Sight Unseen Screening Series presents

SEND BLANK TAPE: early video distribution networks and Radical Software magazine

Curator Liz Flyntz will present the videos with some notes on the artists and the history of their production and presentation.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

This screening presents an array of videos created by collectives and individuals active in the early video exchange, analysis, and distribution network facilitated and promoted by Radical Software magazine – the very first publication dedicated to the medium of video.  In 1970 when Radical Software magazine was founded, video was a new medium, just recently made available to consumers via Sony’s portable “Porta-pak”.  These videos display the range and depth of creative production made possible by this access to consumer video technology in the late 60s and early 70s.   

Works include documentation of the Whole Earth Catalog “demise party” in which Stewart Brand gives out thousands of dollars to arguing hippies, a variety of experimental and documentary works by notable video collectives like Ant Farm, Videofreex, and Raindance, early video synthesizer stuff, as well as footage of clashes with cops at the 1971 Mayday protests and the last recorded interview with late Black Panther Party member Fred Hampton. 

This representative, stylistically diverse selection of works is presented by the curator with some contextual notes on the history of the artists, the technology, and the events depicted.

ABOUT THE CURATOR

Liz Flyntz is a curator, writer, and artist.  Her research focuses on historic and contemporary media art exhibition and archiving methodology, artist-produced alternative funding models, and systems-based art. In 2012 she completed an MFA in Media Study, with a concentration in Emerging Practices, at the State University of New York at Buffalo and she received her BA from Antioch College, in Yellow Springs, OH.

Event location:

The Red Room is a volunteer-run space in Baltimore dedicated to mind-expanding experimental culture, headquartered at Normals Books and Records.