The Case for Video Art

[@vlogbrothers]

That ending! -John

[@sanpatrisyo7606]

I should be makng a video now!

[@daniellopez821]

it made me cry in the public library.

[@makeupbyushna3085]

I previously had no interest in art but this channel has got me interested. It feels so comfortable to watch these videos.

[@kibrika]

I'm so confused by the popularity of this comment as this video just let me find slightly uncomfortable videos that I really enjoy.

[@pistolen87]

"Feels so comfortable" is a funny way to put it :)

[@makeupbyushna3085]

@@pistolen87 I feel calm and peaceful watching these videos (same when watching John Green videos). Being calm in not my natural state: I am always anxious. So feeling peace feels so good to me. English is not my first language, maybe that's why my choice of words seems weird to you.

[@dzindzindzin]

comforble

[@readable1019]

Yeah same

[@dylandubeau]

This has become my favourite channel on KZbin. Thanks for all the work you put into these. Such a great series.

[@vindeltrapp]

Video art put me off for a long time. I always associated it with flickering screens or dark rooms with uncomfortable seats, and I never felt like I understood it. Then I took an elective on it in university with a professor I really admired. I still feel like I don't really understand everything, but my approach has changed, like it has with most art after I started studying and writing about it. When I enter a room with video art, it is exciting to not know what I'll see, where in the work I enter, or how the work is going to move me. I feel like the most interesting thing I learned had to do with time. Most paintings and sculptures stand still, and you can go back to it without it having changed. A video work moves through time with you. It's art that makes you choose whether you want to spend time with it or not. That's really powerful to me. Two years ago, I was on a study trip to Florence to primarily learn about renaissance painting and frescoes. We had approximately 10 hours of touring museums every day and we were understandably very exhausted after that. But one of the days, the Bill Viola exhibit in the Palazzo Strozzi was open late, so I dragged myself there. It was a big retrospective with both newer and older works. I think I spent three hours there, laughing and crying. I had forgotten all about being tired and exhausted. I could only think about moving through time in company of some truly great works.

[@theartassignment]

Those are the moments that make all the BS of the art world worth it! Thanks for sharing your experience here. And I concur that the only meaningful difference between an art “expert” and non-expert is that one is comfortable with what they don’t know.

[@ravioli3257]

This is really well written. I'm studying this topic as part of a subject covering experimental video creation in uni, and will include this in my outline, thank you for your insight!

[@vindeltrapp]

@@ravioli3257 Oh wow, thank you so much!

[@roseliu7465]

as a video artist myself and longtime fan of The Art Assignment, this is by far my favorite episode without a doubt. So so well done!

[@j.cmarie271]

Absolutely

[@EddieVillanuevaArt]

I wish you had a website that was basically a massive list of all of the artist examples in your videos. Sooooooo Helpful to the teachers of the world.

[@omk573]

I really love art that blurs the lines between things like performance art and non performance art, Film and sculpture, and many other types

[@theartassignment]

Same. I feel a kind of perverse glee when art won’t fit neatly into a category. Especially when museums don’t know how to categorize it in their collection, or hold it “between”’departments. 🤗

[@D1egocasal]

DAMN. I'm impressed by the QUALITY of this analysis. Subscribed this second.

[@Atlantis11698]

I’d love to see the Case for Fashion as Art!

[@user-vn7ce5ig1z]

Fashion doesn't need a case to be made, it _is_ art. "Clothes" are the things people wear for function, "fashion" is the _style/form_ of the clothes which by definition makes it art.

[@theartassignment]

I actually don’t love looking at fashion in a museum. And that might be a very good reason to make a case for it...

[@kamikazeyazzie]

Fashion is already art, so it needs no case.

[@Atlantis11698]

KamikazeYazzie I agree that fashion is already art, but this series is about taking different mediums and exploring there artistic merit and impact. I think the impact fashion has had is generally downplayed because of the commercial nature of the industry.

[@lorenabpv]

saaaame

[@WhimsicalPictures]

I didn't understand video art until I saw it in exhibition in an art museum...We were at the museum on some field trip (high school? College? I don't even remember) to see something else, but the secondary exhibition hall was for a travelling exhibit called "Blink!" The exhibit wasn't just video art but also some audio and digital art, but even so. Some of the moving images I saw there are permanently burned into my retina. I'm so happy for that unexpected opportunity.

[@dalicloud9]

this might be the only knowable reason as to why i may now give video art a chance in the future. thank you art assignment, as always, yours truly.

[@yosmelaraujo3470]

"Art is what we collectively decide it is". Spill!

[@MADGuy248]

I’m glad that you’ve shown Poppy’s video footage. The videos from her channel can be seen as individual art works, and the channel itself is like an art project. I’m really happy that an expert has shown recognition to the works.

[@pictureofsky5332]

This is the video I've secretly been BEGGING for. Thank you so much AA, forever & always the best YT channel

[@muchadoaboutliz]

This video reminded me how much I love video art. The Tate in London has an incredible selection of video art that I'm so glad I got to experience a couple summers ago. But now this makes me want to go to an art museum again!

[@krpio5873]

This channel is simply amamzing. I am so grateful you guys put put this kind of content out. Please keep up the amazing job. Hello from Colombia!

[@lovelessdogspictures14]

My favorite art film is Dog Star Man- such an inclusive experience to score it with your own choice of soundtrack!

[@kissiepie]

I absolutely love this "Case for..." series. I wonder if you could make a Case for fiber art? Quilting, knitted and crochet sculptures, yarnbombing, embroidery? I know that there is a performance artist, I'm blanking on the name, who spent hours crocheting herself into a cocoon.

[@theartassignment]

That's a great idea.

[@MKMonsterr]

Awesome video, I'm going to share it with my modern art film class! Just like many films in this video, we recently watched Free, White and 21 both because it was relevant to the class but also because Howardena Pindell is a professor at my university.

[@KannikCat]

Saw title, thought "Sure, I know what video art is..." Proceed to have my notions exploded, expanded, developed, twisted, and opened. Now, I want to go out there and explore more and more and more, there are worlds and whole contexts I wasn't aware of! Thank you for always putting together such rich and evocative episodes. And that segment about what Art is! And "Video comes from Latin, meaning "I See!" So good, so very good. :)

[@sanja2544]

Oliver Bollmann and did you? Went out and explore? 😉

[@mariebeforeasandaftermommy1145]

Happy to see that this fine craft is explained in such engaging and articulate language for all to understand.

[@SpirusOfH]

Top 1 most underrated channels on youtube.

[@7d7films3]

Agreed

[@corajohnston22]

Thank you for making this video! Video art is the art medium I know least about. My local art Museum shows ton of video art and this video helped give me more of an understanding

[@AndyArtistic18]

Thank you so much for posting this. I’m working on these immersive video pieces in my studio right now. And this quick doc was perfect. It provides me with a better understanding of the history and evolution of video as a medium in the art world. 🙏 📺

[@AmorSciendi]

Thanks again for a great video that expands the way I think about art. You helped give me the language to understand why artists who use this medium are a necessary part of transforming what is, essentially, a top-down-one-directional mode of communication a creative space of individuality and subjectivity. Also, thank you for the post card. You're the best.

[@Oremoose]

Grosse Fatigue was such I moving piece. And was really inspirational.

[@carpiioo.806]

SARAH!! YOU'RE BACK! I LOVE YOU!!

[@pixelised]

I wasn't aware that video art needed a case for it (one of my favourite art pieces is the video "Instrumental version" from Portuguese artist João Onofre) but I did enjoy the video. I also liked that Poopy got featured (I thought of her when the current state of video art and its blurry boundaries were focused).

[@blue_champignon5738]

Recently at the MCA Chicago, I saw a Rachel Maclean video piece and that was the first time I sat and watched an entire 30 minute video piece from pure horror and facination.

[@XPartiste]

2:08 Nam June Paik et Shigeko Kubota 3:56 Expanded Cinema 4:59 Bruce Nauman - Bouncing in the Corner, no. 1

[@makeupbyushna3085]

I would say this video is art

[@noticias6111]

As would I but I am a bit surprised by how William Wegman's pre-Sesame street era videos were not brought up given how this is still considered a PBS production.

[@two_owls]

Taking control of the means of production, you say? *Smiles Marxistly*

[@СтефанДимов-ы7ш]

I just recently discovered your channel ! Thank you so much ! I love the city-art-profiles ! Very inspiring stuff ! Keep up the GREAT work !

[@jaceubs5387]

Are video games art? What do you think guys? I'm curious .... maybe a video idea? With the rise of 'walking simulators' and more artistic games, I think it's something worth exploring. The potential for interactive art in video games is immense.

[@FujiAppul]

Jakub Kokoška To me, it’s a form of art.

[@frogtoad4375]

I think video games could be the pinnacle of art, combining audio, visual, and literal art into one product that could go on for longer than movies if need be, but I wouldn't necessarily credit every video game as artistic just as I wouldn't say every movie is an artistic movie.

[@theartassignment]

I think they can be, for sure. Make the case!

[@jaceubs5387]

@@theartassignment So in general, games combine lots of different art forms (stories, movies, visual art, music) but they also offer a layer of interactivity that is not always present in art. Interactivity is usually at the center of games, the idea of play, which makes it unique in my eyes. For me art is mostly about conveying human experience and giving us new perspectives on it, and the closest we can get to actually going through an experience is to relive a virtual one. Its sad though that most of the games now focus only on the fun and entertainment, but the possibility to take something deeper away, confront yourself and grow is there in my eyes.

[@chayadol]

Definitely!! Video game is also a media like video or picture. For me video game is interactive media or interactive video which combine various artistic field (visual, sound etc) into one. For me, the most difficult thing isn't about defining which object or media is art,but to define which isn't. Every field could count as art imop, cooking, drawing even surgery could also be art. So yes Game is definitely art. lol

[@j.cmarie271]

This is everything I needed to watch.

[@Ayrgon]

YEASSSSSS! Shoutout to our corporate overlords! Great video! I've been waiting for this one

[@lorenabpv]

The case for videos always break me somehow. I never really get video art (guilty of skipping them in exhibits), probably because I'm a very impatient person. Just this month I went to an Ai Weiwei exhibit with some friends and wandered around the gallery again while they watched a film. But still, I learned a little more today and you made me think of them differently. They might never be my favorite art medium, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate their history and importance :)

[@AustinNebbia]

Loved your channel for ages, Sarah and John! (Might remember me from an early Art Hotline!) I'm really, really hoping at some point you'll do a Case for Immersive Theater, as it's become a passion of mine over the last couple years and it's coming ever so slightly out of the shadows, in good ways and bad. Would love to hear your thoughts on it!

[@anatrevino8]

Will definitely be using this for my video art portion of my class this semester. Thanks!

[@namlhots]

"Art is what we collectively decide it is." vs. "Beauty is in the mind of the beholder." This is the sort of dinner table conversation I need.

[@laurenmartyn5267]

This is such an outstanding video! Thank you.

[@francochimento5371]

I absolutely love The Art Assignment

[@krukerproductions]

Could you do a video on memes, because there is some real absurd stuff out there

[@abelrrant]

You know deep fried memes. Before a artist. Name iann burn Xerox a piece of paper 100 times.

[@touisbetterthanpi]

U m a m i ‘s stuff is perfect for this channel

[@princegoatcheese9379]

@@abelrrant You know what's good! Deep fried memes are my bread and butter.

[@romanformicola5904]

I mean, for the most part, any meme good enough to be worth considering, probably already falls under a different medium.

[@abelrrant]

@@touisbetterthanpi U m a m i pays homages in surreal artworks. I love his work.

[@croissant420]

Your videos are lovely and helpful.

[@astolennova]

"Don't be afraid of video art". This was cool, thanks.

[@houston1293]

Please do a Case for James Turrell. Not only is he one of the few artists that works primarily with only light but his impact in architecture has been huge yet subtle.

[@carlewen-lewis3305]

This video was art, thank you

[@sakuradeva555]

Amazing as usual!

[@Gettinsketchyonbourbon]

I wish you would come down to New Orleans and check out improv as it expands from busking, that includes drawing. Rather than having hours to spend on a canvas caricature or a portrait artist only have that moment in time. I have seven minutes to make a caricature of someone combining both technical skills and telling a joke with no prior knowledge of each individual. It is fitting for a city known for jazz which is, improv in itself. Further, I have also been doing a bunch of work with an improve comedy company. New Orleans art is also interesting because they came up with a style of their own outside what was considered the elite. Hope to hear from you!

[@shreyamitragotri9750]

that poppy video suddenly popping up like that scared me

[@startpage717]

YEAAAA...she has returned!

[@arteasy8286]

I am a big fan of Nam June Paik. Good to watch his works as well as to know the overall history of video art.

[@lulamax7942]

This is beautiful. I love this video.

[@burkleypage1443]

I really enjoyed this! Do you guys have any videos or parts of videos about egon schiele? I find him very interesting

[@GustavoLucin]

Very good insights you are in very touch with what's going on in the arts, and I admire that.

[@Sanslab-wu8tv]

Having studied how expensive art is often a tax shelter for the mega rich, I think our corporate overlords are largely responsible for what we CALL art (and whatever I decide to call art is art for me, even if I only call it art out of conformity to the mechanism ruled by the art overlords).

[@AtomekKotalke]

Perfect video for my essay. Thanks~

[@Annauaos]

"Video comes from Latin, meaning 'I see'". Love it!

[@fountano2101]

Thank youuuuuuuuuuuu for your work, really helpful for my exam!

[@atomictea21]

Please do the Case for Set Design ?

[@federicapallaverateliercon4705]

Thanks for this video, an important document of art history.

[@sf6695]

great video! Also what’s the name of the outro video? It’s beautiful

[@jacekpokrak9258]

For centuries, art has fascinated people. The sensitivity of the audience resulted from being stimulated by cultural events, social changes, wars, etc. This is how new directions in art emerged. Today's world needs something else, and that's why Compmaturism. The works of the Compmaturists relate to today's human needs; they are emotional, devoid of routine and calculation. They are filled with art juice.

[@xiaowenyi7780]

very nice video, thanks! I hope you can also make the subtitles for it...

[@EnchantedSleepStories]

Thank you so much for this amazing exploration of video art. Watching this I feel more secure and confident in my choice to move away from more traditional mediums into the magical world of video art If an artist wants to speak to the people, an artist must speak in a medium that people understand.

[@tunesquicklee]

3:44 my drunk kitchen, 20th century version

[@theartassignment]

Haha... indeed! Much less wine, however. Hear from the artist and view more of it here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/pXW4da2JeaZrp5I

[@tunesquicklee]

thanks for link! i love seeing bts vids

[@GaviLazan]

This video work was given to us to analyze as part of the acceptance process into the video art and documentary film program at the art school I went to. It's amazing how many pieces that appear here are ones we had to analyze. I was particularly surprised to see the Guy Ben Ner one!

[@haydenstuder322]

You guys should talk about Spalding Gray.

[@HeavyLiquidOfficial]

That's a great ending!

[@roseliu7465]

Love!

[@ikhsansopianhadi9199]

@artassigment can you discuss the topic of "gesamtkunstwerk" or "total work of art"?

[@MrIninLP]

Omg i love Poppy thx for mentioning her ♡

[@tapasghosal]

Excellent

[@Waynimations]

I love this episode. Video art gets a lot of crap even from artists and I hope this can change some people’s mind

[@samswift1718]

Can you share the background music ? Does anyone know ?

[@MiguelJuanez]

Fascinating!

[@WhiteHippoUSA]

The Case for Illustration would be wonderful and much appreciated! =)

[@hoan6909]

"The explosion of technology", I see what you did there :)

[@steepertree]

I'd love to see Zen for Film paired with Hiroshi Sugimoto's photos of empty movie theaters.

[@theartassignment]

Oooh. That would be really nice. I saw a super nice installation of Sugimotos at the MCA Chicago many years ago that has really stuck with me. Each was on its own wall, and you’ll have to google it.

[@linbarrie]

Food for thought thank you

[@lisameskimen9296]

Last March I went to the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, and one of the contemporary exhibits had a TV with a black screen and red alarm clock digits on it. As I walked around, I thought it just held the time. Coming back to it later, and watching the screen, I realized that it was a video and that the letters were actually being painted onto the screen by actors in the background...and done so in a very unique way... here is the link to it high.org/video/maarten-baas-analog-digital-clock/

[@SamHunley]

Intellectually, I can understand how video can play an important role in art, and I've appreciated your explanations of the importance of the various video art installations that have been covered on this channel. However, for some reason, I absolutely can't stand video art haha. Something about it just feels creepy and weird, and I haven't been able to find video art that didn't freak me out. It feels related to a sort of "uncanny valley" type feeling. I have the same reaction to performance art. Which is maybe part of the point for some of these artists haha.

[@srednaart]

I always enjoy seeing video art in museums! I wonder how they are made...

[@leoelliondeux]

jesus, I just realized that the Dara Birnbaum Wonder Woman piece at 6:17 directly influenced the Too Many Cooks piece by Adult Swim

[@3xAudio]

Thanks for making this. Will be a great inspiration for an abstract video I am working on based on Mass Surveillance in our society.

[@jackcarr6686]

I literally put on a pair of headphones on in the V&A museum today...they were broken :)

[@theartassignment]

HAH. Of course. I hope you reported it!

[@futureDK1]

I LOVE! Case For videos & your commentary. Could you please do a Case For DJing video pretty please???!!! I've really been into DJing lately & got entry level controller & Pro DJ software, it is an art form, I need inspiration! Please! I've been putting in some serious hours into it. DJing is a unique form of art. Not seeing others do that sort of content. Thank you!

[@kanishkadas7457]

love the ending

[@Tubbins82]

I didn't really get the video art stuff until last week. I found this vhs at a cabin and thought, why not. It was grainy black and white and had a whole lot of random freaky images. Cool though. Got a weird call afterward, but what ev's... oh darn the tv just started fuzzing.

[@julietllouise]

One piece of art that had a huge impression on me, one of the biggest, was video art. It was a woman talking with a razor in her mouth. I don't remember what she was talking about, or what the name of that artist was. I hated it in a way and I didn't want to see it, but now, years later I still think about that video.

[@noorbadran5563]

I wish the video had explored the view that mainstream movies could be art

[@newecreator]

I want to get started on video art.

[@DETODOUNPOCO7055]

I've made subtitles in Spanish for this video. How can I upload them?

[@blindseeing]

Love this

[@jamesmitchell2704]

I feel Video Art is a gentrification of Experimental Cinema by the art world! To ignore seminal artistic works by filmmakers like Maya Deren (who worked in the fifties), Kenneth Anger (who started in the forties) Stan Brackhage, or Jonas Mekas, and many others is utterly criminal, and when art is talked about this rich history is ignored!

[@jamesmitchell2704]

Though 'Line Becomes A Cone' is amazing in person Line! Particularly, how all of the imperfection in the film make little comets of light that shoot past you head!

[@jamesmitchell2704]

@@EWKification while I would say experimental cinema is hard to commercialize, I would it's false to state it's messing around as numerous narrative directer take it seriously. It's more for filmmakers than general audiences.

[@BlinkPopShift]

I have so many feelings on this topic. What can be done with new technology" is one of the core investigations of my practice. It started in textiles and grew to include computational and video aesthetics. In my 20s in grad school (in 2011) I was told by painters from that "narrow art world" that my works both in video and explorable environmental video games were not art. An opinion so ludacris to me I simply ignored it. More recently I have been told that there is no such thing as KZbin video art only 'traditional' ie gallery-bound video art hosted on the platform or videos about art. But as my entire channel is a studio practice of making networked video art which self-critiques its platform in context, I must again ignore this opinion. My current networked video art project Amnesia Diaries is not a daily vlog but utilizes some of the aesthetic properties of that genere to do something similar to Bruce Nauman's work. To use networked video in the studio and in my life as art to invent an identity and history. #rant

[@NataliePate]

Amnesia Diaries is a favorite of mine and worth watching. I should have mentioned it in my other comment.

[@nephildevil]

That guy bouncing in the corner and walking on the square lines is just the emperor without clothes saying he's clothed 🤦‍♂️

[@theartassignment]

We all have our line. I have one, too.

[@kubolor1234]

What are the copyright implications of video art that remixes

[@hiqwertyhi]

5:26 thought the background music was going into such great heights

[@quill_master9454]

6:47 me and my sister played table tennis there lol

[@frogtoad4375]

Would you guys consider Jack Stauber's work Video Art? That dude deserves more credit for his videos.

[@makeupbyushna3085]

I checked his channel on your suggestion and gotta say his work is awesome

[@frogtoad4375]

Homo Sapien glad you like his stuff!

[@theartassignment]

Yes. Art is what happens between you and whatever it is in question. If you say it's art, it's art to you. I'd be curious to know how Jack Stauber thinks about what he's making, too. But that doesn't really have any bearing about whether it is art or not. Ah, art. So slippery.

[@OmegaF77]

bill wurtz's "Garbage" videos I think are art.

[@yulyalim5178]

I think you do not need anyone's justification in thinking whether it is art or not. If you feel so then it is :)