Video art sculptures with Max Van Loan

Inspired by peepholes and the early cinema technology the kinetoscope, participants will construct and decorate a cardboard box with a hole to view a screen (your phone!). Videos will be compiled from existing material or created on site.

Before cinemas and movie theaters, where we collectively learned how and why to watch films

together, there was the kinetoscope. The kinetoscope, invented in 1894 (the year before the first

projected film) is a large box that sits on the floor and reaches tall enough for a standing viewer

to lean over and peek inside. Inside the box, a viewer would see a 15-20 second loop of some

of the first motion pictures. Kinetoscope parlors were open for a time, but went pretty much

extinct once a projected movie could be seen. In a way, we have come back around to the

kinetoscopic style of viewing; we are often watching moving images on small screens in our

hands. 

In this workshop, participants will create their own modern kinetoscopes, building boxes

of various shapes and sizes, decorated however they like, that are meant to be peered inside to

view a short loop of video. The boxes in this case will be made of cardboard, decorated with

faux flowers, fabrics, decorative papers, and other embellishments (supplies provided), and the

moving image inside will be displayed from each participant’s phone or tablet. Join us in the live room to build  modern takes on the historical kinetoscope, injected with play, whimsy, and a whole lot of creative fun. See you at the kinetoscope parlour!

Max Van Loan (they/them) (formerly Emily/Em)

is an experimental filmmaker based in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin. With their work, Max cultivates a physical relationship with a film medium
that reflects intimate personal spaces containing trauma, queerness, and play. Their work has
screened in festivals and galleries internationally including Ithaca Experimental Film Festival,
Winnipeg Underground Film Festival, Ribalta Experimental Film Festival, Transient Visions:
Festival of the Moving Image, Microscope Gallery (NYC), Union Hall Denver and Madison
Museum of Contemporary Art. They have been the recipient of awards including an award from
The Open Fund (2026), Grilled Cheese Grant (2025), King Award (2021) and Ken Jacobs
Award (2016). Max has taught courses in experimental filmmaking and video art at University of
Colorado Boulder and Colorado State University. They currently teach at the University of
Wisconsin Milwaukee.

You can reach them at emvanloan@gmail.com.

“I became interested in this video box/modern kinetoscope idea after creating a work for an
exhibition as part of the Milwaukee-based Grilled Cheese Grant in 2025. I created a box out of
cardboard, decorated on the outside with sequined fabric and covered on the inside with small
square mirror pieces. This box hung from the ceiling by pink cotton rope, and had a hole in the
bottom of the box for viewers to duck their heads into. The screen inside showed a looping
video of an experimental dance video.”

_Max Van Loan