NOW AVAILABLE AS A
DVD BOX SET!

Surveying the First Decade:
Video Art and Alternative Media in the U.S. 1968-1980

Video Data Bank is pleased to announce the publication of the DVD box set edition of Surveying the First Decade: Video Art and Alternative Media in the U.S. 1968-1980. Since its original release in 1995, this comprehensive two-volume, eight program package on the history of experimental and independent video has only been available on VHS tape. The DVD launch will bring this essential tool for the understanding of the development of media arts to a whole new generation of teachers, libraries, students and researchers.

The entire anthology (Volumes 1 & 2) includes more than 16 hours of historic video: 68 seminal titles by 60+ artists curated into eight programs ranging from conceptual, performance-based, feminist, and image-processed works, to documentary and grassroots community-based genres. The box set is accompanied by REWIND, a 200+ page study guide with curator’s essay, program and tape descriptions, extended bibliography, biographies and videographies of artists and a guide to collections of early video materials.

“The release of this fabulous comprehensive history of independent video art couldn’t be more timely. It is especially critical for this vital and diverse history to appear now, when there is a whole new generation of videomakers and viewers.”
--Martha Rosler, artist, educator and critic

Included in REWIND is an essay by Chris Hill.
It can be downloaded here.

Price and Ordering Information:

Volumes 1 and 2 $1500
Volume 1 $800
Volume 2 $800

Shipping $35 US; $50 Canada;
Request a Quote for Overseas Shipping

Ordering: To place an order, please contact us via email, info@vdb.org,
phone, 312-345-3550, or fax, 312-541-8073 with shipping and payment information.

Payment: Purchase order, credit card or wire transfer. All overseas orders must be prepaid.

Format: Multi-Region DVD

License: Educational purchase only, no rental or public exhibition permitted.

Producer: Kate Horsfield
Curator: Christine Hill
Project Coordinator: Maria Troy
Consultants to the project: Deirdre Boyle, Doug Hall, Ulysses Jenkins,
Barbara London, Ken Marsh, Leanne Mella, Martha Rosler, Steina Vasulka, and Lori Zippay.

Surveying the First Decade:
Video Art and Alternative Media in the U.S.  1968-1980

Volume 1
7:47:00       

Program 1: Explorations of Presence, Performance, and Audience
1:57:25

Performer/Audience/Mirror, Dan Graham, 1975 22:45
Selected Works (Dog Duet, Used Car Salesman, Dog Biscuit in Glass Jar),
William Wegman, 1972, 08:44
Baldessari Sings LeWitt, John Baldessari,1972, 03:38 (excerpted from 12:50)
Undertone, Vito Acconci, 1972, 09:15 (excerpted from 37:20)
Vertical Roll, Joan Jonas, 1972, 19:37
My Father, Shigeko Kubota, 1975, 14:46
Exchange, Robert Morris, 1973, 36:02

Program 2: Investigations of the Phenomenal World – Space, Sound, and Light
1:55:45

Black and White Tapes, Paul McCarthy, 1970-75, 06:30 (excerpted from 33:00)
Stamping In The Studio, Bruce Nauman, 1968, 05:00, (excerpted from 1:01:35)
Double Vision, Peter Campus, 1971, 14:22
Boomerang, Richard Serra with Nancy Holt, 1974, 10:27
Island Song, Charlemagne Palestine, 1976, 16:02
Cycles of 3s and 7s, Tony Conrad, 1976, 02:51 (excerpted from 30:54)
The Children's Tapes, Terry Fox, 1974, 29:36
Soundings, Gary Hill, 1979, 17:41
Lightning, Paul and Marlene Kos, 1976, 01:17
Sweet Light, Bill Viola, 1977, 09:07

Program 3: Approaching Narrative – "There are Problems to be Solved"
1:57:30

The Red Tapes Part II, Vito Acconci, 1976, 57:55
Out of the Body Travel, Richard Foreman, 1976, 23:50 (excerpted from 42:00)
The Continuing Story of Carel and Ferd, Arthur Ginsberg and Video Free America, 1972-75, 33:15 (excerpted from 1:00:00)

Program 4: Gendered Confrontations
1:56:20

Art Herstory, Hermine Freed, 1974, 14:49 (excerpted from 22:00)
Female Sensibility, Lynda Benglis, 1973, 13:05
Ama L'Uomo Tuo (Always Love Your Man), Cara DeVito, 1975, 18:52
The Mom Tapes, Ilene Segalove, 1974-78, 03:39 (excerpted from 26:52)
Primal Scenes, Linda Montano, 1980, 09:52
Nun and Deviant, Nancy Angelo, 1976, 14:08 (excerpted from 20:28)
Vital Statistics of a Citizen, Simply Obtained, Martha Rosler, 1977, 39:16

Volume 2
8:39:00
       
Program 5: Performance of Video-Imaging Tools
1:54:05

Calligrams, Steina and Woody Vasulka, 1970, 04:00 (excerpted from 12:00)
Illuminatin' Sweeney, Skip Sweeney, 1975, 05:00, (excerpted from 28:38)
Video Weavings, Stephen Beck, 1976, 04:06 (excerpted from 28:00)
Five-minute Romp through the IP, Dan Sandin, 1973, 06:34
Triangle in Front of Square in Front of Circle in Front of Triangle, Dan Sandin, 1973, 01:40
Video-Taping, Ernest Gusella, 1974, 02:41
Exquisite Corpse, Ernest Gusella, 1978, 08:23
Einstine, Eric Siegel, 1968, 05:22
General Motors, Phil Morton, 1976, 10:25 (excerpted from 1:00:00)
Merce by Merce by Paik, Nam June Paik, 1978, 27:27
Crossings and Meetings, Ed Emshwiller, 1974, 04:04 (excerpted from 27:33)
Complex Wave Forms, Ralph Hocking, 1977, 04:11 (excerpted from 05:00)
Pictures of the Lost, Barbara Buckner, 1978, 08:04 (excerpted from 23:00)
Video Locomotion (man performing forward hand leap) , Peer Bode, 1978, 04:56
Music on Triggering Surfaces, Peer Bode, 1978, 03:06
C-Trend, Woody Vasulka, 1974, 07:19 (excerpted from 09:00)
Switch! Monitor! Drift!, Steina Vasulka, 1976, 03:48

Program 6: Decentralized Communications Projects
1:58:15

Mayday Realtime, David Cort and Curtis Ratcliff, 1971, 10:27 (excerpted from 1:00:00)
People's Video Theater (Women's Liberation March NYC, Gay Pride March NYC, Young Lords Occupy Manhattan Church, Native American Action at Plymouth Rock), People's Video Theatre (Elliot Glass and Ken Marsh), 1970-72, 28:22 (excerpts)
Participation, Steina and Woody Vasulka, 1969-71, 04:37 (excerpted from 30:00)
First Transmission of ACTV, George Stoney and Austin Community Television (ACTV), 1972, 04:31 (excerpted from 8:00)
Jonesboro Storytelling Festival: Kathryn Windham Telling Ghost Stories (The Jumbo Light), Broadside TV , 1974, 05:22
The Politics of Intimacy, Julie Gustafson, 1974, 09:26 (excerpted from 52:20)
Attica Interviews, Portable Channel, 1971, 08:44 (excerpted from 30:00)
Queen Mother Moore Speech at Greenhaven Prison, People's Communications Network, 1973, 17:41 (excerpted from 1:03:00)
The Laughing Alligator, Juan Downey, 1979, 26:30

Program 7: Critiques of Art and Media as Commodity and Spectacle
1:49:25

Eternal Frame, Ant Farm and T.R.Uthco, 1976, 22:19
Television Delivers People, Richard Serra and Carlotta Fay Schoolman, 1973, 05:55
The Business of Local News, University Community Video-Minneapolis, 1974, 16:57 (excerpted from 25:00)
Proto Media Primer, Paul Ryan and Raindance Corporation, 1970, 14:42
About Media, Anthony Ramos, 1977, 15:36 (excerpted from 26:00)
Fifty Wonderful Years, Optic Nerve, 1973, 25:59
Technology /Transformation: Wonder Woman, Dara Birnbaum, 1978, 05:25

Program 8: Independents Address TV Audiences
2:57:15

Healthcare: Your Money or Your Life, Downtown Community TV (DVTV) , 1977, 57:00
The Ruling Classroom, Peter Bull and Alex Gibney , 1979-80, 57:38
Four More Years, Top Value Television (TVTV), 1972, 1:00:15

Total Running Time: 16:26:00