Video Pioneers: From banality to beauty: TV as a new form of visual art
Harper's Magazine, June 1972, v. 244, no. 1465, pp. 87-92
Video Pioneers chronicles the history of television as a source of news and narrative entertainment, through to the development of alternative and non-narrative, non talk programs on the WGBH network, such as Fred Barzyk's What's Happening Mr. Silvers?; Price describes these shows as "adult and open sesame streets" (90). He discusses the early video work of Nam June Paik, Allan Kaprow, the KQED National Center for Experiments in Television organized by Brice Howard, which featured Joanne Kyger, and Richard Feliciano and Stephen Beck, and Richard Hauser's productions Nine Heroes, and Eye to Eye. Price argues for television programming that goes beyond the narrative and convention, towards something that will enrich the human experience.
ITEM 1972.023 – available for viewing in the Research Centre
Videos, Artworks and Artists Cited
What's Happening Mr. Silver? – Fred Barzyk
Eye to Eye – Richard Hauser
200 Motels – Frank Zappa
Electronic Light Ballet – Otto Pien
Allan Kaprow
Manned Helium Sculpture – Otto Pien
Joanne Kyger
Point of Inflection – Richard Feliciano
Point of Inflection – Stephen Beck
Museum Open House – Russ Connor
Nine Heroes – Richard Hauser