Research Guides: Art History: Video &amp; Media Art

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Video Art

Video art emerged in the 1960s as new consumer video technology (video tape recorders, etc.) became more easily available outside of corporate broadcasting. If you don't have an artist in mind already, you can browse/discover a list of artists on the Video Data Bank website that lists a comprehensive amount of artists whose work is primarily or intersects with video art practice. Suggested resources to learn more:

"Video Art" overview via Oxford Art Online
An introduction to the medium of video art with an excellent bibliography.
"The Rich History of Video Art from 1973 to Today" via Hyperallergic (reputable online art news forum)
A great overview from Hyperallergic which is an online publication and leading voice in contemporary perspectives on art, culture, and more. It was founded in 2009 and provides art world news with insightful and critical commentary.
A history of video art : the development of form and function by Chris Meigh-Andrews, 2006.
A critical introduction and guide to artists' video in both Europe and North America, this title covers the period from the early 1960s - when video art first appeared as a distinctive medium - into the 1990s, when digital technology merged video's distinctive practice with that of independent film-making and photography.
"TV as a Creative Medium" Exhibition Brochure
In May of 1969, the Howard Wise Gallery in New York presented TV as a Creative Medium, the first exhibition in the United States devoted entirely to video as a form of art. Schneider recorded this historical document of the landmark exhibition. Soon after the exhibition Howard Wise closed his gallery and in 1971 founded Electronic Arts Intermix, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the support of video as a means of creative expression.

Video Art Resources

Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) This link opens in a new window
EAI is a nonprofit arts organization that is a resource for video and media art. An advocate of media art and artists since 1971, EAI's core program is the distribution and preservation of a collection of over 4,000 new and historical video works by artists. UCI Libraries subscribes to EAI's Educational Streaming Site, a special subscription-access layer of the EAI Online Catalogue. Full-length streaming videos are available for many of the artists represented in their collection.

Lux
LUX is an arts organisation that supports and promotes visual artists working with the moving image. The collection contains over 4000 films and videos by over 1000 international artists, ranging from the 1920s to the present.
UbuWeb
Definitive source for all things avant-garde on the internet. Over 2500 full-length avant-garde films and videos, both streaming and downloadable, a vast repository of papers about audio, performance, conceptual art, and poetry.
Video Data Bank (VDB)
Founded at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) in 1976 at the inception of the media arts movement, Video Data Bank (VDB) is a leading resource in the United States for video by and about contemporary artists. The VDB’s collection has grown to include the work of more than 600 artists and 6,000 video art titles. While their website does not offer streaming, you can request that UCI Libraries either license films to stream, or purchase a physical copy from their catalog.
Video History Project
The Experimental Television Center’s Video History Project is an on-going research initiative which documents video art and community television, as it evolved in rural and urban New York State, and across the US.
Canyon Cinema
Canyon Cinema Foundation is dedicated to educating the public about independent, non-commercial, experimental, avant-garde, and artist-made moving images. Canyon Cinema began in filmmaker Bruce Baillie’s Canyon, California backyard in 1961 as a forum for filmmakers to share work with each other and the community.

Art On Screen

Art on Screen (1970-1998 with select coverage 1915-1969)
An online compilation of bibliographic information about moving-image productions on the visual arts. Keyword searching provides access to titles, producers, directors, writers, editors, animators, narrators, composers, synopses, as well as language, genre, intended audience, reviews, and awards.

Film Archives

The Paley Center for Media
The Paley Center's permanent media collection contains nearly 150,000 television and radio programs and advertisements.
UCLA Film and Television Archive
One of the largest collections of media materials in the United States
Margaret Herrick Library
With over 10 million photographs, 300,000 clipping files, 80,000 screenplays 35,000 movie posters and 32,000 books, the Academy’s Margaret Herrick Library maintains one of the most extensive collections of movie-related materials ever assembled.
Hugh M. Hefner Moving Image Archive
comprised of approximately 70,000 motion picture negatives, magnetic sound elements, release prints and a growing percentage of moving image materials in digital formats.
Iota Library and Study Center
iota has assembled an extensive media collection uniquely focused on abstraction in film, video, performance and installation art. Along with the collection there is a small Screening Room equipped with a full HD projector donated by Epson. The video library collection and screening room, housed at iota's headquarters in Culver City, CA, is available for study by scholars, students and the general public.
Archive of American Television
the Television Academy Foundation’s Archive of American Television has conducted nearly 700 long-form videotaped interviews with the pioneers of television. These interviews chronicle the birth and growth of American TV History.
Animation Archive
The ASIFA-Hollywood Archive’s primary focus is on serving creative professionals working within the business and students of the art form who want to acquire the necessary skills to become animators.
VIsual Communications
VC owns and maintains one of the most extensive repositories of 20th century Asian Pacific American culture and history. Our archives hold over 300,000 photographic images, 1,500+ titles in the Media Resource Library, and over 1,000 hours of oral histories and interviews

Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) Catalog
AMIA is a non-profit professional association established to advance the field of moving image archiving by fostering cooperation among individuals and organizations concerned with the collection, description, preservation, exhibition and use of moving images
British Pathe
Claiming to be the "world’s first digital news archive," this site allows you to preview selections from the entire 3500 hour British Pathe Film Archive, covering news, sport, social history, and entertainment from 1896 to 1970.
Black Film Center/Archive
Film/TV documentation collections
Information regarding documentation centers and their services, as well as the nature and availability of their holdings.
The International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF)
FIAF is a collaborative association of more than 120 of the world’s leading film archives from 65 different countries with the purpose of ensuring the proper preservation and showing of motion pictures.
The Museum of Broadcast Communications
The site for the Chicago’s famous Museum of Broadcast Communications, this site provides information on the Museum’s holdings of more than 85,000 hours of radio and television programs and commercials.
Moving Image Collections
MIC lets you discover, locate, and even (in some cases) view moving images from around the world. MIC’s two databases can be searched from anywhere on the site.
National Film Preservation Board
The arm of the Library of Congress that is responsible for film conservation and preservation issues, the site contains valuable links to other entities around the world dedicated to film preservation.
National Film Preservation Foundation
A non-profit organization created by an act of Congress, the Foundation has been charged with the task of supporting film archives around the United States.
National Film Registry
Overseen by the National Film Preservation Board, the registry is the list of films that have been deemed most important and have been preserved. Each year, 25 new films are preserved and added to the list.
Public Moving Image Archives and Research Centers
Links from the National Film Preservation Board to websites of film and TV archives.

Vietnam Film Institute

Vanderbilt TV News Archive

The world's most extensive and complete archive of television news. We have been recording, preserving and providing access to television news broadcasts of the national networks since August 5, 1968.

Archive Grid
ArchiveGrid helps researchers looking for primary source materials held in archives, libraries, museums and historical societies. Information can be searched by topic or specific archive. Includes +5 million records describing archival materials and over 1,000 different archival institutions represented.
Calisphere
Calisphere provides free access to unique and historically important artifacts for research, teaching, and curious exploration. Discover over one million photographs, documents, letters, artwork, diaries, oral histories, films, advertisements, musical recordings, and more. The collections on Calisphere have been digitized and contributed by all ten campuses of the University of California, and other important libraries, archives, and museums throughout the state.
Online Archive of California
Provides access to descriptions and finding aids for materials such as manuscripts, photographs, and works of art held in libraries, museums, archives, and other institutions across California.
National Film Archives--Motion Picture Films and Sound and Video Recordings
The website for the National Archives Motion Picture Films and Sound and Recordings Division features extensive finding aids to the physical collections in Washington D.C., as well as for the presidential libraries.