Video art as a precursor of the multimedia video design

Abstract

This article is historico-analytical type concerning to the investigation of art basis for multimedia video design, particular research of the field of art – video art: it is origin, the main stages of development and modern aesthetic direction. In the work is analyzed the influence of video art on the process of formation and development of multimedia video design. The relevance of this theme is the need to in-depth study of the origins of modern art in design, including the study of philosophical and artistic background multimedia video design. In this case, video art is regarded as the one of origins of the art. Nam June Paik was one of the first artists who use the term "video art". Usually he is associated with the occurrence of this type of art. He was inspired by the composer John Cage and Fluxus founder George Maciunas. Fluxus is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. The artists tried to merge the art and life and achieve a more democratic approach to art. Pike was in a creative search for new artistic concepts and reconsidered the possibilities of the performance, electronic technologies and modern philosophy in the fine art. Nam June Paik used powerful magnets to create distortions of the television image and demonstrated the vulnerability of the video image to outside interference. By utilizing a magnetized ring, he interfered with the internal electronic circuitry of the device, and in turn, generated unique swirling vortexes. Pike called this invention "Demahnetayzer". Nam June Paik built a computer that could mix images, and he used Chromakey techniques (colour separation overlay) to superimpose parts of one image over another creating bizarre montages. Chromakey works by selecting a colour from the first image, usually blue, that is then replaced by an image from another source. The new waves of video artists, who were inspired of Nam June Paik, were proposed new format of traditional art – the video art. Seeing this methodology as essential for transfiguring social reality Nam June Paik, Wolf Vostell, and others developed programs centered on the electronic alteration of the standard television signal and or the physical manipulation of the TV set. Wolf Vostell was another pioneer of video art. He began to interfere with the television set itself. Vostell's strategical approach incorporated the decollage technique. Vostell noticed the word "Decollage" in the cover of the newspaper, where was posted an article about the crash, and used it to explain the concept of his works. He used fragments of reality such as torn posters and photographs to show the destructive aspect of life. Vostell looked at reality through the prism of the political press, magazine pictures and television, and projected it onto large screens. Since the 1970s, artists paid particular attention to optical devices and illuminators as integral imaging elements. The early works of American video artist Mary Lucier "Dawn Burn" (1975) and "Bird’s Eye" (1978) demonstrated experiments with optical camera features. A famous American artist Bill Viola, skillfully showed in the video installation "Decay Time" (1974), how the video image had formed with the help of lighting. Video art artists of 80s are embodied in their works different kinds of music. For example, French video artist Robert Cahen experimented with electro-acoustic, noise and synthesized music. So at the initial stage of development video art is manifested as a complex phenomenon with different stylistic directions. Today there are three aesthetic areas of the modern video art: documentary, audio-visual and conceptual. We should also highlight to the development of video art in our country. In the early 90's of the 20th century post-Soviet community begins to discover the new genre of art – the video art. The early period of Ukrainian video art is called "Games with a camera". According Ukrainian art critic and curator Oleksandr Soloviov, this title is very accurate, because Ukrainian artists have know about video art for a long time, but did not have the basics of working with a camera as an artistic tool, and they were looking for their own "video expressiveness".