{"id":4718,"title":"A Description of Media Study/Buffalo Film/Imagemaking Workshop","kind":"biblio","url":"https://www.videohistoryproject.org/description-media-studybuffalo-filmimagemaking-workshop-1971-1997","version":"6051cd2ca64dac35771f4db040e79de33099de0b2c88194a4a9aade35b07c931","modified":"2026-09-13T21:52:08.1958636+00:00","credits":[{"role":"Author","name":"Gerald O\u0027Grady"}],"authorKeys":["O\u0027Grady, Gerald"],"subjects":["Groups"],"metadata":[{"label":"Publisher","value":"unpublished report","url":null},{"label":"ETC archive","value":"ETC0687","url":null},{"label":"Group dates","value":"1972 - 1985","url":null},{"label":"Group location","value":"Buffalo, New York","url":null},{"label":"Group","value":"Media Study/Buffalo","url":null}],"citations":{"page":"\u0022A Description of Media Study/Buffalo Film/Imagemaking Workshop (1971, 1997).\u0022 Video History Project, Experimental Television Center, 2026. https://www.videohistoryproject.org/description-media-studybuffalo-filmimagemaking-workshop-1971-1997.","publication":"Gerald O\u0027Grady. A Description of Media Study/Buffalo Film/Imagemaking Workshop. unpublished report. 1972.","risUrl":"https://www.videohistoryproject.org/citation/4718.ris"},"links":[{"label":"Media Study Buffalo","url":"#Media Study","relationship":"record body link","contentType":null},{"label":"A Description of Media Study/Buffalo Film/Imagemaking Workshop","url":"#A Description of Media Study/Buffalo","relationship":"record body link","contentType":null}],"sections":[{"name":"body","source":"VHP record body","generated":false,"characters":21518}],"content":{"section":"body","source":"VHP record body","generated":false,"text":"Founded by Dr. Gerald O\u0027Grady. \u0022Literacy\u0027s been with us now since the nineteenth century and is pretty much accepted to be a universal thrust. My own theory is that we should move towards what I call \u0027mediacy\u0027. It\u0027s a political issue; one cannot participate in society unless one can use the channels or codes of communication that are current in the time that one lives.\u0022 Gerald O\u0027Grady Videoscope, Vol. 1, No. 2, 1977 Media Study Buffalo Pamela Susan Hawkins 1997 A Description of Media Study/Buffalo Film/Imagemaking Workshop Dr. Gerald O\u0027Grady 1971 Media Study Buffalo Pamela Susan Hawkins Media Study Inc., [in 1972] a new Buffalo public service foundation developed by Dr. Gerald O\u0027Grady, a State University of Buffalo media educator, [was] awarded [a] $25,000 \u0022seeding\u0022 grant from the [New York State Council on the Arts] to allow \u0022Buffalo citizens of all ages to more fully participate in the creation of technological forms...and to gain insight into their social and psychological effects.\u0022 The grant provide[d] for photographic, movie, sound and videotape equipment, space rental and instructors.\u0022 (4) With these monies, Media Study undertook the organization and supervision of a twenty-week course in media awareness, Film/Imagemaking Workshop. The course, enrolling twenty-one members in the Buffalo region, began work on February 5, 1972. \u0022Participants in the course were given the opportunity to familiarize themselves with techniques of 8mm, Super-8, 16mm and video production under the tutelage of visiting instructors Stan Vanderbeek, Yvonne Andersen, Stan Brakhage, Richard Leacock and Ed Emswiller. Participants produced individual film and video projects as well as a 16mm film produced by the group as a whole. Concurrent with their production efforts, participants were exposed to the films of their instructors as well as films by a series of visiting film-makers brought to Buffalo in conjunction with the Albright-Knox Art Gallery.\u0022 (5) Workshop participants included Marcia Baer, Anthony Bannon, Sam Brunetto, Terry Doran, Seth Feldman, Keith Gemerek, Robin Hogan, Georgianna Jungels, William Jungels, Herta Kane, Robert Mahoney, John Minkowsky, Linda Ormont, Scott Nygren, James Pappas, Anthony Petrofsky, Edward Smith, Roger Stone, Joyce Whiting and Ron Wofford. (6) Screenings and lectures beyond the workshop\u0027s instructors included: Richard Myers, Hollis Frampton, Ernie Gehr, Ken Jacobs, Peter Kubelka and Bruce Baillie. Other artists works screened were by: Norman McLaren, Rick Harper, Yellow Ball School, Robert Breer, Roger Stone, Charles Braverman, Chris Marker, Charles Eames, Len Lye, Oscar Fischinger, Brown and Olvey, Kenneth Anger, Will Hindle, Dziga Vertov, Paul Sharits, Leon Protchnik, Irving Kriesberg, Anthony Bannon and Terry Doran, and Ed Sumner. (7) In 1973 the Center for Media at S.U.N.Y. Buffalo under the Direction of Gerald O\u0027Grady developed a graduate seminar for students to do research on individuals filmmakers followed by interviews with visiting filmmakers. \u0022The tapes were to be transcribed and published in Media Study, publication of Media Study Inc., a tax-free public-service foundation. (3) \u0022In the heyday of support [1970\u0027s] from the New York State Council on the Arts and Humanities and Education Department, and the federal programs, the National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities and the U.S. Information Agency, funding was attracted to Western New York for an amazing array of programs, many at the Center for Media Study at UB and at Media Study/Buffalo. Some particularly compelling programs from the 70s and 80s include: Conference on Teaching Making, December 11-17, 1973 (30 film and video makers, 10 representatives of grant-giving organizations, 8 days conference, 1 day seminar) SUNY/Buffalo, Media Study/Buffalo, Albright-Knox Art Gallery. Design/Electronic Arts Conference, March 10-13, 1977 (32 speakers/artists, 160 guests), supported by the Center for Media Study/SUNY Buffalo and Media Study/Buffalo, supported by the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York State Council on the Arts; at Marine Midland Center and Ellicott Square Building, Buffalo. Contemporary Directions in the Public Affairs Documentary, February 22-25, 1978 (23 speakers, 15 film and videotapes, 250 guests) sponsored by the Center for Media Study, SUNY at Buffalo, WNED-Channel 17, and Media Study/Buffalo; supported by the New York State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. Media projects originated by Media Study/Buffalo under O\u0027Grady\u0027s direction in this period include: The Oral History of the Independent Film -- over 50 interviews with filmmakers, four hours or more in length. Distribution Problems of Independent Filmmakers -- 35 question survey of 1,000 filmmakers. The Independents -- two 12-hour series, \u0022Dis/Patches\u0022 -- arts programming -- and \u0022Agenda\u0022 -- social issues documentaries by independent makers for satellite-cable distribution by The Learning Channel, Washington, D.C., funded by the National Endowment for the Arts and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, 1984-85. The Frontier -- a series of thirteen programs of works by independent makers who reside within the target area of WNED-Channel 17, Buffalo. This series funded by the New York State Council on the Arts and Canada Council, 1980-1985. America\u0027s Lost and Found -- award winning feature length documentary for public television on the 1930\u0027s, $150,000 National Endowment for the Humanities grant, premiere April 1980 on WNET-TV (New York Public Television). Film-Maker -- series of 13 televised interviews with filmmakers produced by Channel 17/WNED for national public television, January-May 1976.\u0022 (8) \u0022In the mid-seventies, Media Study suffered a ...crisis. Survival was partially achieved by the donation of a building, once a grand hotel turned film production facility.\u0022 (2) In a 1980 article in The Independent, Fran Platt, Ann Volkes and Gerry Pallor wrote, \u0022...the Media Study building, an old hotel on a busy downtown street. Space is what they have plenty of, from a huge, high-ceilinged, windowless ballroom, rendered acoustically dead by exposed fiberglass installation, to an empty swimming pool with a 7-second echo. The former is generally used for video installations; the latter is being developed as an audio recording/performance space. Exhibition is paramount here. Media Study\u0027s two enthusiastic full-time staff curators are eager to hear from artists with completed work for potential installations and screenings. The equipment program is geared toward local small-format producers, with a strong emphasis on audio, including a professional quality sound synthesizer, 4-channel mixer and tape recorders. Half and 3/4\u0022 video editing systems and a Rutt/Etra synthesizer are housed in warm, bright rooms. Portable video equipment is loaned for use in Buffalo only. Prices are low; a deposit is required; reserve equipment by phone and bring identification.\u0022 The 1980 staff was Director, Dr. Gerald O\u0027Grady; Workshops/Equipment Access, Kurt Feichtmeir; Film Programmer, Bruce Jenkins; and Video/Electronic Arts Curator, John Minkowsky. (1) Through a series of financial struggles, a deteriorating building, equipment loss, over budget programming and lack of programming documentation filed with granting institutions, Media Study, which never officially closed its doors, stood empty in 1985. With the loss of media making access to equipment and presentation venues, Squeaky Wheel, a new local collective, under interim president, Brian Springer, began incorporation. (9) 1. Fran Platt with Ann Volkes, Electronic Arts Intermix and Anthology Film Archives and Gerry Pallor, Young Filmmakers/Video Arts, \u0022Upstate Report part one,\u0022 Foundation for Independent Video and Film, New York City, The Independent, March 80, vol. 3, no. 2, pg. 11. 2. Debra Goldman, \u0022Buffalo Bills Come Due,\u0022 The Independent, vol. 8, no. 7, September 1985, pg. 3. 3. Gerald O\u0027Grady, \u0022The Oral History of the Independent American Cinema,\u0022 1973[?], pg. 2. 4. Anthony Bannon, \u0022Workshop on Imagery Sponsored by State,\u0022 Buffalo Evening News, February 11, 1972, pg. [?]. 5. Seth Feldman, \u0022A Report on the 1972 Film/Imagemaking Workshop at Media Study, Buffalo prepared for the New York State Council on the Arts,\u0022 Introductory Note. 6. Seth Feldman, \u0022A Report on the 1972 Film/Imagemaking Workshop at Media Study, Buffalo prepared for the New York State Council on the Arts,\u0022 Participants. 7. Seth Feldman, \u0022A Report on the 1972 Film/Imagemaking Workshop at Media Study, Buffalo prepared for the New York State Council on the Arts,\u0022 Screenings and Guest Lectures. 8. Marguerite W. Knowles, \u0022Mediascope Buffalo: The Moving Image in and around Buffalo 1970-1995,\u0022 The Squealer, vol. 11, issue 2, Spring 1996, pg.7-8. 9. Debra Goldman, \u0022Buffalo Shuffalo,\u0022 The Independent, vol. 9, no. 3, April 1986, pg. 4. A Description of Media Study/Buffalo Film/Imagemaking Workshop Dr. Gerald O\u0027Grady from \u0022A Report on the 1972 Film/Imagemaking Workshop at Media Study, Buffalo. PROPOSAL TO THE NEW YORK STATE COUNCIL ON THE ARTS Media Study Inc. was granted the right to incorporate for the following purposes. (a) To encourage and make possible personal and collaborative creativity and audience development in and to establish, maintain, support and administer the study of and research into all the various codes and modes of media by which men communicate and interact with each other and with their environments, and to serve as a center for the development, demonstration and dissemination of a humanistic approach to the various modes of communication, without exclusion or limitation, language, gesture, graphics, computer graphics, television, film, photography, radio, advertising, public relations, painting, music, theatre, publishing, printing, sound, sculpture, architecture, dance, and any combination of these. (b) To encourage, foster and engage in the development of new ideas and formats for the various modes of the media arts, the design of innovative community programs, experimental classes, pilot projects and model curricula in the arts of media communication for citizens of all ages; to research the psychic, social and cultural effects of the media arts; to establish programs for the understanding of the media arts; to organize and arrange regional, national and international conferences to encourage the development of audience awareness for the media arts; to disseminate ideas on media through lectures and publication. (c) To cooperate with cultural, charitable, educational, business, commercial and community institutions throughout the United States and the world to advance the purposes of this organization. PROGRAM Because we are a new organization and are presenting a new program it seems important to acquaint the panel and council members with our posture toward the media arts before describing that program in detail. After two historic blows to his self-image - the Copernican recognition that made him an inhabitant of one among many planets and the Darwinian discovery that challenged his unique position among organisms and assigned him a place among the millions of other species which evolved from one another - man has now taken his first step on another planet and has begun to artificially produce his own genetic materials. We have arrived today at a completely new stage in our evolutionary journey of self-awareness. Man now begins to realize that he is the one organism who not only controls but creates an increasingly large part of the environment to which he adapts, and that he has developed, in the physical sciences, the life sciences, the behavioral sciences, les sciences de l\u0027homme, and not least in the arts, an increasingly sophisticated set of perceptions, processes and procedures to monitor, track and interpret man\u0027s interaction with his \u0022extending self.\u0022 The central goals, the inherent \u0022mindfulness,\u0022 of our work with contemporary citizens of all age","offset":0,"nextOffset":12000,"totalCharacters":21518,"complete":false},"rightsUrl":"https://www.videohistoryproject.org/terms-service"}