Video Lecture: The Laboratory for Antiquated Video Systems: A Time Capsule for an Obsolete Mass Product (for Intimacy and Revolutions)

Presented by Christian Haardt and the Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe

The introduction of the portable consumer video recorder in 1965 may have been seen as a social revolution: the instant production and distribution of moving images (with synchronized sound!) was now possible for almost anyone. While it may have democratized communication or satisfied the intimate communication needs of post-war society, the preservation of videotapes illustrates the dependence of everyday devices on industry. Artists have made extensive use of all forms of video technology since its inception. In 2005, the Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe (www.zkm.de) decided to create a time capsule that would keep the equipment and knowledge of a bygone era running in order to achieve a degree of independence from the electronics industry. The Laboratory for Antiquated Video Systems rescues audiovisual art and documents from analog videotapes, archives them for the long term, and shows them again – also in their original form, on CRT monitors. Video tapes by artists such as Ulrike Rosenbach, the Vasulkas, Aldo Tambellini, the Raindance Foundation, and others have been restored and digitized here.

In this video lecture, the diversity of digitized video art of the ZKM collection will be made visually accessible, and the lecture wants to show that the preservation of obsolete devices such as the video recorder is also a political gesture.

A special program of Experiments in Cinema v20.0, which runs April 16-20 2025 in Albuquerque NM. More information about the festival at www.experimentsincinema.org