Chapter 31

1982
Bill Viola

• Viola is one of the "highest-profile of video artists"
• created "70 millimeter" video art
• video art: began as an exploration of the video medium as opposed to film, "reconfigured public and industrial conceptions of the video image"
• poetic approach to video
• created the Aspen Movie-Map - mapped onto a system that was familiar, with the challenge to create something new and surprising
• questions how we use language

I'm always for artists who question the everyday, who rework familiar concepts to create unfamiliar new ideas. Video art has always really interested me and it was really in its prime with the era of the "Happenings". I took a class at Gallatin where we were able to play around with video art and explore what happens when you stop trying to make a narrative and just enjoy the instrument; it was fantastic.