Erica Levin

The Channeled Image: Art and Media Politics after Television (University of Chicago Press) tracks how experimental artists began to incorporate and respond to television, taking it to new aesthetic and political ends in the 1960s. Artists such as Carolee Schneemann, Bruce Conner, Stan VanDerBeek, and Aldo Tambellini introduced immersive projection environments, live screening events, videographic distortion, and televised happenings to mimic, simulate, and disrupt the appearance of televised images. In the book, Levin asks how artistic experimentation with televisual forms was shaped by events that challenged television broadcasters’ claims to authority—events that set the stage for struggles over how access to the airwaves would be negotiated in the future. The talk will feature video clips related to her book, and a Q&A with the audience follows the conversation. (program approx. 60 mins.)

IMAGE CAPTION
Image from The Channeled Image: Art and Media Politics After Television book cover, courtesy of the University of Chicago Press.