American Artists' Film and Video: Pioneers and Contemporaries

Overview

This course aims to introduce a number of key themes, ideas, and methods which have been used by artists working with film in video over the last sixty years in the United States. Rather than attempting to provide a complete historical overview we will focus on the pioneering ideas present in the years between 1945 and 1975 and the way in which those ideas have been taken up by contemporary practitioners today.

Aims

By the end of the module, students should have acquired:

• A broad overview of American film and video practice between 1945 and 1975.
• A particular awareness of the historical debates surrounding artists’ film and video from the mid twentieth century and an in-depth knowledge of contemporary scholarship.
• A broad understanding of the technological characteristics of film and video as very different media, and an awareness of the choices practitioners were making in using them during the period.
• An ability to examine American video-performance practice in comparison with that of Western and Eastern Europe, and South America in the same period.
• The ability to discuss film and video practice in relation to social and historical change in the USA between 1945 and 1975.
• An awareness of problems of display and access to video works, especially problems of medium and preservation.

Outline

Possible seminar outline:

• Psychodrama: Jean Coctaeu, Maya Deren, Kenneth Anger, John Bock, Ryan Trecartin
• The painted screen: Harry Smith, Len Lye, Stan Brakhage, Jennifer West
• Found footage and collage: Joseph Cornell, Ken Jacobs, Bruce Conner, Dara Birnbaum
• ‘Documenting’ subcultures: Jack Smith, Vivienne Dick, Andy Warhol
• Structural Film: Paul Sharits, Michael Snow, Hollis Frampton
• Video and Narcissism: Acconci, Hannah Wilke, Lynda Benglis
• Gender and Sexuality on tape: Martha Rosler, Linda Montano, Elisabeth Subrin
• Performance for Video: Chris Burden, Vito Acconci, Marina Abramovic, Joan Jonas
• Video Installation,  Environments, and Expanded Cinema