Survey of Film/Television/Video/Still Photography/Electronic Music Activity at State University of New York Campuses

Survey of Film/Television/Video/Still Photography/Electronic Music Activities at State University of New York Campuses

• Introduction to Programs in Electronic Arts in the State University System, 1977
• Activities of the University-wide Committee on the Arts Albany, New York
• Film and Video Activities 1977
• Television Activities 1977
• Electronic Music Activities 1977
• The Electronic Image A Statewide Tour 1979-1980

Introduction to Programs in Electronic Arts in the State University System, 1977

Arts-Oriented Departments and Programs in Film, Video, Photography and Electronic Music at State
University of New York Campuses

In the areas of film, video, photography and electronic music, a number of arts-oriented departments and programs in the State University of New York system offer a variety of curricula models.
For film study, there are presently: one Department of Cinema (University Center at Binghamton), one Program in Media Study (University Center at Buffalo), and three Programs in Film Study (University Center at Albany, and University Colleges at Cortland and Purchase) with a fourth Film Program in the preparatory stages at University College at Brockport. Among the two-year colleges, Community College of the Finger Lakes has offered a Concentration in Cinema Studies (although this program has recently been discontinued), and Mohawk Valley Community College is considering an AA degree-granting Option in Photography and Cinematography.
Although there are no departments or programs dedicated to video, Center for Media Study at University Center at Buffalo offers video as a strong area of concentration, and the Department of Cinema at University Center at Binghamton has recently included video in its activities.
Programs concentrating primarily on photography as a means of artistic expression have been developed at University Centers at Albany, Buffalo and Stony Brook, University Colleges at New Paltz, Oswego and Potsdam and College of Ceramics at Alfred University, in addition to a graduate Program in Photographic Studies, also at University Center at Buffalo, which is offered through the Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester.
Electronic music is the least developed, in terms of academic curricula, of the arts under consideration. There is, however, a formal Program at University Center at Albany and an informal program offering no major but a concentration for graduate students at University Center at Stony Brook.

- Survey of Film/Television/Video/Still Photography/Electronic Music Activity at State University of New York Campuses. John Minkowsky. 1977

Activities of the University-wide Committee on the Arts, Albany, New York
The University-wide Committee
Patricia Kerr Ross is Associate for the Arts in the SUNY system, and Director of the University-wide Committee on the Arts, a group of about twenty administrators, faculty and students, all with special interests and competencies in the various arts, from among the seventy two campuses in the SUNY system. The Director holds monthly meetings with the Committee and plans University-wide activities such as festivals, competitions, conferences and symposia; the appearances of touring companies, individual artists and lecturers both from outside and from within the system; and planning and policy suggestions leading to the growth and excellence of the arts. The Committee does not concern itself with the academic programs of the departments at individual campus units, but plays a coordinating role for joint efforts involving the above activities.

Film and Video Activities
University-wide Film Symposium April 29-30 1972
The Committee sponsored a University-wide Film Symposium at the Center at Binghamton on April 29-30 1972. The first day scheduled the screening and discussion of films by independent film artists Stan Brakhage, Ernie Gehr, Ken Jacobs, Larry Gottheim and Richard Leacock, followed by a preview of a feature film by Nicholas Ray, then in residence at Binghamton. On the next day, art critic Lawrence Alloway of the Stonybrook Center lectured on "The Commercial Film" and there was a Panel Discussion of "The Role of Film in the University" by Gerald O'Grady, Center at Buffalo, Richard Leacock of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ken Jacobs and Larry Gottheim, Center at Binghamton and Ed Emshwiller, independent filmmaker.

Seminar on Teaching Making December 14, 1973.
The Committee joined the Center for Media Study of the Center at Buffalo to sponsor a Seminar on Teaching Making on December 14, 1973.

Gerald O'Grady, who arranged the Seminar, wrote: "The seminar's simple terms of order, introductory and advanced work in film and video workshops, rounded out by some perspectives by incongruity, to echo Kenneth Burke doubts, thoughts - reflections, visions and questions - are designed not to set constraints, but to release varieties, to echo David Riesman. It is a some-ary seminar, not a summary conference. We have invited the field's leading academic practitioners to Buffalo, not in search of a model curriculum or a pilot program, but simply to give their ideas resonance and currency among each other and a small body of those directly concerned with nourishing the arts. The intent is to provide an intellectual environment in which those who care deeply about these problems can open their thinking to interaction, expansion, and refinement, as well as to scrutiny, question and criticism."

Presentations:
Stan Brakhage - Art Institute, Chicago and University of Colorado, Boulder "Some Doubts About the Venture"
Hollis Frampton - State University of New York at Buffalo "Some Thoughts on Teaching Making"
Discussion
Papers: Introductory Work
Larry Gottheim - State University of New York at Binghamton;
Standish Lawder - Yale University;
Gunvor Nelson - San Francisco Institute of the Arts;
Tony Conrad - Antioch College
Critical Summary and Overview by:
Willard Van Dyke - State University of New York, College at Purchase; Director, Department of Film, Museum of Modern Art
Discussion
Papers: Advanced Work
Richard Leacock - Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Ken Jacobs - State University of New York at Binghamton;
Robert Gardner - Harvard University;
Paul Sharits State University of New York at Buffalo
Critical Summary and Overview by:
Peter Kubelka - Visiting Professor, State University of New York at Binghamton; Director Oesterreichisches Filmmuseum, Vienna
Discussion
Vladimir Petric - Harvard University; formerly at Academy of Radio, Film, Television, and Theater, Belgrade "Some Reflections of a European"
Gerald O'Grady - State University of New York at Buffalo; Director, Media Study Inc. "Some Visions Toward a Curriculum"
Discussion
Papers: Video Workshops
Woody and Steina Vasulka - Media Study Inc., Buffalo;
Walter Wright York University, Toronto;
William Etra New York University;
Scott Bartlett - formerly at Columbia University, New York and at San Francisco State College;
Stan Vanderbeek University of South Florida
Critical Summary and Overview by:
Ed Emshwiller - Guggenheim Fellow in Film; Video Artist in Residence at the Television Laboratory, Channel 13, New York
James Blue - Rice University "Some Questions for the Independents"
Discussion

University-Wide Celebration of the Arts April 26-29, 1974
The University-Wide Celebration of the Arts was held at the College at Fredonia on April 26-29, 1974. For that event, the Committee commissioned new film works by four of its own artists, Ken Jacobs and Larry Gottheim of the Center at Binghamton and Hollis Frampton and Paul Sharits of the Center at Buffalo. There were also screenings of films by Irving Kriesberg of Empire State College and Willard Van Dyke of the College at Purchase, video installations by Steina and Woody Vasulka of the Center at Buffalo and Ralph Hocking of the Center at Binghamton, and student workshops in film and video conducted by all of the artists mentioned.

The Moving Image/The Maker
In the fall of 1974, the Committee launched a new year-long program called The Moving Image/The Maker. Noted documentary filmmaker Donn Alan Pennebaker was invited to screen and discuss his own works at ten campuses during the year and to act, through his presence on the campuses, as a consultant to students, faculty, arts administrators, and educational communications centers' staffs on issues relating to film and video. The purpose of the program is to make available excellent films and videotapes not generally projected or broadcasted under commercial circumstances, and therefore too seldom seen by campus and community audiences. The intention of having the artist present at the screenings was to create an informed context for the viewing of the works. In 1975-76, Hilary Harris was the invited filmmaker and in 1976-77, the program continues with Nancy Baker, Ellen Hovde, Barbara Kopple, Mary Lampson, Barbara Margolis and Muffie Meyer.

The Moving Image/New York City
A related program, The Moving Image/New York City, was started in the spring of 1976. About 200 students and faculty from SUNY campuses visited New York City on April 1-3 for a special three-day program in film and video under the guidance of Jonas Mekas. The purposes of this program are to introduce students to a wide range of current modes of film and video making through visits to artists' studios and to centers of film and video activity, and, above all, to bring students into contact with the artists themselves. Students visited the private studios of filmmakers Nancy Graves and Ken Jacobs; met Ed Emshwiller at The Television Laboratory at Channel 13, WNET; saw a varied program of videotapes selected by Shigeko Kubota, video artist and Video Curator at Anthology Film Archives; saw and discussed films with Claudia Weill, Joan Jonas and Barry Gerson; and attended other screenings at the Whitney Museum, Film Forum, Anthology Film Archives, the Millenium Film Workshop, the Collective for Living Cinema, and the Museum of Modern Art. The program will be offered twice in the spring of 1977. Supporting funds have been provided by the Creative Artists Public Service Program of New York State and by the Film Bureau of the New York State Council on the Arts.

In 1976-77, the Committee has plans to increase the distribution of film and videotapes by independent artists to various campuses and their communities throughout New York State by purchasing and loaning a collection of films selected for this purpose by a special advisory committee, and to increase the accessibility of films made at SUNY campuses to the other campuses throughout the state by sponsoring a university-wide exhibition of films and videotapes made by SUNY students in the spring of 1977.

Television Activities
Educational Communications Centers and The Television Arts November 21-22, 1974
On November 21-22, 1974, the University-wide Committee on the Arts, in cooperation with the Office of Educational Development, sponsored a Conference on Educational Communications Centers and The Television Arts. It was coordinated by Gerald O'Grady of the Center at Buffalo and was held at the Center at Albany. The purposes of this Conference were (1) to present the latest developments in the video arts and their related technologies and systems, (2) to suggest ways in which the facilities of Educational Communications Centers might be prepared to serve the developing video artists on their own campuses and in their surrounding communities, and (3) to indicate ways in which the Centers might stimulate activity in all of the arts and humanities.
Thursday November 21
1:15
Welcome
- Lewis P. Welch, Vice President for University Affairs, State University of New York at Albany
Remarks
- Robert Pasciullo, Assistant Dean, Office of Educational Development, State University of New York
- Patricia Kerr Ross, Associate for the Arts, University-wide Committee on the Arts, State University of New York
1:30
The Three Universes of Media
Gerald O'Grady, Director, Instructional Communication Center and Center for Media Study, State University of New York at Buffalo, and Director, Media Study/ Buffalo
2:00
Presentation of Educational Productions
William K. Mulvey, Director, Educational Communications Center, State University of New York at Albany
(1) Edited video tape of interviews about University research
(2) "Art and Environment" - for the Department of Art, Jon Henry, Graphic Designer
(3) "Shadings" - 1972 Ohio State Award American Exhibition of Educational Radio and Television Programs, Leonard Sarnacki, Director/Producer, William K. Mulvey, Writer/Performer
(4) "Definition of Man" - for the Department of Rhetoric and Communications - Jon Henry, Graphic Designer
3:15
The Genesis of the Electronic Image Steina Vasulka, Video Artist, Director, Video Workshop, Media Study/Buffalo
4:00
Presentation: The Visual Equivalent of Musique Concrete
Tom DeWitt, Filmmaker/Video Artist, Poughkeepsie, New York

Thursday Evening
7:00
Experiments in Public Television
Fred Barzyk, Director, The Television Workshop, Channel 2, WGBH, Boston;
Paul Kaufman, Director, The National Center for Experiments in Television, San Francisco;
David Loxton, Director, The Television Laboratory, Channel 13, WNET, New York City
8:30
Showing: Scapemates
Presentation: Live Presence/Film and Video Images
Ed Emshwiller, Filmmaker/Video Artist in Residence, The Television Laboratory, Channel 13, WNET, New York City
9:45
Live As You Like It
Presentation of works in progress - arts systems incorporating people, machines, spaces, movements, visuals and sounds.
Joel Chadabe, Department of Music, State University of New York at Albany
Tom DeWitt;
Phil Edelstein, Technical Specialist, Department of Music, State University of New York at Albany, and Media Director, Electronic Body Arts/Albany;
Performing Artists Group: Electronic Body Arts/Albany

Friday Morning, November 22
9:00
The Development of Electronic Art Tools Joel Chadabe; John J. Godfrey, Engineering Supervisor, The Television Laboratory; Ralph Hocking, Cinema Department, State University of New York at Binghamton, and Director, Experimental Television Center/ Binghamton; John Roy, Department of Art, University of Massachusetts; B. Woody Vasulka, Center for Media Study, State University of New York at Buffalo, and Director, Experimental Television Laboratory; Walter Wright, Video Artist in Residence, The Experimental Television Center/Binghamton
10:45
Arts/Cables/Networks
Michael Chase, Director, New York Network, State University of New York
Russell Connor, Executive Director, Cable Arts Foundation, New York
 Lance Wisniewski Director, Synapse, Syracuse University, and lnnervision/Syracuse

Friday Afternoon
1:30
New Directions in Television
Peter Bradley, Program Director, Film/ Television/Literature, New York State Council on the Arts;
Howard Klein, Director, Arts, The Rockefeller Foundation;
Jeanne Mulcahy, Program Officer, Media Program, National Endowment for the Humanities;
Donn Alan Pennebaker, Filmmaker, and Panelist, Public Media Program, National Endowment for the Arts;
Lydia Silman, Acting Director, Television/Media Program, New York State Council on the Arts;
David Stewart, Director of Special Projects, Corporation for Public Broadcasting

3:15 Media, Information, and Then?
Gerd Stern, President, lntermedia Systems Corporation, Cambridge, Massachusetts

4:15 What Every Student Should Know About Media
John Culkin, Director, Center for Understanding Media/New York

In the summer of 1976, the Committee, acting through the SUNY Research Foundation, made a proposal to the Rockefeller Foundation to do A Feasibility Study: State University of New York as Creator of Programming for Television. The study was undertaken by Ms. Louisa Bertch Green on August 1, 1976 and will be completed in February, 1977. It will examine the University's artistic and technical capabilities for producing programming in the arts for public, cable and closed-circuit television, and will look at costs, legal issues, outlets for finished programs, equipment needs, programming patterns and various possible production modes.

Electronic Music Activities
In the fall of 1975, the Committee initiated a new year-long program, Electronic Music/Cornerts & Consultancies.
The purpose of the program is to make available to campuses over a period of years a well-chosen and diverse range of concert presentations, composers as guest lecturers, and technical expertise.
Like many of the arts, electronic music is in a continual process of change, both technically and creatively. It takes in a wide variety of approaches and personal statements, many of which are not widely known or well understood. Many of these approaches relate directly to media concerns, particularly video, and the growing audience for electronic music is very broadly based.
Because many campuses have already established or are in the process of setting up electronic music studios, a primary aim of the program is to provide technical assistance and creative models so that campuses may come into contact with a wide spectrum of the profession over a period of years.
In 1975-76, concerts and seminars featuring John Cage, David Tudor, Alvin Lucier, Joel Chadabe, Charles Dodge and John Appleton were presented and designer Robert Moog and consultant Phillip Edelstein offered information and technical advice. In 1976-77, the concerts and seminars featured The Sonic Arts Union - Robert Ashley, David Behrman, Alvin Lucier, Gordon Mumma - Salvatore Martirano, Lejaren Hiller and Laurie Spiegel, and consultancies on electronic music systems, design philosophy and technical aspects of equipment were offered by Donald Buchla and Phillip Edelstein. This program was cosponsored byMeet the Composer, a project of the American Music Center, supported by the New York State Council on the Arts.

-Survey of Film/Television/Video/Still Photography/Electronic Music Activity at State University of New York Campuses. John Minkowsky. 1977

The Electronic Image A Statewide Tour 1979-1980
A touring Video Workshop from the Experimental Television Center of Binghamton, New York, for campus and community arts organizations of New York State

Under the leadership of video artists Ralph Hocking and SherryMiller, participants in THE ELECTRONIC IMAGE will explore television as a visual arts-making medium - its aesthetic foundations and possibilities, and its potential as a source of images and sound for cinematic works.

The two-day program will feature an evening video-tape screening and discussion which introduces video as an important contemporary art form. The works that will be screened, produced by independent video-makers through the artist-in-residence program at the Experimental Television Center, are illustrative of the wide range of stylistic and conceptual approaches taken by artists working in this medium. These tapes have been exhibited throughout the United States and abroad.

The following day, a demonstration and instruction session for interested staff, students and community artists will offer an opportunity to work in a hands-on way with the Electronic Image Processing System that Mr. Hocking and Ms. Miller will bring with them for the program. This imaging system was designed through the research program at the Center and includes colorization, keying, digitization and analog control functions with capacity for computer control. The demonstration starts from the perspective of systems function and includes a general theoretical overview of technical operations and exploration of the techniques and vocabulary of electronic image and sound generation and processing.

The Experimental Television Center is a unique organization that supports the development of video as an art form and explores the relationships between video and the other arts. The Center's programs promote production with small-format video systems, screenings and exhibitions, and the study of video by means of seminars and workshops for artists, students, and interested members of the public in the Binghamton area. Ralph Hocking is Director of the Center and Assistant Professor of Video in the Department of Cinema at State University at Binghamton; Sherry Miller is Assistant Director of the Center.

The Electronic Image is made possible in part through funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. It is made available in New York State through the office of University-wide Programs in the Arts of State University of New York.

The workshop was held at 17 campuses and other media centers throughout the State.