The Medium is the Medium

WGBH
1969, 20:39 min, color, sound

Produced by WGBH-TV in Boston, the Medium is the Medium is one of the earliest and most prescient examples of the collaboration between public television and the emerging field of video art in the U.S. WGBH commissioned artists — Allan Kaprow, Nam June Paik, Otto Piene, James Seawright, Thomas Tadlock and Aldo Tambellini — to create original works for broadcast television. Their works explored the parameters of the new medium, from image processing and interactivity to video dance and sculpture.

Black

Aldo Tambellini

1969, 3:51 min, b&w, sound<

 
Hello

Allan Kaprow

1969, 4:23 min, b&w, sound<

 

1969, 4:38 min, color, sound<

 
Electronic Opera #1

Nam June Paik

1969, 4:45 min, color, sound<

 

Produced by WGBH-TV in Boston, the Medium is the Medium is one of the earliest and most prescient examples of the collaboration between public television and the emerging field of video art in the United States. WGBH commissioned six visual artists — Allan Kaprow, Nam June Paik, Otto Piene, James Seawright, Thomas Tadlock and Aldo Tambellini — to create original works for broadcast television. In pursuing their individual aesthetics, these artists produced works that explored the parameters of the new medium, from image processing and interactivity to video dance and sculpture.

Produced by WGBH. Executive Producer: David Oppenheim. Producers: Ann Gresser, Pat Marx. Director: Fred Barzyk.

 
 

Requests to exhibit or screen individual works, excerpted from the full program, will be referred to WGBH for licensing.

 
 

See also