Essays

Here you will find PDFs of essays commissioned by the Video Data Bank on the subject of video art and artists, as well as a range of essays about individual artists' work.

We will be adding more content here on a regular basis, so check back often!

Title Authorsort icon Source
Radical Closure Akram Zaatari Video Data Bank
Stories from a Generation: Video Art at the Woman's Building Cecilia Dougherty [From Site to Vision] The Woman's Building in Contrmporary Culture
Surveying the First Decade: Video Art and Alternative Media in the U.S. 1968-1980: Attention! Production! Audience! Performing Video in its First Decade, 1968-1980 Chris Hill Video Data Bank
Video Art Was Born Subversive Davidson Gigliotti Author
Grow Gills and Swim: The Evolution of Activist Video Gregg Bordowitz Video Data Bank
Koken Ergun: Personal Works of Public Ceremonies. Ian White Ars Cameralis
Tom Rubnitz / Dynasty Handbag Jibz Cameron, Josh Lubin-Levy, Bryan Bauman, John Kelly, Lady Bunny, Nicholas De Villiers and Joe E. Jeffreys Dirty Looks Screening Series
Feminism and Video: A View from the Village Joan Braderman Camera Obscura 64, Volume 22, Number 1
Busting the Tube: A Brief History of Video Art Kate Horsfield Video Data Bank
I Say I Am: Women's Performance Video from the 1970s Maria Troy Video Data Bank
Two or three things I know about him Mark Westmoreland MIT List Visual Arts Center
Ironic Nostalgia: an Interview with Nelson Henricks Mike Hoolboom Practical Dreamers: Conversations with Movie Artists, Mike Hoolboom, 2007
Perception as Transcendence: Interview with Paweł Wojtasik Scott MacDonald Film Quarterly