Conceptualizing Video: Theoretical Perspectives on the Electronic Image 1981–2016

Abstract

Since its introduction in the 1960s, video as a medium has formed a self-differentiating system, a layering of applications and conventions that cannot be reduced to the material characteristics of their technological foundation. This article gives an overview of different theoretical perspectives on the electronic image, its materiality, and its dispositive discussing the writings of Maurizio Lazzarato, Rosalind Krauss, Raymond Bellour, Yvonne Spielmann, Ina Blom and others. Video is analyzed as an ever-changing technological assemblage from which certain affordances emerge and which encompasses technical as well as human agency.

Keywords

• Video Theory; Medium Specificiy; Hibridity; Intermediality; Electronic Image