The main areas of Fluxus activity were in the USA, continental Europe and Japan, and it was not until 1968 that the first PortaPak video camera was imported into Britain by John Hopkins, a political activist and photographer. This year was an important landmark in the history of media art in Britain because it also saw the ‘Cybernetic Serendipity’ exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London. The exhibition, subtitled ‘The Computer and the Arts,’ showcased over three hundred artists and engineers, and included “computer graphic and film animations, computer texts [and] music composed and played by computers,” amongst other artworks.268
Fig. 1.2.13 Poster for Cybernetic Serendipity at the ICA, London, 1968
266 In May 1968, across numerous countries, there were social disturbances that saw “riots, demonstrations, strikes, sit-ins, and many other actions” which demonstrated frustrations with the class and gender politics of the time, as well as questioning “the nature of capitalist and imperialist nation-states” (Harris (2001), The New Art History: A Critical Introduction, p.3)
267
Cubitt, S. (1993), Videography: Video Media as Art and Culture, Basingstoke: Macmillan, p.212. See also Meigh-Andrews 2006; Walker 1994; Schneider and Korot 1976
268 Dixon (2007), Digital Performance: A History of New Media in Theatre, Dance, Performance Art, and Installation, p.100
Cybernetic Serendipitysuccessfully captured “a snapshot of art, entertainment, science and politics”269 at a specific moment in time, and today can be seen as a catalytic event in the history of British media art.270 Furthermore, it was the first of several similar exhibitions to happen that year, with ‘Computer and Visual Research’ opening in Zagreb, Croatia, the day after Cybernetic Serendipitylaunched.271 Jasia Reichardt, the ICA show’s curator, identified the exhibition as a projection of how the future could look.
Cybernetic Serendipity deals with possibilities rather than achievements, and in this sense it is prematurely optimistic. There are no heroic claims to be made because computers have so far neither revolutionised music, nor art, nor poetry, in the same way that they have revolutionised science.272
The impact that computer technology has had on everyday life could not have been fully comprehended in 1968, but Reichardt’s view here seems somewhat prophetic.
Fig. 1.2.14Exhibitions atCybernetic Serendipity, ICA, London, 1968
Cybernetic Serendipity provides a slightly skewed view of what was happening in media art in Britain during the 1960s, however, as its focus was solely on computers and art. It is important to note, therefore, that although not developing as rapidly as in the USA, other changes were taking place. As momentum gathered around different technologies and their application in art production, artist groups and organisations began to emerge, and by
269
Usselmann, R. (2003), “The Dilemma of Media Art: Cybernetic Serendipity at the ICA London,”
LEONARDO, vol.36, no.5, pp.389-396 (p.392)
270 Gere, C. (2008), “Introduction” in White Heat Cold Logic: British Computer Art 1960-1980, eds. P. Brown et al, Cambridge, Mass and London: The MIT Press, pp. 1-7 (p.4). See also McGregor 2008 271
Reichardt 2008
272 Reichardt, J. (1968), “Introduction” in Cybernetic Serendipity: The Computer and the Arts, ed. J. Reichardt, London: Studio International, pp. 5-7, (p.5)
the 1970s art schools were offering courses that stretched beyond the more conventional options of painting and sculpture. It would be impossible to list the range of media art activities happening during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, and they varied from one-off film screenings to festivals and from exhibitions to art school courses.273 Many influential groups of media artists and art agencies emerged at this time, and of particular note here are the London Filmmakers Co-operative (LFMC), founded in 1966, London Video Arts (LVA), founded in 1976 and the Film and Video Umbrella (FVU), founded in 1983.274 As their names suggest, each of these groups had specific interests, with the LFMC being a film production and screening service, whereas the LVA intended to promote, distribute and exhibit video art, and the FVU, supported financially by the Arts Council of Great Britain (ACGB), was to provide a touring service for both film and video.275 They demonstrate that, whilst all being London-based, there was a gathering momentum and interest in emerging media art, and the speed of this momentum increased as art school programmes also expanded.
Catherine Mason highlights the importance of the role of arts educational institutions in the development of British computer arts276 and her analysis can be applied more broadly. As such, the 1970s and 1980s saw rising levels of interest from arts funders.
By the early 1970s, the major route into computer arts was through a select number of art schools. These provided not only education and training but, in some cases, career incubation, employment, research facilities, and networking opportunities.277
Her analysis could also be extended to other forms of media art which, by contrast to their more traditional counterparts, required access to expensive technology. Greater access and more money was available to artists, art agencies and art schools, and this growing interest was demonstrated by the launch of Channel Four on terrestrial television. The
273
For more information, see Lux Online 2005a
274 The LFMC and LVA amalgamated in 2002, and formed Lux: Artists Moving Image, based at the Lux Centre which had opened in 1997 (Lux (2011), About Lux (Online))
275 For further detail on the histories of these organisations, see individual entries on Lux Online 2005a
276
Mason, C. (2008), “The Routes toward British Computer Arts: The Role of Cultural Institutions in the Pioneering Period” in White Heat Cold Logic: British Computer Art 1960-1980, eds. P. Brown et al, Cambridge, Mass and London: The MIT Press, pp.245-264 (p.245). See also Walker 1994
277
Independent Filmmakers Alliance, which had strong links with the LFMC,278 was instrumental in the conception of a television channel that would champion “new images, new sounds [and] new voices” and, crucially, bring them into the living rooms of Britain.279
Although these activities were primarily London-based, some of the new voices were heard further afield, and the ‘Filmaktion’ event at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, in June 1973 was an expanded cinema exhibition of the contemporary work of the LFMC.
Fig. 1.2.15 Poster for Filmaktion at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 1973
According to the programme notes from a similar exhibition at Arnolfini, Bristol in 1976, expanded cinema can be understood as an art form that “combines the visual power of film
278
See Harvey 1982; Lambert 1982 279
Harvey, S. (1982), “New Images for Old? Channel Four and Independent Film” in What’s this Channel Four: An Alternative Report, eds. S. Blanchard and D. Morley, London: Comedia Publishing Group, pp.157-162 (p.157)
with the preoccupations of the other visual art forms”280 and, as such, it asserted the place of film and video art within the gallery. The context of the viewing of an expanded cinema artwork is relevant to the work itself, and at this time there was a strong presence of media artists in Liverpool, including Malcolm le Grice and William Raban.281 Furthermore, in the broader context of the host city outlined above, the works shown at Filmaktion represented a union of politics and art that:
Engaged a critique of mainstream cinema at the level of film’s actual image-making processes, rejecting the conventions of cinematic narrative and concentrating on the specific materials and processes used in filmmaking which became the main shape and content of the film.282
The exhibition “radically realign[ed] the possibilities and potentials for how the cinematic viewing space might be experienced,”283 and its positioning in one of Liverpool’s most prestigious art galleries can be seen as representative of the contemporary visual arts scene that was present in the city at that time.