History of Video Art

This course will survey video art and alternative
media practice following the introduction of
portable video recording equipment in the late
1960s. This term the course will also
specifically integrate video art from various
Latin American and Caribbean cultural scenes in
conjunction with the Getty-sponsored LA/LA
exhibitions held in various museums and galleries
throughout the southern California. Guest
speakers will include two Getty video curators
and LA/LA artists. From both North American and
Latin American video scenes we will examine early
video projects responding to a radical late 60s
shift in cultural strategies where perceptual
process and performance were often valorized over
art product, where artists explored properties of
the electronic signal, and how media consumers
and grassroots documentarians were approached as
potential producers in efforts to democratize
telecommunications. We will examine video work
from the 1980s through mid 90s that registered
theoretical shifts from post-minimalism to
post-modernism together with the impact of new
subjectivities. And an examination of the impact
of digital and new technologies in the mid 1990s
will set the stage for "new media" and the net
cultural environment. Readings will focus on
critical texts by curators and critics and
writings by artists. Students will keep a weekly
journal and also complete a short written
assignment. The course is open to both BFAs and
MFAs, and fulfills Critical Studies criteria.
Permission of instructor required.