Members: Grant Reighard, Brian Panebianco, Ryan Bercaw, Bernadette Tierney
A.
Early video art was developed in the 1960's as a new abstract way to show one's point of view. Artist, such as Nam June Paik, would assemble video feeds to air to the public. These could be any sort of image played on a television. As early video art began to grow, presentation also became important. Some artist would mold a series of televisions into an object that would further their points, http://www.rhizome.org/editorial/2586. To present their abstract view to audiences, artists would have screenings where interested bystanders would come and see their work. The emergence of this outlet of art comes hand and hand with the first black and white video camera to be put on the commercial market, while this innovation does not deserve full credit for the development of video art some is to be shared as this art is a direct effect of a boom in technology.
B.
During the late 1960's and through the next decade, video artists such as Nam Paik June and Woody and Steina Vasulka actively manipulated the signals used to transmit and display video and television images. Video images were altered through means such as physical contraptions (like the Vasulkas' two-camera rig used for "Switch! Monitor! Drift!"), manual manipulation, electronic interference, audio input, and magnets. With analog video being transmitted electronically, the artists experimented with its electromagnetic properties and the ability to transfer it to a digital format.
http://www.mediaartnet.org/works/participation-tv/images/2/
http://www.ubu.com/film/vasulka.html
C.
The Vasulkas realized that it was important to tear the medium down into its component parts to understand what it really amounted to. While physical art is a solid, tangible medium, and film is a mechanical representation of what the camera captured, Woody Vasulka dissected the underlying components of video as an electronic medium in "Artifacts". This concept brings about new questions about what our media really is, and why it means so much to our social entertainment. Paik's "Participation TV" brings new interactivity to an otherwise passive viewership, and his "Global Groove" project introduced the proposal of worldwide interactive and participatory video, decades before our modern internet-based viral video medium.
http://www.mediaartnet.org/works/global-grove/video/1/
http://www.mediaartnet.org/works/artifacts/
D.
When considering the influence older video had on the early video art beginning in the 1960's it's important to keep in mind that a major aspect of the art was finding ways to strongly change it from the norms that people came to expect in video. Regardless of what was changed, strong audio remained an important aspect of video. Steina and Woody Vasulka worked heavily with synthesizers for unique scores, and Andy Warhol often used natural sounds as a forefront in his work with simpler visualizations behind it. Most early works also stayed true to the basic rules of videography. Framing and lighting in order to create a more eye-friend shot continued to stay prevalent. Video art is often split between those trying to push technological boundaries and those who use older technologies like 8mm film. Lots of older equipment from the 50's is still used for experimental work. Back in the 60's lots of video artists didn't have sufficient funding for newer equipment and continued to use older technology. Even those who are very well known now like Nam June Paik and Yoko Ono spent many years sticking exclusively to outdated recording technologies.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_art
http://www.vasulka.org/Videomasters/MA_index.html
http://www.warhol.org/collections/film_video.asp
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0656760/bio
E.
When exploring video art there are several characteristics of how the art is made, preformed, or presented that could cause skeptical thoughts or negative feedback from audiences, Video art does not have a plot or a need for specific talents or skills it is a video presenting art work with a need to show steps. there in lies the problems. When viewing video art by Buky Schwartz, (http://www.videoart.net/home/Artists/VideoPage.cfm?Artist_ID=1431&ArtWork_ID=1783&Player_ID=2) think of a magic trick. Instead of being marveled by the mystery of the creation of a piece of work, the secrets are revealed and the work created is easily replicated. In his video art pieces such as The Chair or any of his series "Video Constructions", there is thought and procedure put into the work but the thought of the viewers are cut off and limited because of how revealing the video is to the production. In other works by artists such as Nam June Paik the works created have more of a mystery appeal. Several of the works have double meanings or are puns that use technology to an advantage. Technology, specifically video, is a relatively new media available to artists. In the pieces such as “Watchdog II” you find your self looking at more than just the shape of how the televisions are put together but the pictures portrayed on the screens, therefore taking away from the piece. In “Enlightenment Compressed” and most of Nam June Paik’s works there is a certain level of complexity and confusion that comes with the art. Seen in Enlightenment Compressed there is a message trying to be delivered about the way society is Post-Modernist. This is a subliminal message suggesting that when a person watches television we are seeing what the “one- way flow of commercial broadcasting” and the possibilities available are cut short because they are “suppressed by industry mandate” (Rhizome Para. 11)
Nam June Paik - Beatles Electroniques (1966-9)
Steina Vasulka - Switch! Monitor! Drift! (1976)
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Participatory Action:
Take a ball filled with outward facing cameras (a device I saw Nam June Paik showing off on YouTube) that shoots in all directions and pass it around campus like a beach ball and record it.
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