“Participation represents the Vašulkas’ experience of the New York downtown scene in the late 1960s and early ’70s. In this fascinating portrait of wildly creative people, places and times, the artists use the early Portapak video system to document, among others, Don Cherry performing in Washington Square, Warhol Superstars on stage, and Jimi Hendrix in concert. This pioneering video document is a free-form time capsule of an era.”

“During the same period [late 1960s], we were taking the portable video equipment to New York’s cultural playgrounds: WBAI Free Music Store, Judson Church, La Mama, Automation House, the Village Vanguard, Fillmore East, Blue Dom, Kansas City Steakhouse, etc.… After such outings, everyone would gather in our loft to look at the instant playback – something that most people at that time had never experienced before. Even the word “video” was a brand-new addition to the vocabulary. By 1971 there was so much traffic our loft that, when a friend told us he had found a large space in an abandoned kitchen in the old Broadway Central Hotel, we were ready. The space was intended to serve the artists, not the audience. We therefore named it The Kitchen – LATL (Live Audience Test Laboratory).”