Top seeds Eiko & Koma, Alec Soth, and Yves Klein make it to the Final Four…but what do we have here? A little surprise from the bottom seed in the Lectures Pod, journalist Evan Ratliff’s talk about his 30-day vanishing act. “How to Disappear in America” goes up against the heavy hitter Yves Klein video today while Walker Channel favorites Alec Soth and Eiko & Koma go head to head.

There are TWO games to vote on today! The second one is just a short scroll down. If you still haven’t watched them, you can find all these videos right here.

(I left my bracket at home today, so you will just have to imagine it. Sorry.)

You did it! You narrowed it down to eight videos. Today somebody told me that the NCAA competition already has their Final Four, which is crazy, because they don’t even play those games until Saturday. So we need to catch up and we need your votes…today!

Here’s the bracket as it stands (click for the larger, less blurry version), a visual guide for the four polls you’re about to vote on:

READY? Four games. Just do it. It’s painless. I’ve re-posted all the videos, followed by their poll.
Here we go…

VS

VS

VS

VS

Thank you. Now reward yourself with a cookie.

WE MADE IT.

It’s the final game of the round of initial match-ups! I’m leaving the past two days of games open for voting through Sunday so all of you can get your votes in.

So, on this lovely Friday afternoon, a final, fierce match-up between your quick look back at Ralph Lemon’s intriguingly titled How Can You Stay In the House All Day and Not Go Anywhere? (complete with a shot of Lemon running up a hill in a bunny suit) and another behind-the-scenes look at an interactive artwork that was in The Talent Show, introduced by the artist himself.

GAME 8:
PHILIP BITHER AND RALPH LEMON VS PETER CAMPUS DISCUSSES “SHADOW PROJECTION”

We’ve almost made it! Only 3 more games until the quarter-finals! Then this will get so much easier because you’ve already watched all the videos. (Right?!) So welcome to Day 4, Games 6 and 7 of Walker Channel Madness!

Game 6
INSIGHTS: IRMA BOOM VS “HOW TO DISAPPEAR IN AMERICA”

For the Lectures pod! Who is going to go up against Four Visions of the Riverfront? Will it be Irma Boom, book designer wunderkind, or Evan Ratliff, who talks about his attempt to disappear for 30 days, without a trace?

Irma Boom:

How to Disappear in America:

Game 7
INTRODUCTION: SOL LEWITT: 2D+3D VS EIKO & KOMA NAKED

A couple beautiful trailers have been made for installations in the galleries this year. Do you prefer the video collage and time-lapse of the Sol LeWitt exhibition or the quiet contemplation of Japanese movement artists Eiko & Koma?

Sol LeWitt:

Eiko & Koma:

Welcome to Day 3, Games 4 and 5 of Walker Channel Madness! It’s true, we’re a little behind schedule, so I apologize for the lack of witty intros below, but I just have to keep posting things, and you just have to keep voting!

Before we begin, we have results from Games 1-3. In the DIALOGUE pod, Alec Soth triumphed over Dave King, despite the latter’s early lead. In the LECTURES pod, you loved seeing Four Visions of the Minneapolis Riverfront, and finally, the day to night time lapse of the last year’s Rock the Garden still really impressed you. Our top seeds all emerged triumphant. (Here’s the updated bracket).

Game 4
PIERO MANZONI’S “BASE MAGICA–SCULTURA VIVENTE” VS INTRODUCTION: YVES KLEIN: WITH THE VOID, FULL POWERS

More short videos! Up first, curator Bartholomew Ryan talks to us about one of the pieces in last spring’s The Talent Show, successfully talking while stepping up onto a two and a half foot block and maintaining his balance. Then, the “painter of space” steps into the ring, or rather, the curators of last fall’s show Yves Klein: With the Void, Full Powers. Can you possibly vote against curator Philippe Vergne’s French accent? Watch and see!

Piero Manzoni:

Yves Klein:

Game 3
WOMEN WITHOUT MEN DISCUSSION VS FREE VERSE: SUSAN HOWE AND DAVID GRUBBS

This match-up includes two types of Walker programs not seen yet in this tournament: visiting filmmakers and co-presentations with Rain Taxi Review of Books. In the first video, Shirin Neshat discusses her feature film debut, Women Without Men, after a premiere screening, and in the second, poet Susan Howe and musician David Grubbs join forces for a language and sound art experiment.

Women Without Men:

Free Verse:

Welcome to Day 2 of Walker Channel Madness! We’re opening up two games today, as I realized just how many polls I’d have to make and keep track of over the next week. The match-ups come from the LECTURES and TRAILERS pods. As always, you can check out all the details over at the introductory blog post.

And without further ado…

Game 2
ARTIST TALK: LORNA SIMPSON vs FOUR VISIONS OF THE MINNEAPOLIS RIVERFRONT

We have two very different types of lectures going head-to-head today: In one, internationally renowned artist Lorna Simpson talks about collecting amazing things and finding meaningful ways to do something with them, including her recent practice of appropriating and restaging 20th century photos she finds on Ebay and flea markets. In the other, the Final Four teams (see what I did there?) in the Minneapolis Riverfront Design Competition (the winner has since been announced) share their visions (and computer generated visualizations). Which one gets your vote?

Lorna Simpson:

Four Visions of the Minneapolis Riverfront:

Game 3
ROCK THE GARDEN TIME LAPSE VS CHRIS LARSON: ONE OF THE 27 ARTISTS IN THE SPECTACULAR OF VERNACULAR

Well, these are short videos so you have no reason not to watch both. Do the changing shadows and crowd patterns of the 2010 Rock the Garden time-lapse video move you? Or do you delight in seeing the behind-the-scenes construction of Chris Larson’s site-specific installation?

Rock the Garden time-lapse:

Chris Larson:

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.)

(Download PDF)

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.