New York State Council on the Arts Transcript of the Whitney Video

New York State Council on the Arts Transcript of the Whitney Video Conference sponsored by NYSCA on April 1 & 2, 1974. Participants: Peter Bradley, Director of Programs, Film, TV/Media & Literature, NYSCA Gil Konishi, NYSCA Michael Chase, Director, New York Network John Reilly, Director, Global Village Video Resource Center David Langdon, New York State Cable Commission Carolyn Sachs, New York State Cable Commission Mrs. Richard Rodgers, Council Member, NYSCA David Davis/ Office in Charge of Public Broadcasting, Ford Foundation Porter McCray, Director, Asian Cultural Programs, J.D.R. Ill Fund Forest Chisman, Executive Assistant, Markle Foundation Nancy Raine/ Assistant, Public Media, NBA David Loxton, Director, TV Lab, Educational Broadcasting Corp. Bob Civiello, Long Island Educational TV Council Drew Rowland, Long Island Educational TV Council Diane Hart, Collaborations in Art, Science and Technology Jon Alpert, Downtown Community TV Center George Cree, Experimental Intermedia Foundation Ralph Flocking, Experimental TV Center Sherry Miller, Experimental TV Center Lance Wisniewski, Innervision Media Systems Joe Seal, Ithaca Video Project Skip Blumberg, Media Bus, Inc. Bart Friedman,, Media Bus, Inc. Nancy Caine, Media Bus, Inc. Davidson Gigliotti, Media Bus, Inc. Gerald O'Grady, Media Study, Inc. Sandy Rockowitz, Portable Channel Judy DeSisti, Portable Channel Howie Gutstadt, Survival Arts Media Ben Levine, Survival Arts Media Alan Winer, Visual Studies Workshop Margot Lewitin, Women's Interart Center Ken Marsh, Woodstock Community Video Dean Evenson, Woodstock Community Video Jaime Barrios, Young Filmmaker's Foundation Lydia Silman, NYSCA LYDIA SILMAN. John Reilly has been coordinating this seminar for me and he has some remarks that ought to be quite interesting. Mr. Reilly. JOHN REILLY. There is a copy of a paper, which is kind of long, but contains a few different parts. In the beginning, there is a brief discussion of funding from the New York State Council. Mainly what I did was assemble some statements by the Governor, John Hightower, Gerd Stern and Peter Bradley. I quoted you in here also, on general philosophy and feeling about funding, which is part of what I think we'll be talking about today. And, then I've gone into an area in here where I've spoken about objectives of what we might try to achieve today and the final part is simply some information about the Video Study Center of Global Village and to give an example of the type of workshops we do. I included two descriptions at the end of this list of workshops, one an intensive and one a new workshop that we'll be doing in intermedia. It seems to me that there is an opportunity for all of us to find ways of coordinating some of our activities and begin to work a little more closely together on certain areas. Now, I think it's happened kind of informally actually, and I think there's a chance, perhaps to do it with a little more planning, a little more thought. I’ve proposed some of those areas where I thought we might think of cooperating with each other. For instance, those of us who teach or offer workshops of some type or who have a facility open to the public can take people to certain skill levels. It's a very simple point. If I have somebody who's working in a studio, they can attain a certain skill level of work beyond the portapak- working in a small studio, working with one-inch editing facilities, etc. There are other facilities in the State where there are time-base error correctors, color equipment, or a Paik-Abe Video synthesizer, I mean resources beyond those that we have that perhaps can be made available to certain people so that - I don't want to use the word graduate but a person (artist) who completes a certain skill level in one of the facilities can go on to work in another facility. Now, we've been doing this informally and I just think this is one area that we can discuss to make it a little bit more formal, so that there would actually be places put aside so that someone could go to Buffalo, or someone could come to New York for a period of time. It doesn't really have to be a long time but who then has studio experience, can go on and work in a more sophisticated facility and can take that skill to another level. It seems like a minor point but what I'm trying to do is suggest concrete ways that I see as an area of cooperation, an area of really doing something together. I think that most of us have had discussions over the last, what has been, four or five years, in Video, where a lot of grandiose plans have been made and sometimes very little has happened, and I think that what we all need, and I think you probably would agree, is to begin to make things as concrete as possible, just something tangible, something real, some small level, let's say, of achieving something that we can really do. And part of, I suppose, what will come out today is the offering that each facility has and how we can begin to inter-relate those offerings by, for instance, beginning by having somebody on your own staff or yourself, that would like to work in another facility. And for our part, we would be willing to do that and would find it a challenge, to find a way of inter-relating on that level. So, that's one area that I suggest that perhaps we talk about. Then, the whole question of distribution of tapes, networking, the idea that we probably have to find a way beyond our mailing and beyond what we're doing now. I suppose you could, describe how you show tapes and what you do. We are continuing to show tapes on the Cable, in New York City, on the public access channel. Sometimes it's very difficult to get a reaction, sometimes I can get a reaction. One way I've found of getting a reaction- it’s a very minor point- is when I can find another organization to help promote it. I did a taping with a major union in the city and the union circulated the information to 100,000 union members in New York State so that it was possible to actually get a reaction by showing the tapes simultaneously on both public access systems in New York and promoting it. And there was feedback, there was actually a response, which is usually the biggest problem, because we can show an infinite number of tapes and we just get no response whatsoever. So, that is one small way that we distribute. We also mail - we just simply mail out on the average of maybe between five and ten tapes a week to colleagues, to facilities, and all over the country. I suggest that with the "new access" to public television, that is at least technically through the time-base error corrector, most of our work now, theoretically, can be broadcast. We should begin to think of the stations in the State relating in some way (and I've suggested a New York State Experimental TV Hour or something along that line) where, for instance, the work being done at the Lab and at WLIW in Long Island can be shown on a regular basis on all the public television stations in the State. There could actually be established some kind of an hour-a-month as a modest beginning, to show the work around the State of the other groups and artists in the different regions of the State and begin to circulate their work in some way on the Public Television stations. I think that's an area we can talk about. Some of you may object. You can say, “I don't want to relate to that,” or whatever, but I think that's an area that we should talk about and try and find a way—if there is one- of doing it. I know some of you have thought about it and have other things to say about that, I mentioned that the Council has a number of the tapes that we produce and has been showing them. I don't know what policy actually is followed on that, and I suppose I would raise that question just out of a point of information. One of the discussions that we have gotten into- or at least I have gotten into at National Endowment was this whole question of: Do we distribute tapes that somebody makes that cost him a certain amount of money? Do we distribute them for nothing or should it be that a distribution agency such as the set-up that Howard Wise is now working with, charge a certain amount of money and return a certain amount to the artist? I think it's a whole question about revenue going back to the artist. (I use the word artist and some of you may object to "artist". I mean anyone who's making tapes. I try to be definitive about this.) There's a whole question about revenue from tapes and things like that. I think that is another area that some of you may have some thoughts about. I don't feel strongly one way or the other about it. I think there are times when it would be nice if we could have some revenue from the tapes and I think there are certain people and groups that can afford to pay for tapes and should.

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