“Video Art” by Michael Rush
Thursday, August 14th, 20081965 Sony Corporation’s Portapak became available to the general public.
“While some may identify themselves as ‘video artists,’ most see video as one material amongst many to be used in their art.
Thus a fluid approach to the topic has been adopted, while, for the sake of clarity and organization, three major themes, which correspond of the chapters in this book, have been identified as a way of approaching the subject of video art.
First, artists have used the video camera as an extension of their own bodies and as participants in performances, linking the physical and the conceptual right from the beginning. Second, Video art has expanded the possibilities of narrative, producing linear and non-linear autobiographies and futuristic fantasies, defining the political and redefining the sexual, and exploring personal and cultural identity. Third, the hybridization of technology, in which video is combined and recombined, often in interactive installations, with a vast array of other materials - digital film, film, DVD, computer art, CD-roms, graphics, animation, and virtual reality - to form new artistic expressions, such as “Filmic art’, not quite film or video. ” (p. 9)
Reading List:
- “Video and Narcissism” (1976) Rosalind Krauss (from “A Voyage on the North Sea: Art in the Age of the Post-Medium Condition” 1999)
- “The Mechanical Bride” (1951) Marshall McLuhan
- “The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man” (1962) Marshall McLuhan
- “The Medium is the Message: An Inventory of Effects” (1967) Marshall McLuhan
Viewing List
- “Wipe Cycle” (1969) Frank Gillette & Ira Schneider
- “Plato Now” (1973) Juan Downey
- “Tall Ships” (1992) Gary Hill
- “electric earth” (1999) Doug Aitken
- “Centers” (1971) Vito Acconci
- “Secret Horror” (1980) Michael Smith
- “OYMA (Outstanding Young Men of America” (1996) Michael Smith
- “Keep” (1968) Frank Gillette
- “The Rays” (1970) Frank Gillette
- “Global Groove” (1973) Nam June Paik
- “The Eternal Frame”(1975) Nam June Paik
- “Media Eyes” (1982) Muntadas
- “On Subjectivity (About TV)” (1978) Muntadas
- “Video is Television?” (1989) Muntadas
- “Kiss the Girls: Make Them Cry” (1978-79) Dara Birnbaum
- “Technology/Trasformation: Wonder Woman” (1978-79) Dara Birnbaum
- “Propeller Tape” (1979) Klaus von Bruch
- “Das Softiband (The Softi Tape)” (1980) Klaus vom Bruch
- “Not a Model for Big Brother’s Spy-Cycle” (1987) Dieter Froese
- “Theme Song” (1973) Vito Acconci
- “Face Off” (1973) Vito Acconci