ABSTRACT
As Davidson Gigliotti remembers, most of the pioneering New York videomen lived not in SoHo but on the Lower East Side, which was at the time the epitome of a cultural bohemia, incidentally accounting for why much early video activity reflected the radical political aspirations of either (or both) the New Left and the futurism of, say, Buckminster Fuller. Gigliotti says, “In those days we saw video as a different practice; related to art, certainly, but also embedded in broad cultural concerns. We wanted to change the world, of course. Still do, actually.” The contrasting figure was Nam June Paik, always residing in SoHo, who seemed more interested in exploring the radical possibilities of the medium (and later making radical social gestures, such as dropping his pants on the greeting line at a White House reception for the prime minister of South Korea). Paik’s singular achievement is acknowledged elsewhere in this book.
