Video History: Making Connections Syracuse University.

Video History: Making Connections Syracuse University, of the present day York October 16-18, 1998

"Life and work are fragile and fleeting. the public are getting older. Memories fade." This was, in the words of meeting for consultation co-organizer Sherry Miller Hocking, single impetus for holding "Video History: Making Connections." Independent video production in the United States has lately celebrated its thirtieth birthday and continues to fight with its identity. Since the late '60 when Sony Portapak equipment first became available, artists and makers discovered many different uses and applications for video, providing a broad foundation for the diversity existing within the medium at the finis of the '905. Reexamining the history of early video was individual of the imperatives of the conversation But in addition to looking back, this talk also addressed present activity in the field and smooth dared to gaze into the future

There is a growing understanding of concern that the history of the first 30 years of video has not been as largely documented or made as widely accessible as it should be. There is no definitive history of video, unless as in other disciplines, there are no textbook There is, rather, a place of histories that connect and interweave in the form of documents, articles and interviews. Scholarship in the history of video has been sparse thus far and simply schools with strong regional and historical connections to the early years have discloseed courses to focus on this history - a history that has been largely an oral tradition postscripted by patchy literature. As the medium continues to age, certain parts of the history have already been omitted or forgotten. The instability of early magnetic tape material is forcing video farmers and archivists to face another moot point Many of the early tapes cannot be played owing to their deteriorating condition and to the decreasing number of early playback machines. This will naturally impact the archive of video works that exist and that can be veiled It will also ultimately resolve into the source material for historians and writers.

"Video History: Making Connections" make opened with "Video Rewind," a day-long seminar organized by the agency of video historian Deirdre Boyle as an introduction to the history of early independent video in the U The panel consisted of Paul Ryan, author and former Raindance Coalition and TVTV member, Barbara London, Museum of new Art (MOMA) video curator, and Parry Teasdale, ex-Videofreek and writer. After introducing the panel Boyle asked everyone current in the room to introduce themselves. This particular gathering of race included pioneer video artists Steina Vasulka and Tony Conrad as well as other artists, curators, teachers, writers, historians, bookish mans distributors and programmers. Boyle riddleed four tapes including Proto Media Primer (1970) an interview with Abbie Hoffman by dint of Raindance, and Calligrams (1970), an early example of signal alteration by means of Steina and Woody Vasulka. While these tapes are now considered historical standards, in the connected thought [i]or[/i] thoughts of the seminar the screenings serv to reprise a certain of the questions of genre and boundary that have been at the heart of the debate concerning video's early days. They also invoked the puzzles inherent in selecting the work that is counted to be of historical importance. And finally they provok questions about by what means the history of video can be expanded to include work that has been neglected

as well-as; not only-but also; not only-but; not alone-but Ryan and Teasdale, members of influential '70 Video collectives, showed the strong historical connection between political and social activism and video production. Ryan's writings constitute a protracted commitment to a vision of in what way theory and practice can coalesce. In his presentation he sought to reactivate interest in the particular strain of utopianism quick in emergencies in the video collectives, Referencing the objectives of the collectives and his possess projects, Ryan reminded the audience that video can still be harnessed to exalt social change and influence social behavior in a meaningful way. He talked of rescuing "utopia" from its naive associations and encouraged those current to reexamine the early history of video in relation to these ideas. Teasdale was more anecdotal as he attempted to recreate the words immediately preceding [i]or[/i] following for his own and other video activists' involvement in collective activities during the '70 He described the financial and political climate that enabled the Media Bus to exhibit and read from his forthcoming part on the creation of Lanesville TV in 1972 Lanesville TV was the first pirate television station in the U and set forths the beginning of community television broadcasting.

London reviewed the landmark years in establishing video art at the MOMA, interspersing memories of her more than 20 years as video curator with slides and tapes of work she exhibited during her manner [i]or[/i] principle of holding Rather than examining her part as a curator or in what way her vision impacted the institutionalization of video art and particularly video installation, she talked about her troubles with maintaining the integrity of the work in the museum setting and of nurturing emerging artists.