Video system schematics - Paik-Abe & cover of ‘Machine art - Exhibit of Inter-Graphics’ - Stan VanDerBeek

The Vasulka Archive is massive repository of documents from the pioneering days of electronic, computer and video art. Containing a staggering 27000 pages of scanned documents, replete with hand typed texts, circuit diagrams and skuzzy ink marks, I could spend the rest of the week perusing this stuff, believe me. The big names are here, Crutchfield, Conrad, Paik, Van der Beek, Youngblood etc - hand written correspondences to the Vasulka’s as well as reviews and even obituaries of each artist/scientist - but history is selective and remembers according to its own algorithm. Encouragingly, not only do we find artifacts from the so called key movers of the time but also an exhaustive list of lesser, and relatively unknown practitioners waiting to be (re)discovered.

[....] Steiner and Woody Vasulka are pioneers of Video Art in their own right having produced many provocative works from the genre’s hey-day in the early 60’s. It is also notable that they were among the founders of the Kitchen in New York in 1971. [....]