The Premature Birth of Video Art

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• Video Art Bibliography

  "This book is the first detailed overview of an art form born less than forty years ago and now ubiquitous internationally. Made possible by the introduction of the Sony Portapak in 1965, video art has moved from brief showings on tiny screens in alternative art spaces to dominance in international …

• The Issue of Video Art Bibliography

• Did the Portapak Cause Video Art? Notes on the Formation of a New Medium Bibliography

  Survey of video art’s formation (1965–c.1977) arguing that its rise cannot be ascribed solely to the 1968 portapak; institutional uptake (Whitney Biennial 1973; MoMA Open Circuits Jan 1974) and a rapid proliferation of genres occurred in 1968–1972. The essay examines practitioners and technologies — including Woody and Steina Vasulka (video feedback; Didactic Video 1975), Steve Beck (synthesizers), Frank Gillette (Wipe Cycle 1969; Track/Trace 1973) and Paul Ryan (Earthscore; NYSCA support 1971–75) — to contrast intensive (materialist) and extensive (ecological/activist) strategies. It concludes that both technological primitives and ecological/communicative aims jointly shaped video’s early aesthetics before a shift toward normalization by c.1977–78.

• The Passion for Perceiving: Expanded Forms of Film and Video Art Bibliography

  The Passion for Perceiving: Expanded Forms of Film and Video Art in Art Journal: Video - The Reflexive Medium

• New Media in Late 20th-Century Art Bibliography

  Overview charts video art's emergence from cinema to Sony's Portapak (1965), which made portable video (½-inch tape) accessible to artists at US/German prices of $1,000–$3,000; by 1968 exhibitions had appeared in Japan, several European countries, Argentina, the United States and Canada. The essay documents technologies and practices—portable cameras, projection devices, feedback systems and image processing—names practitioners such as Vito Acconci, Bill Viola, Nam June Paik and Woody and Steina Vasulka, situates activity in the United States, Germany, Austria and Great Britain, and cites Rosalind Krauss's critiques (1976, 1999) and a movement toward digital, large-scale installations.

• A History of Video Art Bibliography

  A History of Video Art is a critical introduction and guide to artists' video. It covers the period from the early 1960s - when video art first appeared as a distinctive medium - into the 1990s - when digital technology merged video's distinctive practice with that of independent film-making and pho…