[Frameworks] Video works unviewable due to lost apparatus?

[robert harris]

Bjorn,

I suppose it depends somewhat on how you determine "art" and who is "famous".   Video technology has been constantly evolving since it's invention, and the oldest tools can be very very difficult to find, though if an old machine can be found, and the engineering skill, will, and funds are available, a tool could be refurbished and an unplayable work reanimated.  The tapes themselves, with entropy and decay, are perhaps even more transient than the machines, though I suppose it is more poignant to have a tape without a player than a dead tape. 
An interesting place to look is ETVC's History site.  http://www.experimentaltvcenter.org/view_biblio_tools?page=1
A good starting point for investigating video work that has survived through format transfer might be ℅ Video Data Bank. 
http://www.vdb.org/titles/surveying-first-decade-video-art-and-alternative-media-us-1968-1980.



On May 15, 2013, at 4:24 AM, Lundgren wrote:

> I know that once on this list somebody mentioned that there was a Andy Warhol work that was done on a video system which had no surviving video players. I've tried to search the list unable to find any information. Does anyone know of this and have a decent (preferable academically scrutinize-able) source for it?
> 
> Or those anyone have examples of other famous artist with video works (or similair) "lost" due to the fact that we don't have any machines to watch it anymore?
> 
> Björn Lundgren
> Sweden
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