on Wed, 3 Dec 2003 16:48:07 -0700 thewade pdman@aproximation.org wrote:

First there were words, sculpture, images, performances, then came video as the next step, now we >have code and the web as the most complete means to translate and realize idea (IMHO of course).

while the chronological historical perspective is helpful it can also be used to obscure overlaps, slippages, multiplicities, etc. i am interested in how certain [approaches/attitudes] [persist/permutate] overtime. in terms of the connections to video + video art, http://www.criticalartware.net may be of interest to ppl on this list. criticalartware is an [application/platform] for the [discussion/development] of these issues. an aspect of this situation that criticalartware is focused on is that in the early video art moment many artists were operating out of [conceptual/programming] positions, i.e. Steina and Woody Vasulkas:

"I want to point to the primary level of codes, notably the binary code operation, as a principle of imaging and image processing. This may require accepting and incorporating this primitive structure (the binary code) into our views of literacy, in the form of binary language, in order to maintain communication with the primary materials at all levels and from any distance. The dramatic moment of the transformation into a binary code of energy events in time, as they may be derived from light, or the molecular communication of sound, or from a force field, gravity, or other physical initiation, has to be realized, in order to appreciate the power of the organization and transformation of a code." -Woody Vasulka, "A Syntax of Binary Images," Afterimage, 6:1-2, Summer 1978, p.20.

we have interviews w/ppl from the early video art moment + current artware developers posted on criticlartware and seek to foster discussions about these issues by any one who wishes to participate.