Video Art

A personal and expert account of the artists and events that defined the medium's first 50 years - now in paperback Since the introduction of portable consumer electronics nearly a half century ago, artists throughout the world have adapted their latest technologies to art-making. In this new paperback edition of her acclaimed book, curator Barbara London traces the history of video art as it transformed into the broader field of media art - from analog to digital, small TV monitors to wall-scale projections, and clunky hardware to user-friendly software. In doing so, she reveals how video evolved from fringe status to be seen as one of the foremost art forms of today.

“There are more than 50 creative prompts for the artist (or artist at heart) to explore. Take the title of this book as affirmation, and get started.” —Fast Company More than 50 assignments, ideas, and prompts to expand your world and help you make outstanding new things to put into it Curator Sarah Urist Green left her office in the basement of an art museum to travel and visit a diverse range of artists, asking them to share prompts that relate to their own ways of working. The result is You Are an Artist, a journey of creation through which you'll invent imaginary friends, sort books, declare a cause, construct a landscape, find your band, and become someone else (or at least try). Your challenge is to filter these assignments through the lens of your own experience and make art that reflects the world as you see it. You don't have to know how to draw well, stretch a canvas, or mix a paint color that perfectly matches that of a mountain stream. This book is for anyone who wants to make art, regardless of experience level. The only materials you'll need are what you already have on hand or can source for free. Full of insights, techniques, and inspiration from art history, this book opens up the processes and practices of artists and proves that you, too, have what it takes to call yourself one. You Are an Artist brings together more than 50 assignments gathered from some of the most innovative creators working today, including Sonya Clark, Michelle Grabner, The Guerrilla Girls, Fritz Haeg, Pablo Helguera, Nina Katchadourian, Toyin Ojih Odutola, J. Morgan Puett, Dread Scott, Alec Soth, Gillian Wearing, and many others.

An exploration of film as an art form that discusses artists' involvement in the medium, movements that significantly affected film, and prominent artists and filmmakers, including Salvador Dali, Anthony McCall, Andy Warhol, and others.

'I always keep a copy of Art & Fear on my bookshelf' JAMES CLEAR, author of the #1 best-seller Atomic Habits 'A book for anyone and everyone who wants to face their fears and get to work' DEBBIE MILLMAN, author and host of the podcast Design Matters 'A timeless cult classic ... I've stolen tons of inspiration from this book over the years and so will you' AUSTIN KLEON, NYTimes bestselling author of Steal Like an Artist 'The ultimate pep talk for artists. ... An invaluable guide for living a creative, collaborative life.' WENDY MACNAUGHTON, illustrator Art & Fear is about the way art gets made, the reasons it often doesn't get made, and the nature of the difficulties that cause so many artists to give up along the way. Drawing on the authors' own experiences as two working artists, the book delves into the internal and external challenges to making art in the real world, and shows how they can be overcome every day. First published in 1994, Art & Fear quickly became an underground classic, and word-of-mouth has placed it among the best-selling books on artmaking and creativity. Written by artists for artists, it offers generous and wise insight into what it feels like to sit down at your easel or keyboard, in your studio or performance space, trying to do the work you need to do. Every artist, whether a beginner or a prizewinner, a student or a teacher, faces the same fears - and this book illuminates the way through them.

"Moving pictures -- Balkan Baroque / Marina Abramovic -- 3 adaptation studies (1. Blindfolded catching) / Vito Acconci -- Talo/The house / Eija-Liisa Ahtila -- Electric earth / Doug Aitken -- Homeward : bound / Oladélé Ajiboyé Bamgboyé -- Mother + father / Candice Breitz -- Sept visions fugitives / Robert Cahen -- Three transitions / Peter Campus -- The Bordeaux piece / David Claerbout -- Journey into fear / Stan Douglas -- Schnitte. Elemente der Anschauung / Valie Export -- Lock again / Yang Fudong -- Sturm / Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster -- Twenty four hour psycho / Douglas Gordon -- Video piece for two glass office buildings / Dan Graham -- Incidence of catastrophe / Gary Hill -- Impressions / Nan Hoover -- Les incivils / Pierre Huyghe -- Jones Beach piece / Joan Jonas -- Bossy burger / Paul McCarthy -- Again & again / Bjørn Melhus -- Dispersion room / Aernout Mik -- Anthro/Socio / Bruce Nauman -- Fervor / Shirin Neshat -- The idea of Africa / Marcel Odenbach -- Getaway # 2 / Tony Oursler -- Global groove / Nam June Paik -- I'm not the girl who misses much / Pipilotti Rist -- Born to be sold : Martha Rosler reads the strange case of Baby SM / Martha Rosler -- Intervista, finding the words / Anri Sala -- Mouth to mouth / Smith/Stewart -- May you live in interesting times / Fiona Tan -- Home / Steina and Woody Vasulka -- I do not know what it is I am like / Bill Viola -- Broad Street / Gillian Wearing.". -- Library of Congress.

This volume contains the insights of prominent artists in the field as well as critical writings by scholars and critics. It illustrates the complex, heterogeneous nature of video, and highlights its strong ties to the visual arts and social theory. While providing an essential critical context for understanding video's role as art, these writings show that video is at the forefront of contemporary cultural and aesthetic discourse. Using a wide range of strategies, from the poetic to the deconstructive, these essays provide a long overdue critical context in which to evaluate video as art and its subsequent impact on social and cultural behavior.

A witty and thought-provoking collection of visual poems constructed from stacks of books. Delighting in the look and feel of books, conceptual artist Nina Katchadourian’s playful photographic series proves that books’ covers—or more specifically, their spines—can speak volumes. Over the past two decades, Katchadourian has perused libraries across the globe, selecting, stacking, and photographing groupings of two, three, four, or five books so that their titles can be read as sentences, creating whimsical narratives from the text found there. Thought-provoking, clever, and at times laugh-out-loud funny (one cluster of titles from the Akron Museum of Art’s research library consists of: Primitive Art /Just Imagine/Picasso/Raised by Wolves), Sorted Books is an enthralling collection of visual poems full of wry wit and bookish smarts. Praise for Sorted Books “Katchadourian’s project . . . takes on a weight beyond its initial novelty. It’s a love letter to books, book collecting and the act of reading.” —San Francisco Chronicle “As a longtime fan of [Katchadourian’s] long-running Sorted Books project I’m thrilled for the release of Sorted Books—a collection spanning nearly two decades of her witty and wise minimalist mediations on life by way of ingeniously arranged book spines. . . . In an era drowned in periodic death tolls for the future of the physical book, her project stands as a celebration of the spirit embedded in the magnificent materiality of the printed page.” —Brain Pickings “Katchadourian’s stacks possess an understated sophistication; they are true to the intimate nature of books and yet reveal their dramatic features and unexpected potential.” —Publishers Weekly

Video cover art is a unique and largely lost artform representing a period of unabashed creativity during the video rental boom of the 1980s to early 1990s. The art explodes with a succulent, indulgent blend of design, illustration, typography, and hilarious copywriting. Written and curated by Tom "The Dude Designs" Hodge, poster artist extraordinaire and VHS obsessive, with a foreword by Mondo's Justin Ishmael, this collection contains over 240 full-scale, complete video sleeves in the genres of action, comedy, horror, kids, sci-fi, and thriller films. It's a world of mustached, muscled men, buxom beauties, big explosions, phallic guns, and nightmare-inducing monsters. From the sublime to the ridiculous, some are incredible works of art, some are insane, and some capture the tone of the films better than the films themselves. All are amazing and inspiring works of art that captivate the imagination. It's like stepping back in time into your local video store!

Packed with the signature can-do attitude that makes beloved artist Danny Gregory a creativity guru to thousands across the globe, this unique guide serves up a hearty helping of inspiration. For aspiring artists who want to draw and paint but just can't seem to find time in the day, Gregory offers 5– to 10–minute exercises for every skill level that fit into any schedule—whether on a plane, in a meeting, or at the breakfast table—along with practical instruction on techniques and materials, plus strategies for making work that's exciting, unintimidating, and fulfilling. Filled with Gregory's encouraging words and motivating illustrations, Art Before Breakfast teaches readers how to develop a creative habit and lead a richer life through making art.

Introduction : marking time -- What is slow art? (when images swell into events and events condense into images) -- Living pictures -- Before slow art -- Slow art emerges in modernity I : secularization from Diderot to Wilde -- Slow art emerges in modernity II : the great age of speed -- Slow fiction, film, video, performance, 1960 to 2010 -- Slow photography, painting, installation art, sculpture, 1960 to 2010 -- Angel and devil of slow art