In what sense is it possible to speak of a materiality of the electronic image? This question, which is recurrent in our so-called dematerialized digital age, was already central to the work of Steina and Woody Vasulka, two major figures of early video art and digital art. Beginning in the early 1970s, the couple—who discovered video after their move to the United States from Europe—developed a singular approach to the electronic image that was guided by their perception of the signal-based medium as being in fact a new kind of raw matter. This talk will detail how the Vasulkas harnessed this newfound material in order to break with the frame of representation and construct video “objects” rather than pictures. Similarly, it will show how the couple’s explorations of machine vision, in both single-channel video tapes and installations, entail a paradoxical displacement of the visual itself in favor of the tactile. From this perspective, the works of the Vasulkas may be described as precursors of today’s virtual-haptic reality and volumetric images. Yet their commitment to materialism also offers an alternative to the discourse of simulation that tends to frame our understanding of virtual environments.
Larisa Dryansky is Associate Professor of Art History at Sorbonne Université. Her research focuses on the intersections of art, science, and technology in postwar and contemporary art and on technical images (photography, film, video). She is currently completing a book that investigates artists’ interest in the concept of antimatter. In addition to her first book, Cartophotographies: Du Land Art à l’Art Conceptuel (2017), she has co-edited several volumes, including recently Repenser le Médium: Art Contemporain et Cinéma (2022) and Is Medieval Art Contemporary? (2023). From 2014 to 2016, she was a Senior Fellow at the French National Art History Institute (INHA).
Organised by Professor Sarah Wilson (The Courtauld) and Dr Lucy Bradnock (The Courtauld) as part of the Modern & Contemporary Series.
