency at the Visual Studies Workshop (VSW) in November 2015, Jones and I met to talk about his multidisciplinary practice, his time in Western New York, the role of research and oral history in his work, the relationship between text and image, and the art of collaboration. The following is a transcription of that conversation.
TIFFANY E. BARBER: Can you talk about the artistic landscape of Western New York at the time you were starting out in Ithaca with Ithaca Video Projects?
PHILIP MALLORY JONES: It was peculiar and special at the time. It was not New York City-so that was peculiar and special-and the community was small enough and isolated enough that recognizable styles could be developed in various enclaves around the state. If you were literate in experimental video or alternative video or art video from the late 1960s to the mid '80s, work that came out of Buffalo was recognizable, work that came out of Syracuse or Woodstock was recognizable. There were cultures of experimental media and media art in Binghamton, as well as Ithaca and other places. They became cultural, tribal, in their ways, because of distance and a bit of isolation. Communication was such that you had to actually go to a place or send videotapes via the United States Postal Service that people would play and send back to you. It was possible to create an identity.
TEB: An artistic identity?
PMJ: And an identity of practice. There were different practices that were hyped in these various places as well, so the way makers in Buffalo thought and talked about what they did was often distinct enough that you would know when...