Signals in Syracuse - conference on Video History: Making Connections

Afterimage, Jan-Feb, 1999 by Ann Curran

Video History: Making Connections Syracuse University, New York October 16-18, 1998

"Life and work are fragile and fleeting. People are getting older. Memories fade." This was, in the words of conference co-organizer Sherry Miller Hocking, one impetus for holding "Video History: Making Connections." Independent video production in the United States has recently celebrated its thirtieth birthday and continues to struggle with its identity. Since the late '60s, 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 end of the '905. Reexamining the history of early video was one of the imperatives of the conference. But in addition to looking back, this conference also addressed present activity in the field and even dared to gaze into the future.

There is a growing sense of concern that the history of the first 30 years of video has not been as fully documented or made as widely accessible as it should be. There is no definitive history of video, but as in other disciplines, there are no textbooks. There is, rather, a set 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 only schools with strong regional and historical connections to the early years have developed courses to focus on this history - a history that has been largely an oral tradition supplemented 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 producers and archivists to face another problem. Many of the early tapes cannot be played due 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 screened. It will also ultimately reduce the source material for historians and writers.

"Video History: Making Connections" opened with "Video Rewind," a day-long seminar organized by video historian Deirdre Boyle as an introduction to the history of early independent video in the U.S. The panel consisted of Paul Ryan, author and former Raindance Coalition and TVTV member, Barbara London, Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) video curator, and Parry Teasdale, ex-Videofreek and writer. After introducing the panel Boyle asked everyone present in the room to introduce themselves. This particular gathering of people included pioneer video artists Steina Vasulka and Tony Conrad as well as other artists, curators, teachers, writers, historians, students, distributors and programmers. Boyle screened four tapes including Proto Media Primer (1970), an interview with Abbie Hoffman by Raindance, and Calligrams (1970), an early example of signal alteration by Steina and Woody Vasulka. While these tapes are now considered historical standards, in the context of the seminar the screenings served to reprise some 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 problems inherent in selecting the work that is deemed to be of historical importance. And finally they provoked questions about how the history of video can be expanded to include work that has been neglected.

Both Ryan and Teasdale, members of influential '70s Video collectives, represented the strong historical connection between political and social activism and video production. Ryan's writings constitute a long commitment to a vision of how theory and practice can coalesce. In his presentation he sought to reactivate interest in the particular strain of utopianism present in the video collectives, Referencing the objectives of the collectives and his own projects, Ryan reminded the audience that video can still be harnessed to promote social change and influence social behavior in a meaningful way. He talked of rescuing "utopia" from its naive associations and encouraged those present to reexamine the early history of video in relation to these ideas. Teasdale was more anecdotal as he attempted to recreate the context for his own and other video activists' involvement in collective activities during the '70s. He described the financial and political climate that enabled the Media Bus to develop and read from his forthcoming book on the creation of Lanesville TV in 1972. Lanesville TV was the first pirate television station in the U.S. and represents 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 tenure. Rather than examining her role as a curator or how her vision impacted the institutionalization of video art and particularly video installation, she talked about her concerns with maintaining the integrity of the work in the museum setting and of nurturing emerging artists.