From Performance to Video/Electronic/Film-based Art "The artist is a visionary about life. Only he can create disorder and still get away with it. Only he can use technology to its fullest capacity. The artists have to use technology because technology is becoming inseparable from lives." – Billy Klüver

Marshall McLuhan Understanding Media, first published in 1964 The period after World War-II in the US is considered the final birth of television.  The explosion of sets into the American marketplace occurred in 1948-1949.

The Sony AV-3400 Portapak, 1967, magnetic tape recording for home movies “A generation whose childhood had been dominated by broadcast television was now able to get its hands on a means of TV production. The machine was relatively inexpensive ($1,500), light- weight, easy to use and reliable, and it produced a decent black-and-white image with acceptable audio. Tape was reusable and inexpensive. The video portapak helped trigger a range of activity linking video with social change.” (Ryan Paul) “The Portapak would seem to have been invented specifically for use by artists.” (Freed Hermine)

Bruce Nauman (US, b. 1941), Art Makeup, White, Black, Pink, Green, 1967-8, performance video stills

Bruce Nauman, Slow Angle Walk (Beckett Walk) (1968) Bruce Nauman, Slow Angle Walk (Beckett Walk) (1968). Video, 60 min My name as though it were written on the surface of the moon.

Bruce Nauman, Video performances, 1968-9

Director’s introduction to the 2014-2015 exhibition at the Asia Society, New York City: Nam June Paik: Becoming Robot

Nam June Paik (left) began interfering with television images in the early 1960s; (right) TV Magnet, 1965 “Some day artists will work with capacitors, resistors and semi-conductors as they work today with brushes, violins and junk.” Nam June Paik

Nam June Paik, Global Groove, 1974; Paik in studio of WGBH, which broadcast Global Groove 'This is a glimpse of a video landscape of tomorrow when you will be able to switch on any TV station on the earth and TV guides will be as fat as the Manhattan telephone book.' - Nam June Paik

Nam June Paik, Global Groove, 1974

Paik, Video Fish, 1975, Three channel video installation with aquariums, water, 45 live Japanese fish, Pompidou Center (Paris) collection, 7 of 15 monitors

Nam June Paik, Video Flag, (1985-1996) (Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, DC). Sound: "Statement" by Koxbox. 70 video monitors, 4 laser disc players, computer, timers, electrical devices, wood and metal housing on rubber wheels, 94 x 139 x 48 in.

Nam June Paik in collaboration with Norman Ballard, Paul Garrin, David Hartnett, and Stephen Vitiello, Modulation in Sync, 2000. Three-channel video and stereo sound installation with 100 monitors, seven projectors, two lasers, water, mirrors, projection screens, and metal structure, variable dimensions. Paik retrospective, Guggenheim NYC

Doug Aitken (California b Doug Aitken (California b.1968) Sleepwalkers, Jan-Feb, 2007, 8 projections on MoMA NYC exterior walls

Doug Aiken, Sleepwalkers, eight projections on the Museum of Modern Art in NYC 5-10 pm nightly, January-February 2007

Mona Hatoum (b. 1952) Palestinian-Lebanese based in London (right) video still from So Much I Want to Say, 1983 Mona Hatoum, Light at the End, 1989, London, iron frame and six electric heating elements

Mona Hatoum, still from Measures of Distance, 15-minute video, 1988

Mona Hatoum, clip from Measures of Distance, 15-minute video, 1988

Mona Hatoum, Current Disturbance, 1996, visitor hears the electric current feeding flashing lightbulbs in a minimalist structure of metal cages. The bulbs light up and fade out at irregular intervals, illuminating the room and the mass of wiring on the floor, creating a sense of physical threat, a commentary on the dangers of contemporary separation and connection. Postminimalist detail

Pipilotti Rist, Selfless In The Bath Of Lava, 1994, audio video installation (video still) PS1 Long Island City, New York. Tiny screen under the floorboards near the entrance

Pipilotti Rist (Swiss b Pipilotti Rist (Swiss b. 1963), Ever is all over, video installation (two overlapping projections), 1997 Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2007

Pipilotti Rist (Swiss b Pipilotti Rist (Swiss b. 1963), Ever Is All Over, video installation (two overlapping projections) 1997, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2007

Pipilotti Rist, Pour Your Body Out, video/audio installation at MoMA NYC 2008

Pipilotti Rist, Pour Your Body Out, video/audio installation at MoMA NYC 2008

Shirin Neshat (Iranian b Shirin Neshat (Iranian b. 1957, based in New York) Two images from the 1994 Women of Allah series, ink on photograph, text is Farsi poetry

Shirin Neshat, still from The Shadow under the Web, film transferred to DVD and projected as installation, 1997. Neshat synthesizes new image technology; Iranian, American, and European film aesthetics; the poetry, music and songs of her homeland, and the global fusion sounds of Phillip Glass. Two years after producing this work she was declared an enemy of the Iranian state.

“Leaving has offered me incredible personal development, a sense of independence that I don't think I would have had. But there's also a great sense of isolation. And I've permanently lost a complete sense of center. I can never call any place home. I will forever be in a state of in-between.” - Neshat, 2000

Tania Bruguera (b. 1968 Havana, Cuba) Poetic Justice, 2002-2003, video Installation, used tea bags, 8 one-second selection from several international historic newsreels, 8 LCD screens, 8 DVD discs, 8 DVD players | 62.33' x 6.2' x 11.8'

Tania Bruguera, Poetic Justice (details), 2002-2003, video Installation