New Media in Late 20th-Century Art

   by Michael Rush, 2003

" This is not to say that other concerns were absent. Several of video's early practitioners were very engaged in technological advances such as synthesizers, image processing, computer scanning and so forth.

Among the many innovators were Woody and Steina Vasulka (b. respectively, Czechoslovakia, 1937, Iceland, 1940), Ed Emschwiller (US 1925-1990), Dan Sandin (US,), Keith Sonnier (US,b. 1941), Nam June Paik and Shuya Abe, Robert Zagone (US), Eric Siegel (US), and Swedish artists Ture Sjölander, Lars Weck, and Bengt Modin, to name a few.

As we shall see in chapter 1, this thread in the history of video art, was one direction the form might have taken, but it did not. By and large, those interested in the more technological aspects of the medium did not remain as artists, per se, but rather, like the early video activists, went in other directions, toward television engineering, directing, or documentary-making. The Vasulkas and Paik are notable exceptions, having remained influential video and media artists."