Video Art Theory: A Comparative Approach - Softcover

Westgeest, Helen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1118475461 ISBN 13: 9781118475461

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell, 2015

Synopsis

Video Art Theory: A Comparative Approach demonstrates how video art functions on the basis of a comparative media approach, providing a crucial understanding of video as a medium in contemporary art and of the visual mediations we encounter in daily life.

• A critical investigation of the visual media and selected video artworks which contributes to the understanding of video as a medium in contemporary art
• The only study specifically devoted to theorizing the medium of video from the perspective of prominent characteristics which result from how video works deal with time, space, representation, and narrative
• The text has emerged out of the author’s own lectures and seminars on video art
• Offers a comparative approach which students find especially useful, offering new perspectives

About this title

About the Author

Helen Westgeest is Assistant Professor of Modern and Contemporary Art History at Leiden University, the Netherlands. Her most recent publication is Photography Theory in Historical Perspective: Case Studies from Contemporary Art (co-authored with Hilde Van Gelder, Wiley-Blackwell, 2011). Westgeest is also editor and a contributor of Take Place: Photography and Place from Multiple Perspectives (2009) and joint editor of Photography between Poetry and Politics (with Hilde Van Gelder, 2008).

From the Back Cover

Video Art Theory: A Comparative Approach demonstrates how video art functions on the basis of a comparative media approach, providing a crucial understanding of video as a medium in contemporary art and of the visual mediations we encounter in daily life.

Having a highly elusive character from the outset, video art has also evolved strongly as a form of art in the five decades of its existence. This transformation notably gave rise to exciting changes in its relationships to other media. These concerns serve as the starting point for this study. Throughout the four chapters of the book, the author demonstrates why it is impossible to capture video art in a single, all-inclusive definition. Rather than searching for medium-specificity or a general theory, this study proves that it is more useful to develop a theoretical interdisciplinary framework for research into video art. Video artworks are compared with television and performance art (with regard to immediacy); installation art (dealing with space); photography and painting (related to representation); and cinema (with importance of narrative). This methodology not only yields new perspectives, but crucially provides students with a much-needed context for understanding the evolution and paramount importance of video as a medium.

From the Inside Flap

Video Art Theory: A Comparative Approach demonstrates how video art functions on the basis of a comparative media approach, providing a crucial understanding of video as a medium in contemporary art and of the visual mediations we encounter in daily life.

Having a highly elusive character from the outset, video art has also evolved strongly as a form of art in the five decades of its existence. This transformation notably gave rise to exciting changes in its relationships to other media. These concerns serve as the starting point for this study. Throughout the four chapters of the book, the author demonstrates why it is impossible to capture video art in a single, all-inclusive definition. Rather than searching for medium-specificity or a general theory, this study proves that it is more useful to develop a theoretical interdisciplinary framework for research into video art. Video artworks are compared with television and performance art (with regard to immediacy); installation art (dealing with space); photography and painting (related to representation); and cinema (with importance of narrative). This methodology not only yields new perspectives, but crucially provides students with a much-needed context for understanding the evolution and paramount importance of video as a medium.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1118475461
• ISBN 13: 9781118475461
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224