1. Video Art Review

2. Video Art. Where Did It All Start?
The 1st portable video camera was released to the general public – 1960
Individual artists embrace Video as new and exciting medium. Video art is born – mid 1960s

3. Joan Jonas Nam June Paik
Finding video “very magical” and imagining herself as
“an electronic sorceress conjuring the images”, Jonas
invented the name Organic Honey as an alter ego.
Nam June Paik
For him, video was the most appropriate medium to
reflect modernity. “Skin has become inadequate in
interfacing with reality. Technology has become the
body’s new membrane of existence.” “The future
is now.”

4. Video Art. Where Did It All Start?
Video art movement has strong ties to Conceptual Art, Performance Art, etc.
20th century artists questioned the long tradition of traditional painting (i.e. started using all kinds of materials, installed art outdoors, etc.)

5. American Art in the 60s
The viewers are incorporated into the work of art
A lot of artists emphasize the use of chance and randomness in their art

6. American Art in the 60s Art is very closely related to life
Greater emphasis is being placed on the creative process and the conceptual aspect of the work “Painterly action took precedence over the painted subject” – Michael Rush

7. Video, Film, TV – Main Differences
Video work is not a commercial product for sale or mass consumption.
Video art is a form of self expression
Artists who came to technological media from other forms often transferred their painterly or sculptural concerns to the new medium, whether film, video, or digital art

8. Fluxus Films 1960s -70s

9. Fluxus films
Short films created by artists of the Fluxus movement between 1960 and 1970
Fluxus – (in Latin means “to flow”) Is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s.

10. Fluxus films - Characteristics
Are considered critiques of main-stream film
Minimalist aesthetics (depict minimal action)
Highly poetic & meditative, often with a playful streak
Artists were interested in essentials of film and film techniques
Fluxus artists found meaning in the everyday material of their art
Examples: a collection of 32 short films

11. Nam June Paik – Video Art Pioneer
A Korean-born artist, b 1932.
During Korean War had to flee to Hong Kong and later Japan
Studied music in Germany where he met John Cage and Joseph Beuys
Started making electronic art in the 60s combining video, music, film, etc.

12. Nam June Paik – Video Art Pioneer
Was fascinated with TV sets and the moving images
In the work TV Cello, he and another artist stacked TVs on top one another, so that they formed the shape of an actual cello. When Moorman drew her bow across the “cello,” images of her and other cellists playing appeared on the screens.

13. Zen for Film, Nam June Paik, 1962-64, video
Fluxus film by Paik
Zen for Film, Nam June Paik, , video

14. Video & Performance Art

15. Video & Performance Art
Performance art was born in New York in the 60s as the
result of cross fertilization between theater, dance, film,
video and visual art.
Some examples of performance art involved:
- Live performers interacting with filmed images projected onto surfaces
- Artists performing in front of the camera in their studios
- Artists using cameras and monitors as both theatrical props and sculptural elements in their performances (Ex: Joan Jonas)

16. Joan Jonas – Video, Performance Art
Was born in New York in 1936
Jonas is a pioneer of video and
performance art.
She began her career as a sculptor.
By 1968 she moved into what was
then leading edge territory: mixing
performances with props and mediated images.

17. Joan Jonas – Video, Performance Art
“… in my early performances I was like a piece of material, or an object that moved stiffly, like a puppet or a figure in a medieval painting…
I gave up sculpture and walked into the space…
What attracted me to performance was the possibility of mixing sound, movement, image, all the different elements to make a complex statement.”

18. Joan Jonas – Performance, Video Art
Joan Jonas, This is My Right Eye, 1970s

19. Joan Jonas – Performance, Video Art
Joan Jonas talks about her performance “Mirage” from the 1970s

20. Joan Jonas – Performance, Video Art
Joan Jonas at the Venice Biennale (2009)

21. Bruce Nauman – Video Artist
American artist born December 6, 1941 in Fort Wayne, Indiana
His practice spans a broad range of media including sculpture, photography, neon, video, drawing, printmaking and performance.

22. Bruce Nauman - Performance Art
Walking in an Exaggerated Manner by Bruce Nauman

23. Bruce Nauman - Performance Art
Art 21, Bruce Nauman

24. What is Installation Art?
An artistic genre of site-specific,
three-dimensional works designed to
transform the perception of a space.

25. Video Installation Art
Is a type of installation art in which
video is an integral component.

26. TV Buddha, Nam June Paik, 1974, video installation