Overview

Before 1965, TV was something you watched, not something you made. It was controlled by three big networks. Then Sony released the Portapak—the first portable video camera. Artists like Nam June Paik bought it and said: “Now I can paint with time.” Video art is not “movies” (which tell stories); it is “art” (which explores form, color, and concept).

Core Idea

The core idea is Time as a Medium. A painting is static. A sculpture is static. Video moves. It allows the artist to manipulate time—to slow it down, loop it, or reverse it. It also allows them to critique the power of mass media by using its own tools against it.

Formal Definition

An art form which relies on moving pictures in a visual and audio medium. It is distinct from cinema in that it does not necessarily rely on many of the conventions that define theatrical cinema, such as actors, dialogue, or a narrative plot.

Intuition

  • Cinema: You sit in a dark room and watch a story from beginning to end.
  • Video Art: You walk into a gallery. There is a stack of 50 TVs showing a cello player. Or a projection of a man sleeping for 8 hours. You watch for 2 minutes or 20 minutes. You are the editor.

Examples

  • Nam June Paik, TV Buddha (1974): A statue of Buddha sits in front of a TV. A camera films the Buddha and plays it live on the TV. The Buddha is watching himself watch himself. It is a meditation on technology and narcissism.
  • Bill Viola, The Crossing (1996): A giant slow-motion projection of a man being consumed by fire on one side and water on the other. It looks like a religious painting come to life. It deals with death and rebirth.
  • Pipilotti Rist: Makes colorful, psychedelic videos that are projected on ceilings or floors, often dealing with the female body and pleasure.

Common Misconceptions

  • It’s just a short film: Films have scripts and actors. Video art is often abstract or repetitive. It is closer to music or poetry than to Hollywood.
  • It’s boring: Warhol’s Empire (8 hours of the Empire State Building) is boring. That’s the point. It forces you to notice the tiny changes in light that you usually ignore.
  • Glitch Art: Using the errors and static of digital video as an aesthetic choice.
  • Closed Circuit: An installation where the camera films the audience and shows them on the screen live (surveillance art).
  • Single-Channel vs. Multi-Channel: Single-channel is one screen (like a TV). Multi-channel is an installation with many screens playing different parts of the work.

Applications

  • Music Videos: The aesthetics of MTV (quick cuts, surreal imagery) were heavily stolen from experimental video art.
  • Vjing: Live video mixing at clubs is a direct descendant of video art performance.

Criticism / Limitations

  • Obsolescence: Technology changes fast. Works made on VHS tapes in the 80s are now rotting or unplayable. Museums have to constantly migrate them to new formats.
  • Attention Span: It asks a lot of the viewer to stand in a gallery and watch a 20-minute loop.

Further Reading

  • Rush, Michael. Video Art. 2003.
  • London, Barbara. Video/Art: The First Fifty Years. 2020.
  • Youngblood, Gene. Expanded Cinema. 1970.