In the late 1960s and early 1970s, artists responded to a world increasingly shaped by mass media and consumer culture. They repurposed tools of commerce and communication—from shop windows to television, radio, and print media—to explore alternative models of distribution free from corporate control. As video became available outside the television industry, it made possible new forms of art making, activism, critique, and connection.
The works on view here harnessed the technology of this period to expose the feedback loop between spectatorship and surveillance. Anchoring the display is Frank Gillette and Ira Schneider’s landmark video installation Wipe Cycle (1969/2017), which disrupts the traditional flow of televisual information by incorporating a live feed of the viewer. This gallery also features archival materials related to early video projects, including the artist-run journal Radical Software. In its inaugural 1970 issue, the journal’s creators declared, “Power is no longer measured in land, labor, or capital, but by access to information and the means to disseminate it.”
Organized by Michelle Elligott, Chief of Archives, Library, and Research Collections, and Erica Papernik-Shimizu, Associate Curator, Department of Media and Performance, with Rachel Rosin, departments of Drawings and Prints and Curatorial Affairs.
