Video art
Encyclopedia
Video art is a type of art
which relies on moving pictures
and comprises video
and/or audio data. (It should not however be confused with television production or experimental film
). Video art came into existence during the 1960s and 1970s, is still widely practiced and has given rise to the widespread use of video installation
s. Video art can take many forms: recordings that are broadcast
, viewed in galleries or other venues, or distributed as video tapes or DVD
discs; sculptural installations, which may incorporate one or more television set
s or video monitor
s, displaying ‘live’ or recorded images and sound; and performances in which video representations are included.
, CD-ROM
, DVD
, and solid state
are superseding the video tape as the carrier. Despite obvious parallels and relationships, video art is not experimental film
.
One of the key differences between video art and theatrical cinema is that video art does not necessarily rely on many of the conventions that define theatrical cinema. Video art may not employ the use of actor
s, may contain no dialogue
, may have no discernible narrative
or plot, or adhere to any of the other conventions that generally define motion pictures as entertainment. This distinction is important, because it delineates video art not only from cinema but also from the subcategories where those definitions may become muddy (as in the case of avant garde cinema or short films). Video art's intentions are varied, from exploring the boundaries of the medium itself (e.g., Peter Campus
, Double Vision) to rigorously attacking the viewer's expectations of video as shaped by conventional cinema (e.g., Joan Jonas
, Organic Honey's Vertical Roll).
used his new Sony
Portapak
to shoot footage of Pope Paul VI
's procession through New York City
in the autumn of 1965. That same day, across town in a Greenwich Village
cafe, Paik played the tapes and video art was born. The French artist Fred Forest
has also used a Sony Portapak since 1967. This fact is sometimes disputed, however, because the first Sony
Portapak
, the Videorover did not become commercially available until 1967 (Fred Forest does not contradict this, saying it was provided to him by the manufacturers) and that Andy Warhol
is credited with showing underground video art mere weeks before Paik's papal procession screening. Fred Forest does however stipulate on his website that in 1959 Wolf Vostell
incorporated a television set into one of his works, "Deutscher Ausblick" 1959, which is part of the collection of the Berlinische Galerie
possibly the first work of art with television. In 1963 Vostell exhibited his art environment
"6 TV de-coll/age" at the Smolin Gallery in New York. This work is part of the Museo Reina Sofia collection in Madrid
.
Prior to the introduction of the Sony Portapak, "moving image" technology was only available to the consumer (or the artist for that matter) by way of eight or sixteen millimeter film, but did not provide the instant playback that video tape technologies offered. Consequently, many artists found video more appealing than film, even more so when the greater accessibility was coupled with technologies which could edit or modify the video image.
The two examples mentioned above both made use of "low tech tricks" to produce seminal video art works. Peter Campus
' Double Vision combined the video signals from two Sony Portapaks through an electronic mixer, resulting in a distorted and radically dissonant image. Jonas
' Organic Honey's Vertical Roll involved recording previously recorded material as it was played back on a television — with the vertical hold setting intentionally in error.
The first multi-channel video art (using several monitors or screens) was Wipe Cycle by Ira Schneider
and Frank Gillette. An installation of nine television screens, Wipe Cycle for the first time combined live images of gallery visitors, found footage from commercial television, and shots from pre-recorded tapes. The material was alternated from one monitor to the next in an elaborate choreography.
At the San Jose State TV studios in 1970, Willoughby Sharp
began the “Videoviews” series of videotaped dialogues with artists. The “Videoviews” series consists of Sharps’ dialogues with Bruce Nauman
(1970), Joseph Beuys
(1972), Vito Acconci
(1973), Chris Burden
(1973), Lowell Darling (1974), and Dennis Oppenheim (1974). Also in 1970, Sharp curated “Body Works,” an exhibition of video works by Vito Acconci
, Terry Fox
, Richard Serra
, Keith Sonnier
, Dennis Oppenheim and William Wegman
which was presented at Tom Marioni's Museum of Conceptual Art, San Francisco, California.
, John Baldessari
, Peter Campus
, Doris Totten Chase
, Norman Cowie
, Dan Graham
, Joan Jonas
, Bruce Nauman
, Nam June Paik
, Martha Rosler
, William Wegman
, and many others. There were also those such as Steina and Woody Vasulka
who were interested in the formal qualities of video and employed video synthesizers to create abstract works.
Notable pioneering video artists also emerged more or less simultaneously in Europe and elsewhere with work by Pascal Auger (France), Domingo Sarrey
(Spain), Juan Downey
(Chile), Wolf Vostell
(Germany), Slobodan Pajic
(France), Dieter Froese (Germany), Wojciech Bruszewski (Poland), Wolf Kahlen
(Germany), Peter Weibel
(Austria), David Hall
(UK), Paul Wong (Artist)
(Canada), Lisa Steele
(Canada), Rodney Werden (Canada), Colin Campbell
(Canada), Miroslaw Rogala
(Poland), Danny Matthys
, Chantal Akerman
(Belgium) Krishna Murti (Indonesia), Ray Langenbach (USA/Malaysia), Emil Goh (Malaysia/Australia), Nadiah Bamadhaj (Malaysia/Indonesia), Wong Hoy Cheong, Liew Kungyu, Hasnul J Saidon, Masnoor Ramli, Kamal Sabran, Roopesh Sitharan, Hayati Mokhtar, Goh Lee Kwang, Kok Siew Wai (Malaysia), Akram Zaatari (Lebanon), Mireille Astore
(Lebanon/Australia) and others.
or performance
. Contemporary contributions are being produced at the crossroads of other disciplines such as installation
, architecture
, design
, sculpture
, electronic art
, VJ (video performance artist)
and digital art
or other documentative aspects of artistic practice.
The digital video "revolution" of the 1990s has given wide access to sophisticated editing and control technology, allowing many artists to work with video and to create interactive installations based on video. Some examples of recent trends in video art include entirely digitally rendered environments created with no camera and video that responds to the movements of the viewer or other elements of the environment. The internet has also been used to allow control of video in installations from the World Wide Web or from remote locations.
Emerging in the 1970s, Bill Viola
(USA) continues as one of the world's most celebrated video artists. Matthew Barney
, the creator of the Cremaster Cycle, is another well-known American video artist. Other contemporary video artists of note include Gary Hill
(USA), Arambilet
(Dominican Republic – Spain), Fred Forest 1967 (France), Tony Oursler
, Mary Lucier
, Paul Pfeiffer, Sadie Benning
, Paul Chan
, Eve Sussman
and Miranda July
; Eija-Liisa Ahtila
(Finland), Kirill Preobrazhenskiy
(Russia), Pipilotti Rist
(Switzerland); Surekha (India);Stefano Pasquini
(Italy); Shaun Wilson
(Australia); Stan Douglas
(Canada); Douglas Gordon
(Scotland); Olga Kisseleva
(Russia); Anne-Mie van Kerckhoven
(Belgium); Martin Arnold
(Austria); Matthias Müller (Germany), Heiko Daxl
(Germany); Gillian Wearing
(UK); Stefano Cagol
(Italy); Helene Black
(Cyprus); Shirin Neshat
(Iran/USA); Aernout Mik
(Netherlands), Jordi Colomer
(Spain/France), Sergei Shutov
(Russia), and Walid Raad
(Lebanon/USA).
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....
which relies on moving pictures
Moving Pictures
Moving Pictures may refer to:In film, television and theatre:* Moving picture or film, a story conveyed with moving images* Moving Pictures , a 1990s UK programme devoted to film...
and comprises video
Video
Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...
and/or audio data. (It should not however be confused with television production or experimental film
Experimental film
Experimental film or experimental cinema is a type of cinema. Experimental film is an artistic practice relieving both of visual arts and cinema. Its origins can be found in European avant-garde movements of the twenties. Experimental cinema has built its history through the texts of theoreticians...
). Video art came into existence during the 1960s and 1970s, is still widely practiced and has given rise to the widespread use of video installation
Video installation
Video installation is a contemporary art form that combines video technology with installation art, making use of all aspects of the surrounding environment to affect the audience. Tracing its origins to the birth of video art in the 1970s, it has increased in popularity as digital video production...
s. Video art can take many forms: recordings that are broadcast
Broadcast
Broadcast or Broadcasting may refer to:* Broadcasting, the transmission of audio and video signals* Broadcast, an individual television program or radio program* Broadcast , an English electronic music band...
, viewed in galleries or other venues, or distributed as video tapes or DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
discs; sculptural installations, which may incorporate one or more television set
Television set
A television set is a device that combines a tuner, display, and speakers for the purpose of viewing television. Television sets became a popular consumer product after the Second World War, using vacuum tubes and cathode ray tube displays...
s or video monitor
Video monitor
A video monitor also called a broadcast monitor, broadcast reference monitor or just reference monitor, is a display device similar to a television set, used to monitor the output of a video-generating device, such as playout from a video server, IRD, video camera, VCR, or DVD player. It may or...
s, displaying ‘live’ or recorded images and sound; and performances in which video representations are included.
Overview
Video art is named after the video tape, which was most commonly used in the form's early years, but before that artists had already been working on film, and with changes in technology Hard DiskHard disk
A hard disk drive is a non-volatile, random access digital magnetic data storage device. It features rotating rigid platters on a motor-driven spindle within a protective enclosure. Data is magnetically read from and written to the platter by read/write heads that float on a film of air above the...
, CD-ROM
CD-ROM
A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
, DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
, and solid state
Solid state (electronics)
Solid-state electronics are those circuits or devices built entirely from solid materials and in which the electrons, or other charge carriers, are confined entirely within the solid material...
are superseding the video tape as the carrier. Despite obvious parallels and relationships, video art is not experimental film
Experimental film
Experimental film or experimental cinema is a type of cinema. Experimental film is an artistic practice relieving both of visual arts and cinema. Its origins can be found in European avant-garde movements of the twenties. Experimental cinema has built its history through the texts of theoreticians...
.
One of the key differences between video art and theatrical cinema is that video art does not necessarily rely on many of the conventions that define theatrical cinema. Video art may not employ the use of actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
s, may contain no dialogue
Dialogue
Dialogue is a literary and theatrical form consisting of a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people....
, may have no discernible narrative
Narrative
A narrative is a constructive format that describes a sequence of non-fictional or fictional events. The word derives from the Latin verb narrare, "to recount", and is related to the adjective gnarus, "knowing" or "skilled"...
or plot, or adhere to any of the other conventions that generally define motion pictures as entertainment. This distinction is important, because it delineates video art not only from cinema but also from the subcategories where those definitions may become muddy (as in the case of avant garde cinema or short films). Video art's intentions are varied, from exploring the boundaries of the medium itself (e.g., Peter Campus
Peter Campus
Peter Campus, is an American born artist, known for his pioneering interactive and single channel video work of the early 1970s, alongside an extensive body of photographic and digital video works to the present day...
, Double Vision) to rigorously attacking the viewer's expectations of video as shaped by conventional cinema (e.g., Joan Jonas
Joan Jonas
Born in 1936 in New York City, Joan Jonas is a pioneer of video and performance art and one of the most important female artists to emerge in the late 1960s and early 1970s.She began her career in New York City as a sculptor...
, Organic Honey's Vertical Roll).
History of video art
Video art is often said to have begun when Nam June PaikNam June Paik
Nam June Paik was a Korean American artist. He worked with a variety of media and is considered to be the first video artist....
used his new Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
Portapak
Portapak
A Portapak is a battery powered self-contained video tape analog recording system that can be carried by one person. Earlier television cameras were large and relatively immovable, but the Portapak made it possible to record television images while moving around...
to shoot footage of Pope Paul VI
Pope Paul VI
Paul VI , born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding Pope John XXIII, who had convened the Second Vatican Council, he decided to continue it...
's procession through New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in the autumn of 1965. That same day, across town in a Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village
Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...
cafe, Paik played the tapes and video art was born. The French artist Fred Forest
Fred Forest
Fred Forest is a French new media artist making use of video, photography, the printed press, mail, radio, television, telephone, telematics, and the internet in a wide range of installations, performances, and public interventions that explore both the ramifications and potential of media space...
has also used a Sony Portapak since 1967. This fact is sometimes disputed, however, because the first Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
Portapak
Portapak
A Portapak is a battery powered self-contained video tape analog recording system that can be carried by one person. Earlier television cameras were large and relatively immovable, but the Portapak made it possible to record television images while moving around...
, the Videorover did not become commercially available until 1967 (Fred Forest does not contradict this, saying it was provided to him by the manufacturers) and that Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol
Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...
is credited with showing underground video art mere weeks before Paik's papal procession screening. Fred Forest does however stipulate on his website that in 1959 Wolf Vostell
Wolf Vostell
Wolf Vostell was a German painter, sculptor, noise music maker and Happening artist of the second half of the 20th century. Wolf Vostell is considered one of the pioneers of video art, environment-sculptures, Happenings and the Fluxus Movement...
incorporated a television set into one of his works, "Deutscher Ausblick" 1959, which is part of the collection of the Berlinische Galerie
Berlinische Galerie
The Berlinische Galerie is a museum of modern art, photography and architecture in Berlin. It is located in Kreuzberg, on Alte Jakobstraße, not far from the Jewish Museum.-History:...
possibly the first work of art with television. In 1963 Vostell exhibited his art environment
Natural environment
The natural environment encompasses all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth or some region thereof. It is an environment that encompasses the interaction of all living species....
"6 TV de-coll/age" at the Smolin Gallery in New York. This work is part of the Museo Reina Sofia collection in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
.
Prior to the introduction of the Sony Portapak, "moving image" technology was only available to the consumer (or the artist for that matter) by way of eight or sixteen millimeter film, but did not provide the instant playback that video tape technologies offered. Consequently, many artists found video more appealing than film, even more so when the greater accessibility was coupled with technologies which could edit or modify the video image.
The two examples mentioned above both made use of "low tech tricks" to produce seminal video art works. Peter Campus
Peter Campus
Peter Campus, is an American born artist, known for his pioneering interactive and single channel video work of the early 1970s, alongside an extensive body of photographic and digital video works to the present day...
' Double Vision combined the video signals from two Sony Portapaks through an electronic mixer, resulting in a distorted and radically dissonant image. Jonas
Joan Jonas
Born in 1936 in New York City, Joan Jonas is a pioneer of video and performance art and one of the most important female artists to emerge in the late 1960s and early 1970s.She began her career in New York City as a sculptor...
' Organic Honey's Vertical Roll involved recording previously recorded material as it was played back on a television — with the vertical hold setting intentionally in error.
The first multi-channel video art (using several monitors or screens) was Wipe Cycle by Ira Schneider
Ira Schneider
Ira Schneider is a video artist. He was born in New York, NY in 1939, graduated from Brown University as Bachelor of Arts in 1960 and from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in Psychology as Magister of Arts in 1964. He has been living and working in Berlin since 1993.-Career:He started shooting...
and Frank Gillette. An installation of nine television screens, Wipe Cycle for the first time combined live images of gallery visitors, found footage from commercial television, and shots from pre-recorded tapes. The material was alternated from one monitor to the next in an elaborate choreography.
At the San Jose State TV studios in 1970, Willoughby Sharp
Willoughby Sharp
Willoughby Sharp was an internationally known artist, independent curator, independent publisher, gallerist, teacher, author, and telecom activist. In 1968, Sharp co-founded Avalanche magazine with writer/filmmaker Liza Béar...
began the “Videoviews” series of videotaped dialogues with artists. The “Videoviews” series consists of Sharps’ dialogues with Bruce Nauman
Bruce Nauman
Bruce Nauman is a contemporary American artist. His practice spans a broad range of media including sculpture, photography, neon, video, drawing, printmaking, and performance. Nauman lives in Galisteo, New Mexico....
(1970), Joseph Beuys
Joseph Beuys
Joseph Beuys was a German performance artist, sculptor, installation artist, graphic artist, art theorist and pedagogue of art.His extensive work is grounded in concepts of humanism, social philosophy and anthroposophy; it culminates in his "extended definition of art" and the idea of social...
(1972), Vito Acconci
Vito Acconci
Vito Hannibal Acconci is a Bronx, New York-born, Brooklyn-based designer, landscape architect, performance and installation artist.-Education:...
(1973), Chris Burden
Chris Burden
Christopher "Chris" Burden is an American artist working in performance, sculpture, and installation art.-Education:Burden studied for his B.A...
(1973), Lowell Darling (1974), and Dennis Oppenheim (1974). Also in 1970, Sharp curated “Body Works,” an exhibition of video works by Vito Acconci
Vito Acconci
Vito Hannibal Acconci is a Bronx, New York-born, Brooklyn-based designer, landscape architect, performance and installation artist.-Education:...
, Terry Fox
Terry Fox (artist)
Terry Fox was an American video, conceptual, sound, and performance artist.-Biography:Fox was born in Seattle, Washington. At the age of seventeen, he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease, later referencing the cycles of illness and wellness in several artworks...
, Richard Serra
Richard Serra
Richard Serra is an American minimalist sculptor and video artist known for working with large-scale assemblies of sheet metal. Serra was involved in the Process Art Movement.-Early life and education:...
, Keith Sonnier
Keith Sonnier
Keith Sonnier is a Postminimalist, performance, video and light artist. Sonnier was one of the first artists to use light in sculpture in the 1960s, and has been one of the most successful with this technique...
, Dennis Oppenheim and William Wegman
William Wegman (photographer)
William Wegman is an artist best known for creating series of compositions involving dogs, primarily his own Weimaraners in various costumes and poses.-Life and career:...
which was presented at Tom Marioni's Museum of Conceptual Art, San Francisco, California.
Prominent video artists
Many of the early prominent video artists were those involved with concurrent movements in conceptual art, performance, and experimental film. These include Americans Vito AcconciVito Acconci
Vito Hannibal Acconci is a Bronx, New York-born, Brooklyn-based designer, landscape architect, performance and installation artist.-Education:...
, John Baldessari
John Baldessari
John Anthony Baldessari is an American conceptual artist known for his work featuring found photography and appropriated images. He lives and works in Santa Monica and Venice, California...
, Peter Campus
Peter Campus
Peter Campus, is an American born artist, known for his pioneering interactive and single channel video work of the early 1970s, alongside an extensive body of photographic and digital video works to the present day...
, Doris Totten Chase
Doris Totten Chase
Doris Totten Chase was a painter, teacher, and sculptor, but is best remembered for pioneering in the production of key works in the history of video art. She was a member of the Northwest School .-Sensual Light:...
, Norman Cowie
Norman Cowie
Norman Cowie is a video artist and writer in Los Angeles.Some of his productions include: Signal to Noise: Life with Television , The Third Wave, Miss Menu's Interactive World, Poison Ivy , Mr...
, Dan Graham
Dan Graham
Dan Graham , is a conceptual artist now working out of New York City. He is an influential figure in the field of contemporary art, both a practitioner of conceptual art and an art critic and theorist. His art career began in 1964 when he moved to New York and opened the John Daniels Gallery....
, Joan Jonas
Joan Jonas
Born in 1936 in New York City, Joan Jonas is a pioneer of video and performance art and one of the most important female artists to emerge in the late 1960s and early 1970s.She began her career in New York City as a sculptor...
, Bruce Nauman
Bruce Nauman
Bruce Nauman is a contemporary American artist. His practice spans a broad range of media including sculpture, photography, neon, video, drawing, printmaking, and performance. Nauman lives in Galisteo, New Mexico....
, Nam June Paik
Nam June Paik
Nam June Paik was a Korean American artist. He worked with a variety of media and is considered to be the first video artist....
, Martha Rosler
Martha Rosler
Martha Rosler is an American artist. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, where she now lives. She graduated from Brooklyn College and the University of California, San Diego . Rosler works in video, photo-text, installation, and performance, as well as writing about art and culture...
, William Wegman
William Wegman (photographer)
William Wegman is an artist best known for creating series of compositions involving dogs, primarily his own Weimaraners in various costumes and poses.-Life and career:...
, and many others. There were also those such as Steina and Woody Vasulka
Steina and Woody Vasulka
Steina Vasulka and Woody Vasulka are pioneers of video art, having practiced in the genre since its early days in the late 1960s....
who were interested in the formal qualities of video and employed video synthesizers to create abstract works.
Notable pioneering video artists also emerged more or less simultaneously in Europe and elsewhere with work by Pascal Auger (France), Domingo Sarrey
Domingo Sarrey
Domingo Sarrey is a visual artist and video artist and a European video art pioneer.His first video art piece was generated in the Computing Centre of Madrid Complutense University in 1968, while studying physics, although he had already carried out other cinematic creations in 8 mm...
(Spain), Juan Downey
Juan Downey
- Biography :Juan Downey was born in Santiago, Chile. His father David Downey V. was a distinguished architect in Chile and following in his father’s footsteps Juan Downey studied and completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in architecture at the Pontificia Universidad Católica of Chile...
(Chile), Wolf Vostell
Wolf Vostell
Wolf Vostell was a German painter, sculptor, noise music maker and Happening artist of the second half of the 20th century. Wolf Vostell is considered one of the pioneers of video art, environment-sculptures, Happenings and the Fluxus Movement...
(Germany), Slobodan Pajic
Slobodan Pajic
Slobodan Pajic is a visual artist who uses a variety of media in his plastic research. He began very early to work with new technologies to create unique abstract and graphic forms, employing a series of chance techniques at the limits of technology, which he transforms into video films, graphics,...
(France), Dieter Froese (Germany), Wojciech Bruszewski (Poland), Wolf Kahlen
Wolf Kahlen
Wolf Kahlen is a German video artist who has been exhibiting since the 1960s. Since 1982 he has been a professor of intermedia art at the Technical University in Berlin.-External links:*...
(Germany), Peter Weibel
Peter Weibel
Peter Weibel is an artist, curator and theoretician.Raised in Upper Austria he started to study French and cinematography in Paris...
(Austria), David Hall
David Hall (video artist)
David Hall is a British video artist, whose pioneering work did much to establish video as an art form.-Life and work:David Hall attended Leicester College of Art and the Royal College of Art. During the 1960s he worked as a sculptor and showed his work internationally...
(UK), Paul Wong (Artist)
Paul Wong (artist)
Paul Wong, is a Canadian multimedia artist. An award-winning artist, curator, and organizer of public interventions since the mid-1970s, Wong is known for his engagement with issues of race, sex, and death...
(Canada), Lisa Steele
Lisa Steele
Lisa Steele is a Canadian artist, a pioneer in video art, educator, curator and co-founder of V tape in Toronto. Born in the United States, Steele moved to Canada in 1968 and is now a Canadian citizen...
(Canada), Rodney Werden (Canada), Colin Campbell
Colin Campbell (artist)
Colin Campbell was a pioneer Canadian video artist.-Life:Colin Campbell was born in Reston, Manitoba, 1942. Based in Toronto since 1973, Campbell produced over 45 tapes. He received his BFA from the University of Manitoba and his MFA from Claremont Graduate School, California...
(Canada), Miroslaw Rogala
Miroslaw Rogala
Miroslaw Rogala is a Polish-American video artist and interactive artist, known for performances and installations that challenge man's relationship to nature and to his fellow man...
(Poland), Danny Matthys
Danny Matthys
Danny Matthys is a Flemish - Belgian visual artist, which was originally known as conceptual artist of international reputation...
, Chantal Akerman
Chantal Akerman
Chantal Anne Akerman is a Belgian film director, artist, and professor of film at the European Graduate School. Akerman's best-known film, Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles , exemplifies a dedication to the ellipses of conventional narrative cinema.-Early life:Akerman was born to...
(Belgium) Krishna Murti (Indonesia), Ray Langenbach (USA/Malaysia), Emil Goh (Malaysia/Australia), Nadiah Bamadhaj (Malaysia/Indonesia), Wong Hoy Cheong, Liew Kungyu, Hasnul J Saidon, Masnoor Ramli, Kamal Sabran, Roopesh Sitharan, Hayati Mokhtar, Goh Lee Kwang, Kok Siew Wai (Malaysia), Akram Zaatari (Lebanon), Mireille Astore
Mireille Astore
Mireille Astore is an artist and a writer. She left Beirut during the Lebanese civil war in 1975 to live in Melbourne, Australia. She studied the Sciences at the University of Melbourne where she graduated before becoming a full-time artist and writer...
(Lebanon/Australia) and others.
Video art today
Although it continues to be produced, it is represented by two varieties: single-channel and installation. Single-channel works are much closer to the conventional idea of television: a video is screened, projected or shown as a single image, Installation works involve either an environment, several distinct pieces of video presented separately, or any combination of video with traditional media such as sculpture. Installation video is the most common form of video art today. Sometimes it is combined with other media and is often subsumed by the greater whole of an installationInstallation art
Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...
or performance
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
. Contemporary contributions are being produced at the crossroads of other disciplines such as installation
Installation art
Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...
, architecture
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
, design
Design
Design as a noun informally refers to a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system while “to design” refers to making this plan...
, sculpture
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
, electronic art
Electronic art
Electronic art is a form of art that makes use of electronic media or, more broadly, refers to technology and/or electronic media. It is related to information art, new media art, video art, digital art, interactive art, internet art, and electronic music...
, VJ (video performance artist)
VJ (video performance artist)
VJing is a broad designation for realtime visual performance. Characteristics of VJing are the creation or manipulation of imagery in realtime through technological mediation and for an audience, in synchronization to music. VJing often takes place at events such as concerts, nightclubs, music...
and digital art
Digital art
Digital art is a general term for a range of artistic works and practices that use digital technology as an essential part of the creative and/or presentation process...
or other documentative aspects of artistic practice.
The digital video "revolution" of the 1990s has given wide access to sophisticated editing and control technology, allowing many artists to work with video and to create interactive installations based on video. Some examples of recent trends in video art include entirely digitally rendered environments created with no camera and video that responds to the movements of the viewer or other elements of the environment. The internet has also been used to allow control of video in installations from the World Wide Web or from remote locations.
Emerging in the 1970s, Bill Viola
Bill Viola
Bill Viola is a contemporary video artist. He is considered a leading figure in the generation of artists whose artistic expression depends upon electronic, sound, and image technology in New Media...
(USA) continues as one of the world's most celebrated video artists. Matthew Barney
Matthew Barney
Matthew Barney is an American artist who works in sculpture, photography, drawing and film. His early works were sculptural installations combined with performance and video...
, the creator of the Cremaster Cycle, is another well-known American video artist. Other contemporary video artists of note include Gary Hill
Gary Hill
Gary Hill is an American artist who lives and works in Seattle, Washington.One of the pioneers of video art, Gary Hill has exhibited his video and video installations worldwide . He is represented by Donald Young Gallery of Chicago.An anthology on the work of Gary Hill by Robert C...
(USA), Arambilet
Arambilet
Angel Luis Arambilet Alvarez [ARAMBILET] is a writer, screenplayer, painter, graphic artist, filmmaker and systems engineer....
(Dominican Republic – Spain), Fred Forest 1967 (France), Tony Oursler
Tony Oursler
Tony Oursler is a multimedia and installation artist.- Tapes, Installations: 1977-1989:Tony Oursler is known for his fractured-narrative handmade video tapes including The Loner, 1980 and EVOL 1984. These works involve elaborate sound tracks, painted sets, stop-action animation and optical special...
, Mary Lucier
Mary Lucier
Mary Lucier is an American artist who has worked in many mediums including sculpture, photography, and performance. Concentrating primarily on video and installation since 1973, she has produced numerous multiple- and single-channel pieces...
, Paul Pfeiffer, Sadie Benning
Sadie Benning
Sadie Benning is a video maker, visual artist, and musician.She first made her name in the early 1990s as a teenage video maker from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Raised by her mother in inner-city Milwaukee, Benning left school at age 16, primarily due to the homophobia she experienced...
, Paul Chan
Paul Chan
Paul Chan Mo Po, MH, JP is the member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong . He is an accountant and the former President of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants . He holds a BBA and a MBA degree from the Chinese University of Hong Kong...
, Eve Sussman
Eve Sussman
Eve Sussman is a British-born American artist. She was educated at Robert College of Istanbul, University of Canterbury and Bennington College. She resides in Brooklyn, New York, where her company, the Rufus Corporation is based; however, she continuously visits cultural centers around the world,...
and Miranda July
Miranda July
Miranda July is a performing artist, writer, actress and film director. Born Miranda Jennifer Grossinger, she works under the surname of "July," which can be traced to a character from a "girlzine" Miranda created with high school friend Johanna Fateman, called Snarla.- Background :Miranda...
; Eija-Liisa Ahtila
Eija-Liisa Ahtila
Eija-Liisa Ahtila is a video artist and photographer. She lives and works in Helsinki.In 1998 Eija-Liisa Ahtila participated in the second edition of Manifesta. She was the winner of the inaugural Vincent Award in 2000. In 2002 she had a solo show at Tate Modern, and in 2006 her multi-screen video...
(Finland), Kirill Preobrazhenskiy
Kirill Preobrazhenskiy
Kirill Preobrazhenskiy is an Russian artist, participant of Documenta 12. Works mainly with video and installations....
(Russia), Pipilotti Rist
Pipilotti Rist
Elisabeth Charlotte "Pipilotti" Rist , is a visual artist who works with video, film, and moving images which are often displayed as projections.-Life and career:...
(Switzerland); Surekha (India);Stefano Pasquini
Stefano Pasquini
Stefano Pasquini, artist and writer. Received his MFA from the Academy of Fine Arts of Bologna in 1991, then immediately left his country for Dublin, briefly, then London for seven years, and New York. He is currently based in Bologna, where he works...
(Italy); Shaun Wilson
Shaun Wilson
Shaun Wilson is an Australian artist, film maker, academic and curator working with themes of memory, place and scale through painting, miniatures and video art...
(Australia); Stan Douglas
Stan Douglas
Stan Douglas is an artist based in Vancouver, British Columbia. He has exhibited internationally, including Documenta IX, 1992, Documenta X, 1997, Documenta XI, 2002 and the Venice Biennale in 1990, 2001 and 2005...
(Canada); Douglas Gordon
Douglas Gordon
Douglas Gordon is a Scottish artist; he won the Turner Prize in 1996 and the following year he represented Britain at the Venice Biennale...
(Scotland); Olga Kisseleva
Olga Kisseleva
Olga Kisseleva is a Russian artist. Olga Kisseleva works mainly in installation, science and media art. Her work employs various media, including video, immersive virtual reality, the Web, wireless technology, performance, large-scale art installations and interactive exhibitions.- Biography :As...
(Russia); Anne-Mie van Kerckhoven
Anne-Mie van Kerckhoven
Anne-Mie van Kerckhoven is a Belgian artist whose work involves painting, drawing, computer art and video art.-Biography:Anne-Mie van Kerckhoven was born in Antwerpen and lives in Antwerpen and Berlin....
(Belgium); Martin Arnold
Martin Arnold
Martin Arnold is an experimental filmmaker known for his obsessive reworkings of found footage. He is also a founding member of the Austrian film distributor Sixpack Film. Arnold studied psychology and art history at the University of Vienna...
(Austria); Matthias Müller (Germany), Heiko Daxl
Heiko Daxl
Heiko Daxl is a German media artist, exhibition curator and design / art collector. He lives and works in Berlin and Zagreb.- Life :...
(Germany); Gillian Wearing
Gillian Wearing
Gillian Wearing OBE RA is an English conceptual artist, one of the YBAs, and winner of the annual British fine arts award, The Turner Prize, in 1997. On 11 December 2007, Wearing was elected as lifetime member of the Royal Academy of Arts in London....
(UK); Stefano Cagol
Stefano Cagol
Stefano Cagol is an Italian contemporary artist living in Italy, Brussels and New York City. He works with video, photography and installation. The images in his photographic and video works are often turned upside down.-Life:...
(Italy); Helene Black
Helene Black
Helene Black is a Cypriot artist and curator working with various media. She has been exhibited in museums and contemporary art centers in Cyprus, Argentina, France, the UK, US, Japan, Greece, Switzerland, Denmark, Russia and Australia.-Overview:...
(Cyprus); Shirin Neshat
Shirin Neshat
Shirin Neshat شیرین نشاط is an Iranian visual artist who lives in New York. She is known primarily for her work in film, video and photography.-Background:Neshat's parents were upper middle-class...
(Iran/USA); Aernout Mik
Aernout Mik
Aernout Mik is a Dutch artist, internationally known for his installations and films.- Biografie :Mik spent his childhood in Groningen and studied there from 1983 to 1988 at the Academie Minerva. He also had lessons from Fie Werkman...
(Netherlands), Jordi Colomer
Jordi Colomer
Jordi Colomer is a Spanish artist. He lives and works in Paris and Barcelona. Colomer has worked in the media of sculpture, video, and installation art.-Biography:...
(Spain/France), Sergei Shutov
Sergei Shutov
Sergei Alekseyevich Shutov is a Russian artist active in painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, and audio- and video installations. He lives and works in Moscow....
(Russia), and Walid Raad
Walid Raad
Walid Raad is a contemporary media artist. The Atlas Group is a fictional collective, the work of which is produced by Walid Raad....
(Lebanon/USA).
List of video art organizations
- VideoArt.dk, International Video Art Network Denmark
- Electronic Arts Intermix, New York, NY
- Videoart.net, New York, NY
- V tape, Toronto, Canada
- Vidéographe, Montréal, Canada
- Video Data BankVideo Data BankVideo Data Bank is an international video art distribution organization and a resource in the United States for videos by and about contemporary artists...
, Chicago, IL. - The Experimental Television CenterExperimental Television CenterThe Experimental Television Center is a one of a kind video art production studio in Owego, New York. Since its foundation in 1971, the center has been instrumental to the field of video art by providing artists with the tools of video art production through artist residencies and grants...
, New York - LA FreewavesLA FreewavesLA Freewaves is a Los Angeles based nonprofit organization that advocates for and exhibits uncensored independent new media from around the world. Media art works include experimental video and film , DVDs, websites, installations, and video billboards...
is an experimental media art festival with video art, shorts and animation; exhibitions are in Los Angeles and online. - Lumen EclipseLumen EclipseLumen Eclipse is a public media arts gallery located in Harvard Square, Cambridge, Massachusetts, founded to expand public awareness of local, national, and international artists. The gallery is situated on two mounted displays on the Tourism Information Kiosk, just outside the Harvard Square MBTA...
- Harvard Square, MA - LUXLUXLUX is the principal centre for the promotion and distribution of experimental film and video works in the UK.It has one of the largest collections of experimental film and video art and houses works of over 1000 artists...
, London, England - London Video ArtsLondon Video ArtsLondon Video Arts was founded for the promotion, distribution and exhibition of video art.By 1976 video art had emerged as a viable time-based art form, which was beginning to establish its own aesthetic identity and theoretical discourse distinct from film.Following the influential Video Show at...
, London, England - n.b.k.Videoforum, Berlin, Germany
- Perpetual art machinePerpetual art machinePerpetual Art Machine was founded in New York in January 2006 by artists Chris Borkowski, Aaron M. Miller, Raphaele Shirley and Lee Wells in collaboration with Alexis Hubshman, president of the Scope art fair...
, New York - Raindance FoundationRaindance FoundationRaindance Foundation was begun in 1969 by Frank Gillette, Michael Shamberg, Ira Schneider and Paul Ryan among others. Raindance was a self-described "countercultural think-tank" that embraced video as an alternative form of cultural communication....
, New York - Impakt FestivalImpakt FestivalThe Impakt Festival is a year-round grouping of multimedia events for the audiovisual arts founded in 1988 in the city of Utrecht, The Netherlands. It showcases films, video art, performances, music, conferences and other special events for artists mainly from The Netherlands.In 2009 the festival...
, Utrecht - MADATAC Festival, Madrid, Spain
- Netherlands Media Art Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Souvenirs from EarthSouvenirs from EarthSouvenirs from earth is an independent TV station broadcasting a 24/7 program of art films and video art. Close to the ideas of Nam June Paik and Brian Eno, the concept was first presented at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in 1998 and at the Venice Biennale in 1999. The program finally went on...
, Art TV Station on European Cable Networks (Paris, Cologne) - Malaysian Video Art Collection, Muzium & Galeri Tuanku Fauziah (MGTF), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM)
- EMACM (Experimental Musicians & Artist Co-operative,Malaysia), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
- SicKL (Studio in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur), Malaysia
- Video Olympic, Devon, UK
- OPTICA Festival, Gijón, Spain
- Tresorg Imagenacion, Murcia, Spain
- Video Art Festival Miden, Kalamata, Greece
See also
- List of video artists
- Video synthesizerVideo synthesizerA Video Synthesizer is a device that electronically creates a video signal.A video synthesizer is able to generate a variety of visual material without camera input through the use of internal video pattern generators, as seen in the stillframes of motion sequences shown above. It can also accept...
- Experimental filmExperimental filmExperimental film or experimental cinema is a type of cinema. Experimental film is an artistic practice relieving both of visual arts and cinema. Its origins can be found in European avant-garde movements of the twenties. Experimental cinema has built its history through the texts of theoreticians...
- INFERMENTALINFERMENTALInfermental was the first international magazine published solely on videocassettes. The concept was conceived the Hungarian filmmaker Gábor Bódy in 1980. The name is a combination of the words international, ferment, and experimental....
- New media artNew media artNew media art is a genre that encompasses artworks created with new media technologies, including digital art, computer graphics, computer animation, virtual art, Internet art, interactive art, computer robotics, and art as biotechnology...
- Interactive film
- Optical feedbackOptical feedbackOptical feedback is the optical equivalent of acoustic feedback. A simple example is the feedback that occurs when a loop exists between an optical input, e.g., a video camera, and an optical output, e.g., a television screen or monitor...
- Video jockey
- VJ (video performance artist)VJ (video performance artist)VJing is a broad designation for realtime visual performance. Characteristics of VJing are the creation or manipulation of imagery in realtime through technological mediation and for an audience, in synchronization to music. VJing often takes place at events such as concerts, nightclubs, music...
- Music visualizationMusic visualizationMusic visualization, a feature found in electronic music visualizers and media player software, generates animated imagery based on a piece of music...
- Scratch VideoScratch VideoScratch video was a British video art movement that emerged in the early-mid 1980s. It was characterised by the use of found footage, fast-cutting and multi-layered rhythms...
- Visual MusicVisual musicVisual music, sometimes called "colour music," refers to the use of musical structures in visual imagery, which can also include silent films or silent Lumia work. It also refers to methods or devices which can translate sounds or music into a related visual presentation...
- Real-time computer graphicsReal-time computer graphicsReal-time computer graphics is the subfield of computer graphics focused on producing and analyzing images in real time. The term is most often used in reference to interactive 3D computer graphics, typically using a GPU, with video games the most noticeable users...
- Video poetryVideo poetryVideo poetry is poetry in video form. It is also known as videopoetry, video-visual poetry, poetronica, poetry video, media poetry, or Cin-Poetry depending on the length and content of the video work and the techniques employed Video poetry is poetry in video form. It is also known as videopoetry,...
- Video sculptureVideo sculptureVideo sculptures, a type of video installation, involve one or more video screens that spectators move among or stand in front of. Video sculptures formed of more than one screen may broadcast a single program or may simultaneously broadcast different interconnected sequences on several channels....
- ArtmediaArtmediaArtmedia, Seminar and Laboratory of the Aesthetics of Media and Communication, was one of the first scientific projects concerning the relationship between art, technology, philosophy and aesthetics. It was founded in 1985 at the University of Salerno...
Further reading
- Videography: Video Media as Art and Culture by Sean Cubitt (MacMillan, 1993).
- A History of Experimental Film and Video by AL Rees (British Film Institute, 1999).
- New Media in Late 20th-Century Art by Michael RushMichael RushMichael Rush was Henry and Lois Foster Director of the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University. What's less known is his background as an actor and writer for the New Haven Register. Mr. Rush has doctorates in theology and psychology from Harvard University.Currently, Dr. Rush is Director of the...
(Thames & Hudson, 1999). - Mirror Machine: Video and Identity, edited by Janine Marchessault (Toronto: YYZ Books, 1995).
- Video Culture: A Critical Investigation, edited by John G. Hanhardt (Visual Studies Workshop Press, 1986).
- Video Art: A Guided Tour by Catherine Elwes (I.B. Tauris, 2004).
- A History of Video Art by Chris Meigh-Andrews (Berg, 2006)
- Diverse Practices: A Critical Reader on British Video Art edited by Julia Knight (University of Luton/Arts Council England, 1996)
- ARTFORUMArtforumArtforum is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art.-Publication:The magazine is published ten times a year, September through May, along with an annual summer issue...
FEB 1993 "Travels In The New Flesh" by Howard HamptonHoward HamptonHoward George Hampton, MPP is a Canadian lawyer and politician. He has served in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, Canada, since 1987 as the Member of Provincial Parliament from the northern riding of Kenora—Rainy River. A member of the Ontario New Democratic Party, he was also the party's...
(Printed by ARTFORUM INTERNATIONALArtforumArtforum is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art.-Publication:The magazine is published ten times a year, September through May, along with an annual summer issue...
1993) - Resolutions: Contemporary Video Practices, (eds. Renov, Michael & Erika Suderburg) (London, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press,1996).
- Expanded CinemaExpanded CinemaExpanded Cinema by Gene Youngblood , the first book to consider video as an art form, was influential in establishing the field of media arts. In the book he argues that a new, expanded cinema is required for a new consciousness...
by Gene YoungbloodGene YoungbloodGene Youngblood is a theorist of media arts and politics, and a respected scholar in the history and theory of alternative cinemas. His Expanded Cinema , the first book to consider video as an art form, was influential in establishing the field of media arts as a recognized artistic and scholarly...
(New York: E.P. Dutton & Company, 1970). - The Problematic of Video Art in the Museum 1968-1990 by Cyrus Manasseh (Cambria Press, 2009).
- "First Electronic Art Show" by (Niranjan Rajah & Hasnul J Saidon) (National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, 1997)
- "Relocations - The Electronic Art of Niranjan Rajah & Hasnul J Saidon" by (Roopesh Sitharan) (Muzium & Galeri Tuanku Fauziah & Artspace Gallery, 2007)
External links
- OPTICA (The Visual Way of Life)
- Videoartes (Videoart Social Community)
- featuring over 800 links to video artists' sites, video art distributors, video festivals, information archives, video art streaming sites, and more
- Thierry Kuntzel Projections and testimonies in honor of the artist.