Origins of Video Art Post

I have connected this clip from the film "Festen" to the piece on the Origins of Video Art because it is one of the first films shot in the Dogme 95 style of cinema which emphasizes the use of handheld cameras. Although this is a more modern film movement than the one discussed in the article, many of its basic philosophies are similar to its predecessor. Dogme encourages the low-tech, grainy images of technologies past in part because it requires the viewer to consider the role of the video camera when observing a piece. A high resolution camera can present images almost as well as we view them with our eyes, and it is not clear to us that there is a technology influencing our observations of the art. There are advantages and disadvantages to this: it can cause a state of awe in viewers to be able to see a picture very clearly such as with a 4k camera, but this awe is more an appreciation of the image than of the art itself. We must consider that there is a difference between the image and the art, and it is not dissimilar to the difference between video and film. Video and image go hand in hand because they desire to reveal some small part of our world as accurately as possible, where film art attempts to manipulate this image with respect to the camera, adding grain or faded colors to disrupt the accuracy of the image, to question the accuracy of our own sensory inputs, and to represent the world slightly differently. The outdated lens becomes a tool for stylizing a piece, as film constantly reuses old techniques in more modern ways. While in part a history lesson, the methods and cultural movements discussed in "Origins of Video Art" still provide a valid framework for filmmaking, though video has moved on to a more modern technological quota.