Series: New Television
Program: New Television
Episode: 313 (1987)
Date: 1985-01-01
Subject: Violence; Tall buildings
People: Garrin, Paul
Copyright Holder: Paul Garrin and Sony Corporation

Clip Description
Against a background of high-rises and rubble, the image of a young man running across an empty lot is repeated. A sense of urgency builds. Buildings explode and crumble to the ground. A hand-held camera surveys the moving ground. Images are blurred, erased, distorted, replaced, and repeated to create this dramatic short work by Paul Garrin. Dramatic electronic music was composed and performed by Ryuichi Sakamoto.

The piece is approximately five minutes in length and was broadcast as a segment of episode 313 (1987) of "New Television."

Series Description
The New Television Workshop originated at WGBH, a public broadcasting station in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1974 to support the creation and development of experimental video art. This experimental programming included dance, drama, music, performance and visual arts on video and film. As early as 1968, WGBH was committed to the development of video art through residency programs, with artists such as Nam June Paik, and the "Rockefeller Artists-in-Television" project. Many of these early works (pre-1974) were broadcast both locally and nationally.

As an umbrella for arts related programming, the Workshop included "Artist's Showcase, " "Frames of Reference, " "Dance for Camera, " "Poetry Breaks," and "New Television," as well as acquired arts programming. Individual works were created for "Visions," a series produced by WNET (New York), and "Alive From Off Center," a series produced by KTCA (St. Paul - Minneapolis). The Contemporary Art Television (CAT) Fund was co-founded by the Workshop and Boston's Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA) in the 1980's, to commission works by video artists. In 1993 the Workshop ceased production at WGBH.

See also: http://main.wgbh.org/wgbh/NTW/FA/TITLES/Human110.HTML