ABSTRACT
In many historical studies of media-based art, Stan Brakhage and Andy Warhol stand as exemplars of a binary relationship situated as a struggle between oppositional and conformist versions of the avant-garde. Often, this relationship is understood as the degree to which media artists retain “autonomy” over the production of their work. In the historiographical sketch that follows, Brakhage and Warhol set the terms for understanding the discourse which grounds the avant-garde goal of an autonomous art practice while providing an opening for a look at the ways in which this goal has moved from individuals to institutions, notably the Bay Area Video Coalition in San Francisco. While admittedly brief, this chapter seeks to attend to the particular effects of a metaphor of agency-autonomy-on specific forms of media practice and production.
