Series: New Television Workshop
Program: Very First Half-Inch Videotape Festival Ever, The
Date: 1970-01-01
Duration: 00:00:54

Subject: Interviews; Video recordings; Video equipment
People: Connor, Russell
Copyright Holder: WGBH Educational Foundation

Clip Description
This short excerpt from "The Very First Half-Inch Videotape Festival Ever" features the host, Russell Connor, asking a participant named Richard to demonstrate the playback facility of material that had been filmed just a few minutes earlier.

Program Description
This one-off special on the video portapak was broadcast live from the WGBH studios in the early 1970's.

For this work video makers using the portapak were invited to bring their works into the WGBH studio, where the pieces were played back from and shot off of monitors. Host Russell Connors and others interviewed participants (including representatives of Top Value Television and a young Bill Viola) about their work. Television viewers were encouraged to call into the station with their comments and were given contact information for the participants. The work shown represents the explosion in the use of video after the invention of the portapak. Produced by Henry Becton and Dorothy Chiesa. Directed by David Atwood.

The "Television Workshop" created several shows that were broadcast on WGBH without being a part of a series sponsored specifically by the Workshop. Additionally, they were commissioned to create shows showcasing video art for national broadcast and created several shows in collaboration with existing series at other stations, such as WNET's "American Playhouse."

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/Very38.HTML