Selected Chronology: Media Study/Buffalo

1977
Workshops provided in various media, including circuit design. Also serves as an information service for regional makers, a sponsoring organization for individual projects, film and electronic arts screening programs, access to equipment, and a distribution network. The exhibition programs were extensive and occurred at sites around the area including the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Shea's Buffalo and many educational and cultural spaces. Media Study acquired a 100,000 foot building, the Mars Hotel, in downtown Buffalo, centrally located to the urban renewal efforts being planned for the urban center. Media Study was active in a project with the City Council of Buffalo to do an interactive cable information service, and provided internships with cable stations. Media Study also offered a nationally sponsored summer youth-in-residence program for talented young people in the arts.

1979
Executive Director - Gerald O'Grady
Director - David Shapiro
Equipment Access - Kurt Feichtmeir
Film Programmer - Bruce Jenkins
Electronic Arts Curator - John Minkowsky
Assistant Director of Management - Jean Budington
Administrative Assistant - Lois Currier

Media Study/Buffalo is a unique Western New York regional center established to encourage the creation and understanding of media - especially photography, film, video and sound composition - by people of all ages in the area. It is also exploring the electronic and computer-generated arts, visual and aural, and is researching broadcast, cablecast, microwave and other concepts.
Media Study.Buffalo is a not-for-profit public service foundation established under grants from the New York State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts which supports:

• Access to production equipment for all citizens, especially serious artists, emerging makers and youth.
• Workshops in image and sound experimentation and production, in circuit building and the design of electronic art tools and in teaching creative media.
• Exhibition screening, viewing, display, installation, presentation, performance and discussion of all formats of creative image and sound
• Information and Projects resources, conferences, residencies and media programming relating to creative image and sound and their psychocultural and environmental interactions
• Production projects by independent image and sound artists, local and national, and involvement in the legal and distribution problems associated with them
• Management of the above activities, the facilities housing them, and relations with individuals and agencies supporting them

Equipment for rent to individuals and institutions included: Super 8mm and 16mm cameras, audio recording and mixing tools, film projectors, portable and studio video recorders. The studio facilities consisted of photographic darkrooms, film editing and projection space, production and sound studios, video editing and unique video tools, such as the Rutt/Etra Synthesizer.

Exhibitions

• Video/Electronic Arts (Gary Hill, Woody Vasulka, James Byrne, Liza Bear, George Cisneros, David Behrman, Jon Alpert, James Blue, Vibeke Sorensen),
• The Moving Image Statewide Video Program
• Electronic Arts/Buffalo Jeffy Schier, David Held, Kevin Noble, Steve Keeler and Jeff Weiss, Lynn Corcoran, David Steward
• Buffalo Filmmakers Michael Unher, Marcelle Pecot, Keitch Sanborn, Ken Rowe, Sara Hornbacher
• Independent Filmmakers Klaus Wyborny, Larry Gottheim, Louis Hock, Robert Polidori, Anthony McCall, Tom DeWitt
• Benefits Jonas Mekas, Vincent Grenier, Hollis Frampton, Paul Sharits, James Blue
• French Films series and Hollywood Films

Information and Projects

• The Frontier A series of programs for local public television featuring work of independent makers from the Niagara Frontier. Lynn Corcoran, Producer
• A Conference on Contemporary Directions in the Public Affairs Documentary. Participants included Lynn Corcoran, Chloe Aaron, James Blue, Donn Alan Pennebaker, Ed Hugetz, Nick Broomfield, Tom Johnson, Lance Bird, Danny Lyon, Steina, Woody Vasulka, Peter Bradley.
• The Moving Image/Statewide a curated series of video and film, touring to campuses around the State, and introduced by a noted artist, theoretician or critic.
• Composers Inside Electronics founder in 1973 and dedicated to the composition and live performance of electronic music. Artists Ralph Jones, John Driscoll, Martin Kalve and David Tudor.
• Research Tour John Minkowsky researched activities in the electronic arts throughout the US.
• The School of Film/Media a six week summer program. Faculty: Gary Adkins and Gail Currey (film), Roberta Mages (photography), Gunilla Mallory Jones and Philip Mallory Jones (video), Nicolas Collins and Ron Kuivila (creative sound).
• Arts Radio/Buffalo
• Modern Poetry Series
• Waterfront School: Electronic Arts and Culture. Year-long study at Buffalo's magnet school
• Independent Film Projects Sponsorship Donn Alan Pennebaker, Hollis FramptonThom Anderson, America Lost and Found

Workshops: faculty included Bill Jungels (Video Documentation), Anthony Bannon (Roots of Modern Photography) James Blue (The Independent Filmmaker and Public Television). Also Roberta Mages (Basic Photography) and Kurt Feichtmeir (Introduction to Super 8 Filmmaking).

Since 1972 Media Study/Buffalo conducted 90 workshops with 700 hours of instruction; brought 450 artists to present work; screened over 1000 evenings of film programming and over 800 different video works; produced over 7 hours of local public television programming in cooperation with the PBS affiliate in Buffalo.
 

1980
Gerald O'Grady - Director
Equipment Access - Kurt Feichtmeir
Film Programmer - Bruce Jenkins
Electronic Arts Curator - John Minkowsky

Media Study/Buffalo offers an extensive series of film and electronic arts exhibitions. The equipment program is geared towatd small-format producers; equipment includes both ½ and ¾" editing, sound synthesis, Rutt/Etra video synthesizer and audio and portable video recording equipment.

Workshops
Included instructors Ken Rowe (photography), Barbara Lattanzi (experimental film), Carvin Eison (post-production), Shirley Clarke (video/dance).

Exhibitions

• Electronic Arts Exhibitions by Anthony Ramos, Stephen Peet, Pat Oleszko, Mitchell Kriegman, Jack Bice, Tony Oursler.
• New Music with George Lewis, Maggi Payne.
• Films by Charlie Ahearn, Pooh Kaye, Steve Brown, Ellie Nagler and Barry Shils, Ericka Beckman, Ken Kobland, Anita Thacher.
• Independent Animation artists Robert Breer, Suzan Pitt, George Griffin, and a curated show by Tom DeFanti, Phil Morton and Jane Veeder.
• Documentary Films Mike Kuchar, Robert Breer, Shirley Clarke.
• Presentation by Jonathan Demme.
• A Tribute to James Blue

1982
Business Manager - Timothy McCann
Equipment Access - Ken Rowe
Film Programmer - Bruce Jenkins
Electronic Arts Curator - John Minkowsky

Workshops Marcelle Pecot (Introduction to Filmmaking), Barbara Lattanzi (Film Animation), Joe Steinmetz (Color Video Production), Peter Rose (Film Image and Sound Manipulation).

Exhibitions

• Video/Electronic Arts Shalom Gorewitz, Kou Nakajima, Bill Viola, John Caldwell, Davidson Gigliotti, George Howell, Chip Lord, George Stoney, Doug Hall
• New Music Pauline Oliveros, Electronic Art Ensemble, Earl Howard, Nicolas Collins, Liz Phillips, Arnold Dreyblatt, Ron Kuivila
• Independent Film Peter Rose, Vivienne Dick, Ken Kobland, George Stoney, Barbara Hammer,
• Independent Black Cinema; Hollywood Before the Code; China Film Week; German Films; French Films
• Evenings for New Film James Benning, Agnes Varda
• Special Events Wim Wenders with Lightning Over Water; Retrospective of Downtown Community TV Center; 1982 CAPS Festival; 8^th Annual Ithaca Video Projects Festival
• Video/Comedy a touring exhibition curated by John Minkowsky

1983
Business Manager - Timothy McCann
Equipment Access - Ken Rowe
Film Programmer - Bruce Jenkins
Electronic Arts Curator - John Minkowsky

Workshops
Extensive series of film, video and photography workshops. Instructors included Kathryn High (Video Editing), Eric Bergman (Analog Video Processing), Bob Coggeshall (Digital Video Processing).

Exhibitions

• Video/Electronic Arts Video/TV series curated by John Minkowsky, Rita Myers, Jaime Davidovich, Doug Hall, Ishmael Reed, Skip Blumberg, Kathry High, Tony Oursler.
• New Music Nicholas Collins, Ralph Jones
• Installations and long-term residencies by Doug Hall and Jules Backus, Nicholas Collins, Tony Oursler
• The American New Wave Taylor Mead
• Independent Film Francoise Picard, Ron Mann, Joel DeMott and Jeff Kreines, Beth B and Scott B, Bruce Baillie
• Evenings for New Film: Dis/Patches James Blue, Bruce Connor
• Rediscovering French Film
• The Early Movie Musical

1984
Business Manager - Timothy McCann
Equipment Access - Ken Rowe
Film Programmer - Bruce Jenkins
Electronic Arts Curator - John Minkowsky
Assistant Electronic Arts Curator Nancy Stalnaker Norwood

Workshops Vern Norwood, Nancy Golden, Henry Jesionka, Nancy Norwood, Jimi Lyons, Richard Smalko

Exhibitions

• Video/Electronic Arts Peer Bode, Dee Dee Halleck, Ed Emshwiller, Video Free America, The Electronic Narrative: A Symposium, Barbara Buckner, Susan and Alan Raymond, Amy Greenfield, Tim Miller, Grahame Weinbren, John Maggiotto, Paul Ryan, Lynn Corcoran
• Independent Filmmakers Yoshiko Chuma, Lizzie Borden, Tom Johnson and Lance Bird, Richard Leacock, Bruce Posner, Peter Greenaway
• Lost Films
• Journey Across America in association with Third World Newsreel
• Ten Years of Living Cinema
• New Music Robert Ashley, Blue Gene Tyranny, Malcolm Goldstein, Ralph Jones
• The British Film Institute: Independent Films 1951-1982
• The Sixties Ondine, Mike Kuchar,
• European Avant Garde Cinema
• Evenings for New Film Jacob Holdt, Jill Godmillow, Danny Lyon
• The Rediscovered Bunuel
• American New Wave Cinema

1985-86
Media Study/Buffalo effectively closed its doors at the close of the 1984-1985 program year. Reasons cited included the extremely high costs of maintaining the downtown building. Media Study was housed in a large six story hotel in the downtown area. The building was in need of extensive renovation; the location seemed promising in relationship to the city's other plans for renovation and development. By the April of 1985 problems with the heating and plumbing systems made the space unusable. The program was temporarily discontinued by April 1985. Limited access to Media Study equipment continued to be provided, at the request of Dr. Gerald O'Grady, through the efforts of Brian Springer. "The paucity of easily available equipment has stirred a new local collective effort, dubbed Squeaky Wheel. The group was 'somewhat born out of concern over Media Study, but not entirely,' explained Springer, who is interim president while Squeaky Wheel, which claims 70 members, incorporates."
 

The Independent, April 1986 "Buffalo Shuffle" by Debra Goldman
Afterimage, November 1985 "Media Study Buffaloed"