Resolutions

Contemporary Video Practices

1995

Michael Renov and Erika Suderburg, editors

Explores the state of the art, practice, and theory of video.

Here is, by far, the best, boldest, and most thorough account to date of video art and activism, practice and theory. The long-awaited follow-up to a project conducted by Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), this volume comprises original articles by many of the most interesting video artists, filmmakers, and critical theorists writing today. Their subjects, from video pedagogy to emerging technologies, are many and varied and together constitute a clear and complete picture of the state of the medium.

Contributors: Rosanna Albertini, Raymond Bellour, John Belton, Gregg Bordowitz, Ron Burnett, Jacques Derrida, Sara Diamond, Monica Frota, Bill Horrigan, David E. James, Laura Kipnis, Tetsuo Kogawa, Judith Mayne, James Moran, Michael Nash, Chon Noriega, Bérénice Reynaud, Marlon Riggs; Marita Sturken, Christine Tamblyn, Maureen Turim, and Patricia Zimmermann.

This work offers an up-to-date account of video art and activism, practice and theory. The work focuses on the technical political, social and esthetic dimension of the medium, interweaving description of past events and projects with state-of-the-art consideration of technologies and direction of change. This work is very likely to become the essential text to begin to understand this widely transitional art style. Highly recommended.

The Reader’s Review

Here is, by far, the best, boldest, and most thorough account to date of video art and activism, practice and theory. The long-awaited follow-up to a project conducted by Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), this volume comprises original articles by many of the most interesting video artists, filmmakers, and critical theorists writing today. Their subjects, from video pedagogy to emerging technologies, are many and varied and together constitute a clear and complete picture of the state of the medium.

Constructed like an inquiry into newly forming video practice, the collection at once interweaves and questions a series of relationships among politics, popular culture, artistic intervention, and social practices of the media. The often provocative essays, on topics ranging from video porn to Geraldo Rivera to lesbian representation to the politics of video memory, contribute significantly to a much-needed reconceptualization of the electronic medium.

Contributors: Rosanna Albertini, U of Pisa; Raymond Bellour, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; John Belton, Rutgers U; Gregg Bordowitz, Banff Center for the Arts; Ron Burnett, McGill U; Jacques Derrida, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales; Sara Diamond, Banff Center for the Arts; Monica Frota; Bill Horrigan, Wexner Center for the Visual Arts; David E. James, USC; Laura Kipnis, Northwestern U; Tetsuo Kogawa, Tokyo Keizai U; Judith Mayne, Ohio State U; James Moran, USC; Michael Nash, INSCAPE; Chon Noriega, UCLA; Bérénice Reynaud, California Institute of the Arts; Marlon Riggs; Marita Sturken, UC, San Diego; Christine Tamblyn, San Francisco State U; Maureen Turim, U of Florida; Patricia Zimmermann, Ithaca College.

Michael Renov is professor of critical studies in the School of Cinema-Television at the University of Southern California. He is the author of Hollywood’s Wartime Woman: Representation and Ideology (1988), and the editor of Theorizing Documentary (1993). Erika Suderburg is a video artist and associate professor in the Department of Art at the University of California, Riverside.

This work offers an up-to-date account of video art and activism, practice and theory. The work focuses on the technical political, social and esthetic dimension of the medium, interweaving description of past events and projects with state-of-the-art consideration of technologies and direction of change. This work is very likely to become the essential text to begin to understand this widely transitional art style. Highly recommended.

The Reader’s Review

Resolutions is a collection of 24 essays that span the broad realm of video today, considering practices both within and outside the territory of fine art.

Guggenheim Magazine

Examines both the popular and unique practices and perceptions of video around the world including the US, China, Canada, and Brazil. Editors Michael Renov and Erica Suderberg bring together the voices of professional producers and film makers, media theorists, and video artists each sharing their own experiences and interpretations of video through their work. This volume provides valuable insight into the innovative practices which are helping to shape video making. If you find yourself wondering about the art of video, the state of the medium, where it’s all going, you’ll find this collection of essays both informative and thought provoking.

Journal of Educational Media

In an era of proliferating digital video, reality TV, and online essayistic and autobiographical reportage, Michael Renov’s The Subject of Documentary provides a timely compendium of essays dedicated to the cultural nuances and highly contested terrain of fact-based documentary practices.

Biography

He [Renov] expands our concept of ‘Visible Evidence’ to encompass the self in profoundly revealing ways.

Bill Nichols, quoted in Biography