Video+Art

=**VIDEO ART**=

**What is Video Art?**
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Video art is a genre of art practice that belongs under the category of contemporary art. The movement of video art began in the mid 1990's when handheld video recorders became popular and widely available. Video art, unlike other mediums in art, involves the use of moving images created and displayed with the use of video and/or audio. Video art differs from cinema productions becuse it does not neccesarily need the components (such as actors and scripts) that are required to produce films. Video art is sometimes referred to as Art Film.

History
Video art emerged during the late 60's and early 70's at a time when technology was made available to the artists. Avant garde artist began to explore the use of new technology/media as a medium of artistic expression. Often the artists confronted the issues pertaining to the institution of television and mass media. Artists such as Korean born American Nam June Paik and German Wolf Vostell created a public space that questioned the social effects of television as a new media. Oftne the works of video artists/perfromance artists like Nam June Paik integrated the medium as the message.

Video art in the early 70's was also used to express the counter culture views where activists and groups such as Alternative Media Center and Media Bus gave voice to the public.

Video art today is represented in two major forms: single channel format and installation format. "Single-channel works are much closer to the conventional idea of television: a video is screened, projected ro shown as a single image. Installation works involve either an environment, several distinct peices of video presented separately, or any combination of video with traditional media such as sculpture"¹

Nam June Paik (1932-2006), a Korean born American who is the pioneer of video art in North America. Nam June Paik is acknowledge for his major contribution in modern art. In the mid 1960's Paik equipped with the latest video technology, Sony's Portapak, introduced various installations pertaing to the use of the new medium. Paik is well known for his construction of the physical medium and the integration of the message. In his installation performance titled,//Charlotte Moorman performing Paik's Concerto For TV Cello and Videotapes (1971),// Paik critiques the medium of television and consumer culture through performance art.

__**Time Line**__ > >
 * July 20, 1932 - Born in Korea
 * 1950 - Moved to Hong Kong, then to Japan.Studied at University of Toronto in History of Fine Art and Philosophy
 * 1958 - Moved to Europe. Met John Cage in Darmstadt . Becomes a member of [|Fluxus Group]
 * 1963 - Shows the first manipulated TV sets in Wuppertal, Germany
 * 1964 - Moves to New York
 * January 29, 200 - Passed away at his home in Miam

__**Works of Nam June Paik:**__ "My experimental TV s not always interesting but not always uninteresting like nature, which is beautiful, not because it changes b e a u t i f u l l y, but simply because it c h a n g e s. The core of the beauty of nature is that the llimitless QUANTITY of nature disarmed the category of QUALITY, which is used unconsciously mixed and confused with double meanings. 1) character 2) value In my experimental TV, the word QUALITY means on the CHARACTER, but not the VALUE. A is different from B, but not that Ais better than B. Someetimes I need red apple Sometimes I need red lips."

- Nam June Paik "AFTERLUDE to the Exposition of EXPERIMENTAL TELEVISION"³



Charlotte Moorman performing Paik's Concerto For TV Cello and Videotapes (1971). At Gelleria Bonino. November 23, 1971.²

media type="youtube" key="7WRCYUJTIg4" Paik exhibition at the MOMA, video courtesy of YouTube.com



__Gary Hill__
"Gary Hill is one of the most important contemporary artists investigating the relationships between words, sounds and electronic images. The video image with its essential component sound is explored using different approaches of discourse analysis and models of language as a semantic and semiotic system"°

His current work titled "__Wall Piece__" is one of the exhibits featured at the [|Blackwood Gallery] at Uinversity of Toronto Mississauga.

Reference
¹[|Wikipedia]. On the overview of videoart. ²Image courtesy of the official site of [|Nam June Paik] ³ [|Media Art Net] °[|Media Art Net]