video is a perceptual prosthetic - Centre for Art Tapes

more obviously displaced depiction of reality.Video seems very real, indeed.A lot has happened since the late 1960sand early 1970s. Video is no longer exotic.Besides becoming ordinary and common(transparent), video has been engulfed bya flood of so-called ‘new media.’ The digitaltransformation of all analog technologies,begun in the early 1980s, has permitted theconvergence of previously discrete technologiesto the extent that now our smart phonesare jukeboxes, photographic cameras, movietheatres, text generators, teletype machinesand video transceivers. And yes, we can talkon our mobile phones. Wireless telephony isradio.Video as a technology and medium is on itsascent, nearly fifty years after its emergencein the mid-1960s. Digital video simulates all ofthe principle qualities of analog video, withoutthe signal degradation inherent in analogvideo postproduction, distribution and exhibition.The proliferation of video productiontools, the ‘digital SLR revolution’ and the useof point and shoot still cameras and mobilephones as video camcorders have put videoproduction capabilities into an unprecedentednumber of hands. Webcams and the use ofteleconferencing technologies like Skype haveushered in the long anticipated picture-phoneor videophone.Video, as a perceptual instrument, is mosteffectively used as a process-based technologicaldevice, not as a tool for producing finishedworks. Video is an instrument for examining afield of data in real time. It is a tool for discoveringinformation, not making it.When video became an accessible technologyin the late 1960s with the introductionof portable ½-inch analog tape machines, itwas a primitive audio/visual technology thatcould not compete with other more advancedtechnological media in terms of resolution ofimage and sound. It paled in comparison with16 or 35mm film or photography in terms ofimage resolution. In other words, video didnot do a very good job in representing theworld in high fidelity. Photochemical mediawere very mature when video was born. Whenone looked and listened to a video recording,he or she saw the medium in its opacity andinitially it was not a pretty sight. The imageThe Art Style Computer Processing System was presentedas a text-based video art work titled “TheoreticalTelevision” in 1977. Still from “Theoretical Television,”Tom Sherman, video, 28 minutes, 1977.8Tom Sherman, as he appeared in “Theoretical Television”in 1977. Still from “Theoretical Television,” Tom Sherman,video, 28 minutes, 1977.