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The Sony Portapak was the first truly portable videotape recorder. In l965 it influenced the emergence of experimental video, video art, electronic art, alternative TV, community video, guerrilla television, and computer art. For the first time the low cost of the Portapak and its portability gave the experimental artists access to the means of producing television. The introduction of the Sony Portapak (the first playback camcorder) created a culture of video art and independent film, reconfiguring mass media and mass social conceptions.

As opposed to television and theatrical cinema, video art is a subset of artistic works which relies on "moving pictures" and is comprised of video and/or audio data. The precise medium of storing this data is variable and at the discretion of the artist; the medium of storage is usually magnetic video tape although the data may also be stored as a computer file (or files) on a hard disk, CD-ROM, DVD, solid state, indeed any electronic storage format. However, despite obvious parallels and relationships, video is not film. One of the key differences between video art and theatrical cinema is that video art does not necessarily rely on many of the conventions that define theatrical cinema. Video art may not employ the use of performers, may contain no dialogue, may have no discernible narrative or plot, or adhere to any of the other conventions that construct cinema as entertainment. This distinction is important because it delineates video art not only from cinema but also from the sub-categories where those definitions may become muddy (as in the case of avant garde or short films). The simplest, most straightforward defining distinction in this respect would then be to say that cinema's ultimate goal is to entertain, whereas video art's intentions are more varied, be they to simply explore the boundaries of the medium itself or to rigorously attack the viewer's expectations of video as shaped by conventional cinema.

VIDEO

VIDEO ART TIMELINE

NEW GENERATION OF EXPERIMENTAL VIDEO ARTISTS

THE PORTAPAK COINCIDES WITH ART MOVEMENTS in the 1960's

ARTIFACT of the DECONSTRUCTION OF MASS MEDIA

SONY PORTAPAK GLOBAL AFFECTS

ESTABLISHMENT OF VIDEO ART INSTITUTION

SONY BRAND

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