|
Audio-Video-Multi-Media Digital-Analogue-Virtual-Real Production-Presentation [People ] [New Projects] [History] Flashbacks? -Click YouTube videoheadsNL Arts Lab Human Family Melkweg Alchemical Wedding Munich Olympics Spielstrasse Under intense construction, please visit wearing virtual hard-hat!
|
|
|
A sketchy Chronology of a few of our Activities A Brief Videoheads Chronology
Founded in London Arts Lab 1968Moved
to Arnhem 1970 Videoheads
Melkweg 1970 Sonsbeek
Exhibition, Arnhem 1971 Moved
from Arnhem to Amsterdam 1971 Workshop
Egelantiersgracht 1971 Videoheads
Paris 1972 Work
for Sony and UNESCO 1973 - 2002 Videoculture
Center The Bank 1979 - 1983 Paris
1983 - 2001 Gent
2001 - 2003 New Studio in Amsterdam 2007 Stichting
Videoheads - a bit of history Videoheads began in London in the Arts Lab as an informal collective of artists interested in the application of the newly affordable video technology in the arts. There were Dutch, French, English, American and Canadian artists involved in this beginning phase, but we traveled in Europe and America and gave shows of the material we were producing and collecting, so soon we were having visiting artists from many places eager to see and use the material we had. What we had was a collection of cameras and monitors and videorecorders donated by two of the Beatles who had been given 1-inch AMPEX videorecorders as a very public gift by Capitol records. None of the Beatles made much use of this cumbersome and unreliable units, but the artists who had access to them had many ideas in the area of videographics, performance, dance and cultural documentation. Theater pieces using live and recorded video images as well as public installations in the Arts Lab Gallery were regular occurrences. In 1968 a happening staged by the Arts Lab in the Royal Albert Hall entitled “The Alchemical Wedding” provided enough funds to purchase one of the newly available Sony half-inch videorecorders along with a camera, a monitor, a tripod and a box of blank tapes. The videotape of “The Alchemical Wedding” we consider as Videoheads Opus 1. In 1970 Videoheads set up a video workshop in Arnhem and a multi-media showplace in the Melkweg in Amsterdam at its opening. Arnhem was the technical and administrative base and the Melkweg was for screenings as well as being a good venue for videotaping performances of various types. In 1972 we began a long and fruitful association with the Sony corporation in Tokyo. We were commissioned and funded to curate and operate a video art gallery in their showroom in the Champs-Elysées in Paris. This gave us access to practically unlimited equipment and technical support for complex projects requiring specially modified or redesigned equipment directly from Tokyo. In this period we began working in the area of video synthesizer images and interactive video installations. We were also able to use this access to help a number of other video artists and organizations in their work. We established in this period a Videoworkshop in the Egelantiersgracht, in Amsterdam and later a video café/gallery/cinema called The Bank (it was a converted AMRO Bank) in the Haarlemmerstraat, also in Amsterdam. Another development arising from our work with the Sony Corporation was that they recommended us to UNESCO, also based in Paris, as creative, problem-solving consulting experts in the field of video applications for development. Our consulting relationship with UNESCO continues to this day with recent projects in Oman, Jordan, Brazil, Costa Rica and Cameroon. In 1974 we created a base in Paris to co-ordinate our work in Amsterdam and our UNESCO contracts. From 1974 to 2003 we were active in Amsterdam and Paris and established a workshop in New Delhi in India. We have always maintained out contacts and activities in the United Kingdom and still do some production, research and editing activities there. In 2004 we began a project to move the video collection (some 55,000 hours of videotape) back to Amsterdam and to concentrate on restoration of older, more difficult to play programming. The real impetus was the availability of affordable digital storage media. Previously all restoration and copying involved an inevitable loss of quality, but now restored material can be immediately digitized and stored in a way that further work can be done without loss of quality. It took some time to find the right space for the workshop and even more time to adapt the space and install, racks and shelving for our material. We are 90% finished in that work and are ready to begin restoration activities as well as new productions in Amsterdam. A principal current project is to document, commemorate and celebrate out 40th anniversary (we mark December 18, 1968 as our official beginning). This will involve the restoration of almost all our early productions and the creation of a definitive catalogue of the entire collection (such a catalogue exists, but it needs a lot of update work, both in data input and programmed access). In this area we need support in a number of areas. Administration, funding, site location and planning as sell as physical activities all need to be attended to. We have always been an organization of volunteers and, indeed, during this long move from Paris, England, and Belgium back to Amsterdam. Private donations and volunteer energy have made it possible, if not easy, to create a clean workable space in Amsterdam with collection properly housed and accessibly arranged. Now we need organizational and financial support to set in motion our public relations, sponsorship, and inter-agency activities. Our program is and has always been to produce, support and encourage video activities in all areas of the fine and performing arts. Videographics have now extended to computer graphics, and they remain an essential; part of our interest and activity. The area of restoration of archive material is also vital to our project- both in the restoration of our own material but also of material from musea, galleries, collectors and artists who have difficulties with old or damaged media materials. We do have material posted in our YouTube pages - check out videoheadsNL |
Send mail to
jack.videomaster@gmail.com with
questions or comments about this web site.
|
