Re: <nettime> The Premature Birth of Video Art

[marcelo@brumaria.net]

hi andreas and tom,

apart from tom's concrete questioning of the actual myth of origins
concerning video-art, i.e., the fact that there might be some "practical"
objections to it (objections which i share), there are also some problems
concerning the foundational character of that myth - that is: the kind of
mythology we construct, narrate, and reproduce, creates a certain
"identity" or (mystified) "nature" of a practice - (see, of course,
rosler's "video: shedding the utopian moment" and sturken's "the
construction of a history") -

if you accept that the "origins" of video-art can be established "before"
the actual tool was created, or available, then - what does it "mean" to
point at paik's manipulation of tv sets as "the" origin of video? think
about the importance that feminist film theory and practice might have had
for certain uses of video for feminist artists, or think about the
possible influence of militant film or modern political cinema in certain
guerrilla television, decentralised communication (community) video
practices; or, on a complete different level, what about
structural-materialist and alike film as a reference for those who tried
to "open and widen the doors of human perception" in video-art and
experimental tv?

the discussion, as i see it, is not about the "truth", but about the
"politics" of a history-construction and myth-narration - and that has to
do with what we want an "art practice" to be today -

nevertheless... i do like paik, yes :))

marcelo * **


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