Following the advent of photography at the close of the 19th century, Walter Bejamin wrote that the argument over whether photography was or was not art seemed a futile waste of time and energy when the truth of the matters was that the very invention of photography had transformed the nature of art itself. The emergence of video onto the scene during the late 1960s fostered similar arguments about the position of this new medium within the art world particularly given its kinship to television, the ultimate form of low culture. Experimental video developed as an offspring of art on one hand and television on the other, belonging to both and neither at the same time. Although it shares TV's technology, early American video formed itself in opposition to mainstream television with its emphasis on seductive high speed imagery, collapsed discourse and commercialism. But video's rise coincided with the end of the Modernist Period - a time in which radical political upheaval was occuring not only in society but within the art establishment as well. During the late 1960s with the spread of the feminist, civil rights and anti-war movements, the questioning of authority and the dismantling of power structures represented the code of the day. At the same time, the aesthetic formalism and object-oriented concerns of Modernism were being challenged by new artists with a determined rebelliousness and thus video clearly positioned itself on the other side of the Modernist fence. Although video art was slow to gain acceptance into the sanctioned realm of the high art establishment, like photography, video has irreversibly altered the nature of art in the 20th century. As a new medium, it has remained unfettered by the burden of a constraining, white-male dominated modernist past. Video's use of a disrupted narrative, montage, self-consciousness, a decentered subject, direct address and the blurring of generic boundaries are characteristics shared not only by postmodern art practice but ironically enough, by television as well. Chris Strayer wrote in her Afterimage article 'Sexuality and Video Narrative': "A hybrid form of art and popular culture, video art has been, from its birth, postmodern". Video is a medium which is constantly reinventing itself, in which no one style or aesthetic dominates. However, in its formative period, four major genres of production emerged which I have loosely categorized here as 1) Minimalism / Conceptualism / Process Art, 2) Feminism, 3) Guerilla Television, 4) Image Processing (The Intrinsic Properties of the Medium). Although varying widely in style and form, each genre shares a common rootedness in a revolutionary spirit aimed at critiquing and reformulating the conventions of television and the object-oriented commercialism of the art world. In 1965, Sony introduced 1/2” open reel portable video equipment into the American market for commercial and industrial use. Nam June Paik was the first American- based artist to use video for aesthetic purposes. Many historians and critics have noted the importance of Paik's video works and his early experiments in altering television sets using magnets and other props. While these contributions are undeniable historical significance it is also true that Paik has been written about, exhibited and canonized within the institutionalized art world more than any other video artist, often being referred to as the "Father of Video Art". Therefore, our intention here is to focus on video's overall development and the wide variety of artists, makers and influences that have contributed to its evolution. The story of American video art has yet to be adequately documented: certainly no exhaustive survey has been written. When it is, however, we feel assured that the contributions of feminist makers, guerilla collectives and the pioneers of image processing will deservedly find their place in the history books. Conceptualism, Minimalism, Process and Body Art During the late 60's and early 70's, many young painters and sculptors turned to video and performance as alternatives to the dominant formalism and commodification of the art world. /I cynicism had set in among artists about the ways in which their work was both stripped of meaning and simultaneously coopted into an increasing materialistic international network of art dealers, curators and collectors. This initated a new movement of art that attempted to defy commodification with the art system, i.e. earthworks, minimalism, performance and conceptual art. Many of these artists were among the first to embrace video. Vito Acconci, Bruce Nauman, Richard Serra and Lynda Benglis were successful sculptors and the fact that these artists already had an established identity in the art world drew attention to the new medium of video. Castelli-Sonnabend Tapes and Films was at the forefront in supporting experimental video. As a result of this early interest, the Castelli-Sonnabend Collection of art tapes stands as a cultural marker of the brief, but immensely important, history of video as a developing art form. In the early 80's the Video Data Bank acquired the Castelli Sonnabend collection and began archivally preserving these delicate and endangered works in order to retrieve them for public dissemination. Whereas television was based upon the look of expensive corporate technology, early video work was characterized by a low tech look: grainy black and white, single static or hand held camera; out of focus shots; and unedited tapes. Another characteristic of early video was the use of "reel time". This consisted of using the 30 or 60 minutes available on a reel of videotape to present an event in uninterrupted, actual time. This radically different presentation frequently produced boredom or discomfort for the viewer who was conditioned by the timing and rapid editing of conventional television. The limitations of the portable technology were exploited by alternative television and video art to challenge the look as well as the message of commercial TV. The humorous performances of John Baldessari and William Wegman give us time out from the starkly serious minimal/conceptual background of the 70's art work. Richard Serra's TV Delivers People represents one of the first attempts by a videomaker to deconstruct the cultural power of the media. Vito Acconci's work reflects the spirit of revolutionary activism while investigating a full range of dualities such as active/passive, private/public and art/life. Collectively seen, these works constitute a dynamic survey of the ideas circulating in the American art scene of late 60's and early 70's. Feminism during the later half of the 70's, video technology became increasingly affordable and accessible to artists and producers. At the same time, the feminist movement was rapidly gaining momentum and public attention in its fight against sexism and the oppression of women. For women who had been traditionally excluded from the male-dominated infrastructure of schools, museums, galleries, video offered itself as a fresh site of cultural intervention. Its populist dimensions coupled with its lack of historical and aesthetic limitations attracted American women artists such as Dara Birnbaum, Max Almy, Linda Montano, Suzanne Lacy, Joan Jonas, Martha Rosier and Lynda Benglis. Video provided a conceptual space in which traditional narrative codes could be apppropriated, dismantled and reinvented. Stereotypes of female identities could be addressed directly, autobiographically, humorously and critically. Video could now be used by women to critique the discourse of television as a central purveyor of sexist representations of women. Feminist video artists expanded the parameters of post-modern art practice through the use of appropriation and deconstruction of mass media imagery; multi- vocality; and direct address through performance and voiceover. The impact of feminism upon video art practice in many ways is as powerful today as in the heighth of the Feminist Movement as the terrain of gender/sexuality exploration evolves out of a purely deconstructive mode into a deeper investigation of issues of female identity and desire. Guerrilla Television Although TV had been around since the 50's, the Sony industrial video technology introduced in 1965 is what gave birth to the alternative video movement. The availability of low-cost equipment became a forceful tool which allowed the individual to gain control over the production of videotapes and the representation of political issues and individual viewpoints. Artists and others within the counter cultural movement used this equipment as a field for creative experimentation and a potential tool for social change and cultural intervention. Some of the first users of porta-pacs were "hippy collectives" and the work of groups such as TVTV (Top Value Television), Ant Farm, Videofreex, Global Village and Raindance Corporation became known as "Guerilla TV", named after Michael Shamberg's 1971 book of the same name. According to Deidre Boyle who has written extensively on the subject, guerilla TV was part of a larger alternative media movement in the 60's which posited a critical stance toward mainstream media and which stressed an innovative and alternative approach to coverage of issues and events. Individual producers banded together into collectives partly out of economic and physical necessity since video as a medium of cultural expression made both by and for the people, guerilla television was predicated on the hope of decentralizing and democratizing commercial television. The raw energy and immediacy of the guerilla cinema-verite style was an aesthetic principle dictated by equipment limitations. Since videotape editing was difficult on the first reel to reel systems most videos occurred in real time, without much editing. The wide angle lens which for TVTV became a stylistic trademark, was a technique employed that would compensate for low lighting conditions. These along with other characteristics such as the lack of voiceover and the use of the camera- person/interviewer style of journalism purposely countered the slick polished, rapid-editing look of commercial television. Guerilla TV groups were also closely aligned with the art world, and these video pioneers embraced documentary as art. Video presented itself as a fresh testing ground for the reinvention of journalism, media-language and collective action. Rather than adopting a position of objectivity - of "outside looking in" - these early video "outlaws" questioned authoritative voices and represented events from within the crowd - from a subjective point of view. Since 1972, when TVTV took portable video gear on the convention floor of the Republican Convention for the first time, video equipment has become smaller, lighter, cheaper and technically more advanced. The urgency of issues such as Aids, police brutality and the environment has spawned a new era of video activist work. Despite increased access to more sophisticated production equipment, much of the activist video work today shares the same raw immediacy and style as the early guerilla television. There is a collective spirit to this work which is unabashedly subjective, highly charged and politically determined. Image processing (The distinctive features of the medium) Although video shared television's technology, it did not share its industry dynamics and early video makers did not have access to high- tech costly equipment. Moreover, many artists directly rejected the tools of commercial television and the language represented by those tools. As a result some artist- engineers began building their own instruments which could expand the options of video language by producing electronic manipulations and alterations in the video signal. This involvement with reclaiming and restructuring the tools of electronic image-making also became a process for investigating the distinctive features of the medium: keying, rescanning, feedback, colorizing, switching simultaneous record and playback, time delay, wipes and fades. Rather than simply adopting television's code and conventions these artists sought to invent an entirely new visual language that reflected their own experiences and perceptions. Synthesizers and image processors were built and designed by Stephen Beck, Nam June Paik and Shuya Abe, Eric Siegel, Steve Ratt and Bill Etra, and Dan Sandin at the University of Illinois in Chicago, who helped foster a large and impressive body of Chicago video art. Prospects Communication in the American consumer culture is uni-directional - that is culture tends to be generated not by the people but by mass media or what Stuart Ewen calls, "the captains of consciousness". Throughout its history video art has occupied an ambivalent position situated between the institutionalized art world and the television industry. And yet it is this very disenfranchisement that frees video art from the market constraints of the object-oriented art world and the formal and political limitations of commercial TV. The most recent advent of Video 8 and VMS consumer camcorders, offering low cost video to consumers in the "home market" presents a symbolic new potential for people of different ages, colors, gender, and culture to gain access to media technology. The hope for active community-based cultural production lies in the construction of personal narratives by these producers and artists who can express their own visions and culture to their chosen audiences. Video artists have been and continue to be effective at establishing new structures for video distribution and democratizing media. Today, video can simultaneously be used as an artistic medium for creative expression; a political force for the empowerment of an audience: a deconstruc- tive form for analyzing media practices: and, as a means to document the social events of our times. Through ah of these uses together video is renewing its original mission - as a revolutionary and creative tool which can give voice to the voiceless: which intervenes in the monolithic and deeply embedded social codes of language and image: and, as a methodology for interjecting individual viewpoints in the mega-media structures of modern life.