Against Immediacy: Video Art and Media Populism

245 Pages·2016·1.437 MB·English

by  William Kaizen

William Kaizen
A G A I N S T
IMMEDIACY

INTERFACES STUDIES IN VISUAL CULTURE
Editors Mark J. Williams, Dartmouth College,
and Adrian W. B. Randolph, Northwestern University
This series, sponsored by Dartmouth College Press, develops and promotes the
study of visual culture from a variety of critical and methodological perspectives.
Its impetus derives from the increasing importance of visual signs in everyday
life, and from the rapid expansion of what are termed “new media.” The broad
cultural and social dynamics attendant to these developments present new
challenges and opportunities across and within the disciplines. These have
resulted in a trans-disciplinary fascination with all things visual, from “high” to
“low,” and from esoteric to popular. This series brings together approaches to
visual culture — broadly conceived — that assess these dynamics critically and that
break new ground in understanding their effects and implications.

For a complete list of books that are available in the series, visit www.upne.com
William Kaizen, Against Immediacy: renée c. hoogland, A Violent
Video Art and Media Populism Embrace: Art and Aesthetics after
Angela Rosenthal with David Bindman Representation
and Adrian W. B. Randolph, ed., Alessandra Raengo, On the Sleeve
No Laughing Matter: Visual Humor of the Visual: Race as Face Value
in Ideas of Race, Nationality, and Frazer Ward, No Innocent Bystanders:
Ethnicity Performance Art and Audience
Robin Veder, The Living Line: Modern Timothy Scott Barker, Time and the
Art and the Economy of Energy Digital: Connecting Technology,
Tanya Sheehan, ed., Photography, Aesthetics, and a Process Philosophy
History, Difference of Time
Ory Bartal, Postmodern Advertising Bernd Herzogenrath, ed., Travels in
in Japan: Seduction, Visual Culture, Intermedia[lity]: ReBlurring the
and the Tokyo Art Directors Club Boundaries
Ruth E. Iskin, The Poster: Art, Monica E. McTighe, Framed Spaces:
Advertising, Design, and Collecting, Photography and Memory in
1860s–1900s Contemporary Installation Art
Heather Warren-Crow, Girlhood and Alison Trope, Stardust Monuments: The
the Plastic Image Saving and Selling of Hollywood
Heidi Rae Cooley, Finding Augusta: Nancy Anderson and Michael R.
Habits of Mobility and Governance Dietrich, eds., The Educated Eye:
in the Digital Era Visual Culture and Pedagogy in the
Life Sciences
William Kaizen
Dartmouth College Press Hanover, New Hampshire
Dartmouth College Press
An imprint of University Press of New England
www.upne.com
© 2016 Trustees of Dartmouth College
All rights reserved
For permission to reproduce any of the material in this book, contact
Permissions, University Press of New England, One Court Street,
Suite 250, Lebanon NH 03766; or visit www.upne.com
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-61168-944-0
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-61168-945-7
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-61168-946-4
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data
available on request
CONTENTS
ix Acknowledgments
1 Introduction
10 PRELUDE Open Circuits
25 CHAPTER ONE Participation Television
78 CHAPTER TWO Talkback
126 CHAPTER THREE Video Ecologies
179 CODA The Apotheosis of Video Art
189 Notes
213 Bibliography
223 Index

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Far too many people helped in the course of this book’s long
gestation for me to thank them all without forgetting some, so I’d like to
salute everyone together. To all of those who aided and abetted this project
in various ways, whether by sitting down for an interview, responding to
email queries, helping with archival research, reading this book in one of
its many drafts, or offering me moral support: my thanks. It wouldn’t have
been completed otherwise. An extra heartfelt thanks to Peter Kalb and Frazer
Ward, who helped in the final stages, as well my publisher, University Press of
New England / Dartmouth College Press, where it found an apposite home.
My family deserves special praise. To my parents, Stephen and Susan, who
set me on this road long ago in more ways than they could possibly know:
Without your early support and your continued tolerance and goodwill, nei-
ther I nor this project would have made it here. To my wife, Karen: Without
you, nothing I do would be possible. Your example constantly reminds me
of the value of striving for the impossible.
I dedicate this book to our children, Tal and Layla: May your future be
even brighter than ours.