Video History Project

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Gene Youngblood

GENE YOUNGBLOOD wrote the first book about video as an art medium, "Expanded Cinema," which was published in 1970 by E.P. Dutton. He also taught one of the first (if not the very first) college courses surveying video "history" in 1970 at California Institute of the Arts (Calarts), a course he co-taught with Nam June Paik. Mr. Youngblood has taught the history and theory of video art ever since -- 30 years, and he has lectured on the subject at more than 400 colleges and universities around the world.

At the College of Santa Fe, where he is Professor of Moving Image Art and has been teaching since 1988, the course consists of six hours of screenings (two three-hour classes) per week for 15 weeks. Based primarily on his personal archives, the course surveys 35 years of independent video production in six categories: Video Art (formal explorations of the medium, including digital media) Performance Video Documentary Video Video Diaries and Essays Experimental Narratives Interactive multimedia and telecommunications. Mr. Youngblood has also taught the history of avant-garde film for 30 years, as well as "Media and Democracy," a political critique of corporate media, which developed out of his participation in the alternative video and Public Access movements in the early 1970s. He is currently writing a textbook on the history of video, and is also completing two other books on which he has been working for ten years: "The Challenge to Create on the Same Scale As We Can Destroy," about the career of Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz, and "The Broadcast and Its Discontents," about the critique of, and alternatives to, corporate media.

Cite this record

"Gene Youngblood." Video History Project, Experimental Television Center, 2011. https://www.videohistoryproject.org/gene-youngblood.

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Summary

Gene Youngblood wrote Expanded Cinema (E.P. Dutton, 1970) and co‑taught a 1970 video history course at California Institute of the Arts with Nam June Paik. He has taught video history and theory and lectured at more than 400 colleges and universities. Since 1988 he has been Professor of Moving Image Art at the College of Santa Fe, where a 15‑week, six‑hour‑weekly course surveys 35 years of independent video in six categories. He also taught avant‑garde film and Media and Democracy and is writing a textbook while completing two books, The Challenge to Create on the Same Scale As We Can Destroy and The Broadcast and Its Discontents.

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Last modified 18 June 2011

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