Critical Writing Index

How Television Saved Video

by Laura Paolini

Les Fleurs Du Mal, Sept. 2006, v. 1, no. 2, pp. 26-29

Television has no cannon, unlike art. Video art, via its myriad relationships to TV, grants television its indexical link to archival history. There is an assumption of a "high vs. low", and "active vs. passive" dichotomy, hearkening back to old modernist debates despite video's best efforts. Now, "mindless TV" is not so mindless, with a mass of critical media theory in wait to dissect it. Video art created a whole new archive based upon television.

ITEM 2006.095 – available for viewing in the Research Centre

Videos, Artworks and Artists Cited

Television Delivers PeopleRichard Serra

The Medium is the Medium

Video Art: A Guided TourCatherine Elwes