prof.

ELEONORA ROARO

MULTIMEDIA
COMMUNICATION

2. VIDEO-ART
Ina Blom, “The Autobiography of Video”, Sternberg Press, 2016

Barbara London, “Video art: The First 50 years“, Phaidon, 2022.

Sylvia Martin, “Video Art“, Taschen, 2006

Yvonne Spielmann, “Video: the Reflexive Medium”, The MIT press,

2008
Video depends upon the current state
of technological development probably
more than almost any other artistic medium.

It is not a question of a perspective from

technological determinism, but of understanding
technology and aesthetics dialogically.

relationship between analogue and

digital video
1965: introduction of affordable video recorders for private use
1967: a battery-powered, portable video recorder with a camera
came onto the market – the Sony Portapak – anyone and
everyone could produce moving, electronic images. Recorder and
camera were separate devices;
1971: replay, forward and rewind;
1980–3: Camcorder (recorder and camera in the same device)
1997: Sony, followed by Canon, introduced the digital camera
onto the American market (stored on laser disc, CD-ROM, DV
cassettes, or DVD). Due to the numerical code upon which it is
based, any kind of digitally recorded material can potentially
serve as a usable source of material for further processing.
Frank Gillette & Ira Schneider, “Wipe Cycle”, 1969
Video is initially employed in the
political, counter-cultural domain and
used by conceptualist artists, who exploit
the experimental qualities of the medium
(direct recording and transmission, mobile technology, coarse-grained imagery).

Relationship video/performance –> media that are used by female

artists because they do not have a men tradition like the more
traditional media (painting, sculpture, etc.).
Martha Rosler, “Semiotics of the Kitchen”, 1975
Marina Abramovic e Ulay, “Rest Energy”, 1980 (16 mm)
Pipilotti Rist, “I’m not the Girl who Misses Much”, 1986
Categorizing VIDEO AS A REFLEXIVE MEDIUM
means understanding it as discontinuous process
of construction and reconstruction of signals.

Video’s open structure.

Video does not have to have recording and storage on magnetic

tape or on videodisc; the signal can also circulate in devices
themselves (closed circuit and feedback loops).

[REAL TIME TECHNOLOGY]

Because of its reflexivity, video is
considered a filterless and spontaneous
medium.

“Immediacy is the most often used term in

description of early video-works.”
It is perceived to be in real time, which is “the
model of everyday temporal experience.”
Video reflexivity is considered an important
notion for the construction of the self (“Video:
the Aesthetic of Narcissism“, by Rosalind Krauss,
1975).
Video’s real medium is a psychological situation
because it is not the other which is to be central
but the self.
“Because video technology enables the image to be simultaneously
recorded and displayed, the performer can use the video monitor as a
mirror”.
Video in a time-based
medium

It records temporal sequences

and produces temporal
structures.
Bill Viola, “Reflecting Pool”, 1975
Bill Viola, “The Greeting”, 1995
Synthesizers, sequencers, scan processors,
multi key devices –> NON PHOTOGRAPHIC IMAGERY

Video feedback is a dynamic flow of imagery

created by the camera looking at its own monitor.

[INTERESTED IN THE PROCESS]]

CLOSED CIRCUIT –> SURVEILLANCE
SEEING/BEING SEEN

Politics of the image, considering the production

of traceability, and questioning the relationship
between visibility/governance.

Today's webcams are increasingly cheap and ubiquitous.

The PANOPTICON is a disciplinary concept brought to life in the
form of a central observation tower placed within a circle of prison
cells.
From the tower, a guard can see every cell and inmate but the
inmates can’t see into the tower. Prisoners will never know whether
or not they are being watched.

1791: Jeremy Bentham

1975: Michel Foucault, “Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the
Prison“
 FOUND FOOTAGE
Reflection on the imagery of mass media/history.
 DISPLAY
Riflessione sull’immaginario dei mass media/storia.
Tony Oursler, “Caricature”, 2002
Nam June Paik, “Electronic Super Highway”, 1995
> 1990s
Video becomes a HYBRID that questions the definitions of video
and film (convergence of formats/media, video installations/
multiple projections), and contaminates itself with other artistic
languages.
Authors such as Doug Aitken, Janet Cardiff, Stan Douglas Douglas Gordon, Steve McQueen, Sam
Taylor Wood, Pierre Huyghe, Philippe Parreno question the cinematic language.

NARRATIVE/DOCUMENTATION/
ANTI-NARRATIVE