Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium.  This form of art emerged during the late 1960s as new technology began to come about such as video tape recorders.  Video art can come in a variety of forms – broadcast recordings, installations in galleries, online streaming or distributed as video tapes or DVDs.  Video art does not need to include actors or dialogue and also does not neet to have any sort of plot – they are often for the purpose of conveying a message.  Some artists have used video to make us think more critically about Hollywood film conventions as well as other social conventions through presenting personal or taboo subjects on the screen as works of art.

Video art can be combined with other forms of art such as performance art; this combination can be referred to as “media and performance art” when artists “break the mold of video and film and broaden the boundaries of art”.  Due to the increased availability of video cameras and technology this form of art can be documented easily and shared widely to reach many viewers.  An example of an artist who combined video art with performance art whilst using the camera as the audience is Kate Gilmore.  In her video ‘Anything’ she films her performance piece as she is constantly trying to reach the camera throughout the 13-minute video in different ways.  This piece of work brings an element of struggle into the genre and a sense of connection with the artist as the camera is performed to as if it was the audience.

Nam June Paik is a Korean-American artist who is widely recognised as a pioneer in video art.  In 1963 Paik showed her work ‘Exposition of Music – Electronic Television’ at the Galerie Parnass.  Video art is said to have begun when Paik used his Sony Portapak to shoot footage of Pope Paul VI’s procession through New York City where he played the tapes to people across town and so supposedly creating the style of art.  TV Cello is an example of June Paik breaking down the barriers between art and technology – it was created specifically for use in performance by the experiemental cellist Charlotte Moorman.  The work consisted of three television sets piled on top of each other and all showing different moveing images (a film of Moorman performing live, a collaged video of other cellists and an intercepted broadcast feed), the whole sculpture was also a fully operational cello which had been designed to be played with a bow to create a series of electronic notes.  Many of the early video artists were those involved with movements in conceptual art, performance and experimental film.

Later on as prices of editing software decreased, the access to technology that allowed people to create video art increase.  The result of this was different themes emerging and being explored.  Artists would begin to combine physical and digital technologies to allow their audience to physically explore the digital work.  A good example of this interactive digital work is Jeffrey Shaw’s “Legible City” in which the audience rides a stationary bicycle through a series of virtual images of Manhattan, Amsterdam and Karlsrule.  The images shown the the audience would change depending on the direction of the bike handles and the speed of the peddler and so creating a unique experience for everyone that took park.

In response to video and performance art I have produced my own 35 second video in which I demonstrate repetition within daily routines.  I recorded a clip of my taking a sip of tea as I sat down for a cup of tea once a day resulting in a 35 second clip that shows repetition and demonstrates the importance of daily routine within human behaviour.  The small video also demonstrates how easy it is for someone in our day and age to perform video art and how accessible the technology for it is.  I produced the video by downloading an app and then ordering the videos which took about two minutes in total – this is a massive contrast to some of the work that went into developing video art in the times of artists such as Nam June Paik as prior to the introduction of consumer video equipment, moving image production was only available non-commercially via 8mm film and 16mm film until the introduction of the Portapak.