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The bulk of Augart’s video remixes are rhythmic collages composed of movie fragments that he organizes by subject matter – car crashes, gunshot blasts, horror movie screams. Augart is often drawn to the loudest of Hollywood movie stimuli, but other subjects can draw his eye: long before Kutiman released his “Thru You” remixes of youtube musicians, Augart had already completed the same experiment in his own style with “Youtube Symphony.”

Augart works in the tradition of rhythmical audiovisual cutups established by veteran video artists like Tasman Richardson. But Augart’s style is very much his own. His remixes make art out of the distortion and digital artifacts of youtube-era video. He delights not only in the deep booming payoffs of Hollywood sound effects, but also in the auxiliary effects that don’t typically win our attention: little clicks of people preparing their firearms, the trebly scrapes of metal in the first nanoseconds of a head-on collision. Augart manipulates not only the sensory impact of his source materials, but also the cultural expectations built up around them (for a great example, watch what he does with the firm cadence of marching soldiers in “The Parade”).

If you’re looking for something to keep your eyes stuck to the monitor and your brains pulsing to the rhythm, Augart’s cutups will make a great evening’s viewing. You can watch higher resolution versions of his videos on his myspace page:
www.myspace.com/augartmedia

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