Vašulka Mediascape

Videotaping NYC performers who asked “what is video?” “what is tape?”

Steina: “Before we had the Kitchen, we would go over to Harvey Lloyd’s studio to set all the machines into motion, watch feedback, invite dancers to come dance in front of the camera, controlling a feedback loop that in turn triggered synthesized audio, etc. Then we started taking out the Portapak, which was very lightweight and very wonderful … We used to call up people and ask to tape them. The typical responses would be, ‘What is tape? What is video? What for? Why do you want to tape me?’ This went on for the first year. We taped jazz musicians, dancers and artists … I had been manipulating audiotapes, video was just an extension.”

“A Conversation between Steina and Woody Vašulka, Don Foresta and Christiane Carlut” (1992) in Buffalo Heads, Woody Vašulka & Peter Weibel, eds, ZKM, Karlsruhe (2008); link: https://vasulka.org/Kitchen/essays_carlut/K_CarlutConversation_03.html.