Woody Vasulka: Didactic Video

Woody Vasulka studied engineering at the Industrial Engineering School in Brno and at the Film Faculty at Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU) in Prague in the 1950s and 60s. He immigrated to New York in 1965. Since 1969, he has been working primarily with the new medium of video, researching the structures of the electronic image, Along with his colleague and life companion, Steina, Woody Vasulka counts among the pioneers of video art. Together, they founded the experimental theater for electronic arts, The Kitchen, in 1971. In 1973, Vasulka accepted an invitation by Gerald O’Grady to the then newly established Center for Media Study at the State University of New York at Buffalo where he took up a professorship and taught until 1979. The Vasulkas have been living and working in Santa Fe, New Mexico since 1980 where they initiated the research institute Art and Science Laboratory, in 1999.

Didactic Video explores Vasulkas most recent analysis of video materials. This exhibition consists of video and prints in an attempt to understand one of his most provocative works, The Art of Memory. It is an investigation into the study of the language of images that draws on the translation of electronic signals in grid and wave forms, synthetically generated be means of frequency, voltage and digital code.

This exhibition is presented as part of the Electronic Arts Alliance between the Burchfield Penney and Institute for Electronic Arts, New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University (IEA).