Re: looking for good intro text

From: Tony Conrad (email suppressed)
Date: Fri Dec 04 2009 - 12:58:44 PST

Hi Bernie-----------

In video, Chris Hill's great collection, Surveying the First Decade (Video Data
Bank), uniquely expresses the kind of breadth and depth you're looking for. I am
not sure her accompanying collation of texts has been published.

----------t0ny
  

On Fri 12/04/09 3:30 PM , Bernard Roddy email suppressed sent:
> Thank you, guys.
>
> In contrast to my dream list a while back this title makes obvious
> educational and financial sense, particularly if the history of video art
> in the U.S. and Canada were covered (Experimental Television Center, Video
> Data Bank, Electronic Arts Intermix, VTape, Bay Area Video Coalition,
> Visual Studies Workshop, etc. etc.). This could be an inquiry into course
> packs, but it's ridiculous we still have to rely on that. We're not
> talking here about graduate education, where course packs are
> understandable. A published text book signals to new students that there
> is a credible discipline. Such a text would not be some final authority,
> but would provide a variety of entry points for different kinds of courses
> taught by faculty who work in film or video and who share a particular
> orientation toward art and art history. For me it is essential that there
> be a theoretical basis that motivates insisting on individual practices.
> David James would be ideal wherefilm is concerned. Where video is concerned
this is an even greater
> challenge. But such a text also requires the pen of someone who has
> weathered the storms of actual practice. Scott MacDonald comes very close.
> But he seems engaged in a kind of archeology of cinema at the expense of
> video.
> It seems that whenever I search for such a text I am either reading about
> British work and/or reading the writing of artists about their own work
> (criticism/journalism). When I consider extremely accomplished thinkers
> the work discussed is not avant-garde (and here the term must retain its
> radical edge) and/or it is serious scholarship.
> Bernie
>
>
>
>
> --- On Fri, 12/4/09, Jonathan Walley ENISON.EDU> wrote:
> > From: Jonathan Walley ENISON.EDU>> Subject: Re: looking for good intro
> text> To: F
> email suppressed> Date: Friday, December 4, 2009, 12:58
> PM>
> > Brett is absolutely right about Renan's book.
> I> didn't mention it because it ends at 1967
> (obviously). A> somewhat "journalistic" account, but
> an easy and> entertaining read. Renan's enthusiasm for the
> subject,> unadorned by a lot of theoretical jargon,
> is> refreshing.
> > JW
> >
> >
> > Jonathan
> > WalleyAssistant
> Professor, Department of> CinemaDenison UniversityGranville,
> > Ohio 43203http://www.denison.edu/academics/departments/cinema/jwalle
> y.html>
> > On Dec 4, 2009, at 12:10 PM, Brett
> Kashmere> wrote:
> > It's
> > not perfect, and it's probably no longer in
> print, but> I've always been partial to Sheldon Renan's
> "An> Introduction to the American Underground
> Film"> (1967). 
> > It's written in a straight-forward manner
> and> covers a pretty wide range of filmmakers and
> trends,> including some consideration of expanded cinema,
> intermedia> performance, computer films, etc, towards the
> end.> I
> > don't remember exactly, but I believe there is
> also some> attention given to developments in the
> distribution and> exhibition of avant-garde films, and to
> publications like> Film Culture.
> > Brett
> > KashmerePittsburgh 
> >
> > ----------------
> > Date:    Thu,
> 3> Dec 2009 19:25:44 -0800From: 
>   Bernard> Roddy OO.COM>Subject:> looking for good intro text
> > Greetings,
> > frameworkers:
> > Can
> > anyone think of an introductory text that
> combines a history> of experimental film and video IN THE U.S. with
> a strong> discussion of the history of artists'
> organizing,> writing, and distribution IN THE
> US? > For
> > Great Britain there's David Curtis' A History
> of> Artists' Film and Video in Britain. 
> This has the> distinct advantage of combining film and video
> art criticism> with strong (and introductory) writing about the
> social> history behind production, distribution, and
> critical> reception. 
> > It includes discussion of
> "little> magazines," the "schooling" of
> film artists,> institutional support for artists' work in film
> such as> the Experimental Film Fund and the Arts Council,
> as well as> issues motivating and confronting artists'
> organizations> like the London Filmmakers' Co-op.
> > I'd
> > love to find something like this for the
> U.S.  It would include> a history of things like Canyon Cinema and
> the> Film-Makers' Co-op, Cinema 16 and Anthology
> Film> Archives, in addition to offering a critical
> context for> student work.
> > Thanks
> > in advance.
> > Bernie
> >
> >    
>  >
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> __________________________________________________________________
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__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.