ABSTRACT
Experimentation and invention by scientists and engineers has resulted in new media technologies such as photography, cinematography, videotape recording and computers, which in turn have given rise to huge new manufacturing and entertainment industries, mass employment and products enjoyed by billions. Local groups and workshops were established to provide facilities, teach skills and to encourage citizens in deprived neighbourhoods to use photography as a critical tool. A contradiction exists between capitalism's system of private property which limits people's use of copyright images - and its encouragement of technological inventions - such as photocopiers, tape and video recorders - which make the task of copying images and sounds easier. Nam June Paik acquisition of a Japanese-made, portable video camera and recorder in New York in 1965 has become legendary as a crucial date in the chronology of video art. Video art's playful and experimental aesthetic hindered its acceptance by broadcasters and the viewing public for a number of years.
