rev.99 is a bi-coastal multi-media collective founded by 99 Hooker in March of 2000 when he organized the live audio and video performance: Same Day, Different Millennium (VHS, 60 Minutes, No Solution, NY, NY, 2000.)  Since then dozens of video and audio artists have passed through their switchers and mixers at venues ranging from the Hirshhorn and Anthology Film Archives to rock clubs and loft parties.

    Since the beginning, rev.99 has been pioneering “Improvised TV,” - a live mix of prepared and improvised sights and sounds.  At the forefront of the emerging “media band” scene, rev.99 has been featured in Synesthesia (Walter Reade, Lincoln Center), Test Portal (Amsterdam), Dallas Video Festival, Not Still Art (Brooklyn) and numerous other festivals and venues for media performance.   Known for their immersion in the sights and sounds of American culture, rev.99 is a sight to behold live amid a mass of wires, switchers, mixers, DJs, roll-ins and live cameras all mapped to various monitors and speakers.

    What is unusual about rev.99 is how they play media: very American in its being structured improv TV.  We are media with a little sense of French Situationialism.   rev99’s images and ideas are very prevalent, commenting and geared toward current culture.

    In 2005, rev.99 began developing their Improvised History project. Using Stan Brakhage’s art history lectures (recorded by Josh Wallace, 1983.)  rev.99 structured a mix of set pieces and roll-in media to highlight his anecdotes about fellow artists and his/their aesthetic ideas. First seen at Anthology Film Archives, rev.99’s Improvising History has evolved into a multi-screen live performance. Much more than a soundtrack to ease Brakhage’s monumental silent films, rev.99 plays their media to create a kindred but radically different experience. After performing at the Hirshhorn Museum, curator Kelly Gordon wrote “Cosmic. We are still all talking about it.”