As video cameras first became affordable in the 1970's many artists jumped at the opportunity to experiment with the medium. And BOOM, they were able to turn technology, which catered to the masses, into something of their own, into video art that celebrated an alternative art scene.
This first happened around forty years ago, it is now 2009, a time where it's relatively difficult to ignore the effects of YouTube. Earlier this September the New York Times Magazine featured an article that pinpointed the development:
Virginia Heffernan introduces “Uploading the Avant-Garde” by comparing the oldest YouTube video to Jean-Luc Godard’s film art. To Heffernan, the classic YouTube is “visually surprising, narratively opaque, forthrightly poetic.”
YouTube videos are of their own genre, they’re both expressive AND popular, while the avant-garde videos of the 1970’s were considered an art form that was followed only by professionals and enthusiasts. This new phenomena is the “vernacular avant-garde” of the now where access is not an issue.
But does YouTube really have the power to protect and expand video art or is it just a handmaiden to mass media?
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