Critical Writing Index

Guerilla Television/Pirate TV

by Paul Wong

Making Video "In": the contested ground of alternative video on the west coast, 1994, pp. 89-108

Toronto: Video In Studios, 1994

Guerilla Television/Pirate TV was a party for the video art centre and collective Video Inn's 20th Anniversary. It was one of the many media parties that was hosted by Video Inn. Paul Wong outlines the history of the artist-run centre in Vancouver with a focus on the activities and events that took place over the years. Photographs and descriptions are included. The context of those times in the late 60s and 70s is described through the history of guerilla television and pirate television activity and artist-initiated projects outside the mainstream. The history of media activists in Vancouver attempting to break through the borders of mainstream and corporate-controlled television and influence culture through broadcast media are characterized as futile and difficult. Video In, as a result, has focused on production and distribution and exhibtiion of work in closed-circuit environments since the mid 70s, always with the mandate to create and exhibit alternative media works.

ITEM 1994.072 – available for viewing in the Research Centre