University of Groningen Resistance, Disruption and Belonging Slootweg, Tom IMPORTANT NOTE: You are advised to consult the publisher's version (publisher's PDF) if you wish to cite from it. Please check the document version below. Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Publication date: 2018 Link to publication in University of Groningen/UMCG research database Citation for published version (APA): Slootweg, T. (2018). Resistance, Disruption and Belonging: Electronic Video in Three Amateur Modes. Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. Copyright Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). The publication may also be distributed here under the terms of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act, indicated by the “Taverne” license. 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Download date: 11-10-2021 Resistance, Disruption and Belonging Electronic Video in Three Amateur Modes © 2018, Tom Slootweg, Groningen ISBN (book): 978-94-034-0544-5 ISBN (e-book): 978-94-034-0545-2 Cover Design: Julia de Jong Layout: Birte Schohaus Printed by: Netzodruk, Groningen This doctoral thesis is an outcome of the research project “Changing Plat- forms of Ritualized Memory Practices: The Cultural Dynamics of Home Movies,” funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO, project number 360-45-010). Resistance, Disruption and Belonging Electronic Video in Three Amateur Modes Proefschrift ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen op gezag van de rector magnificus prof. dr. E. Sterken en volgens besluit van het College voor Promoties De openbare verdediging zal plaatsvinden op maandag 9 april 2018 om 16.15 uur door Tom Slootweg geboren op 15 november 1983 te Voorburg Promotor Prof. dr. H.B.M. Wijfjes Copromotor Dr. S.I. Aasman Beoordelingscommissie Prof. dr. J.F.T.M. van Dijck Prof. dr. J.S. de Leeuw Prof. dr. A.M.A. van den Oever Voor Roland ‘You are my center When I spin away Out of control on videotape On videotape On videotape On videotape On videotape On videotape’ Radiohead, “Videotape” (In Rainbows, 2007) Contents CHAPTER 1 - Introduction 11 Three historical cases of video as alternative in the Netherlands 14 A sociocultural media history of video:intermediality, dispositif and affordance 17 Getting a grip on the amateur 22 From an ideological perspective to three amateur modes 24 The structure, sources and analysis of electronic video in three modes 33 CHAPTER 2 - Imagining Video at the Firato 43 Introduction 43 Video’s initial pre-domestication 47 From TV-slave to master 50 Detour through the electronic village with Marhall McLuhan 54 Techno-utopian expectations of the Home Communication Centre 59 Home video’s problematic path towards standardisation 63 Video and information society in the 1980s 65 Ameliorative and transformative perceptions of the electronic age 69 Conclusion 71 CHAPTER 3 - The Counter Mode 75 Introduction 75 Dutch social counter movements of the 1960s and 1970s 78 The international video avant-garde 84 Paik and the reconfiguration of DO-IT-YOURSELF TV 88 Portable video as a counter technology 92 Imagining portapak’s everyday user 99 The emergence of video culture in the Netherlands 103 Meatball and the cybernetic utopia of cable television 107 The first steps, Het Kijkhuis and mobile video 111 The move to broadcast television, Neon and the punk project 119 Democratic television as a platform for antisocial behaviour 127 The end of a paradox 134 Conclusion 137 CHAPTER 4 - The Community Mode 143 Introduction 143 Hobbyism, serious leisure and organised amateur filmmaking 146 A reconstruction of organised amateur filmmaking 151 Dealing with consumerism and individualism 153 Contents Shaping the spirit of community through the rite of passage 159 The myths and traditions of early film culture 163 Adopting the craftsmanship of film amateurism proper 168 First encounters with video 172 Video and TV as disruptive technologies 175 A threat to the aura of film 181 Meet the videots 185 The gradual acceptance of video 192 Conclusion 196 CHAPTER 5 - The Home Mode 201 Introduction 201 Weighing the advantages of video 204 Evocative video and mediated memories 207 The home mode and the affordances of video 211 Video and the audiovisual dimensions of home and belonging 215 The Sultanate of Oman 220 Keeping the family together 225 Homo Shell Expatriens and (up)rootedness 227 The wadi as a videographic image of home 231 Masculine domesticity and performing the family 234 The expository and intervening video voice 240 Left speechless and the sound of discontent 243 Conclusion 246 CHAPTER 6 - Conclusion 251 The meanings and functioning of video in three modes 252 Video through the lenses of intermediality, dispositif and affordance 255 A broader understanding of alternative media 261 From video’s past in three modes towards the future 263 List of Illustrations 266 List of Archives and Interviews 267 Bibliography 268 Appendix I: Meatball (co-)productions 1972-1978 284 Appendix II: Special thematic events at Het Kijkhuis 1975-1978 286 Acknowledgements 289 Dutch Summary: Verzet, verstoring en verbintenis 293 Biography 297 11 At the start of 1950, only one year before the first national “live” television broadcast in the Netherlands took place, Dutch journalists followed with great interest the numerous steps towards the already progressing diffusion and do- mestication of television in the United States. A Latin technical term, “video,” which in English translates to “I see”, regularly emerged in newspaper articles on the topic and gave a sophisticated ring to the coverage on the rapidly ad- vancing world of broadcast television. One of these curious reporters, writing for the conservative-liberal daily newspaper Algemeen Handelsblad, speculat- ed ‘that “video” will surpass “radio” within five years.’1 The terminology used, in particular that pertaining to the implied re- lationship and competition between “video” and “radio,” might nowadays engender considerable confusion. The word would arouse connotations and meanings, such as the audiovisual content made by various groups of people on their smartphones to store it afterwards on the cloud, or to upload it on digi- tal platforms such as YouTube or Facebook. The word “video” can also refer to the series, documentaries and feature films available on various subscription streaming services. For those who are old enough, the same word might also spur memories of a wide variety of now obsolete consumer VHS, Betamax or Video2000 videocassettes and recorders, which from the late 1970s until the 2000s had a prominent place in the living room.2 However, as media scholar Michael Z. Newman pointed out, ‘[i]n the first phase, the era of broadcasting’s development and penetration into the mass market, video was another word for television.’3 This particular under- standing of video is no longer part of everyday parlance, yet indicates that do- ing a media history of video requires an awareness that it, to some degree, also encompasses the ‘history of a word.’4 In order to understand the changes in connotations and meanings of the word “video” over the course of the twenti- 1 ‘(…) dat “video” zeker binnen vijf jaar “radio” zal hebben overvleugeld.’ Translation author. S.n. ‘Hoe staat het nu met onze televisie?’ Algemeen Handelsblad, March 11, 1950. 2 The mentioned formats are only the most well-known standardised consumer video technologies. For an extensive discussion on the variety of electronic video formats that have existed between 1960 and 1980, see: Christoph Blase, ‘Welcome to the Labyrinth of Machines: Tapes and Video Formats 1960-1980,’ in: Christoph Blase and Peter Weibel, eds, Record Again! 40Yearsvideoart.de Part 2, Ostfildern and Karlsruhe: Hatje Cantz & Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, 2010, pp. 500-508. 3 Michael Z. Newman, Video Revolutions: On the History of the Medium, New York: Columbia University Press, 2014, p. 2. Italics original. 4 Newman, Video Revolutions, p. viii. 12 Resistance, Disruption and Belonging eth and twenty-first centuries, Newman proposed to discern three consecutive phases: first, video as television; second, video as alternative, from roughly the mid-1950s well into the 1990s; and last, video as the moving image, in the current digital age.5 When the Dutch journalist wrote about television in terms of “video,” it was strongly related to, yet something very different from live radio broadcast- ing. As Newman explained: ‘Video in this phase was not only distinct from radio but also parallel to it. Radio referred to the transmission of sound via electromagnetic waves to receivers, most typically in the home (…). Video did the same thing, using similar technologies (e.g. transmitters and receiv- ers), but with pictures.’6 Video, then, meant the “signal” containing electronic audiovisual information of a “live” television broadcast to be received by an antenna and rendered visible and audible on a television set at home. After 1956, however, this particular meaning of video gradually changed, when the Californian Ampex Corporation launched its first video recorder, the VR- 1000, intended for the professional market. This novel device, in combina- tion with an electronic camera, allowed television broadcasters and producers to capture and record, or transfix, the otherwise fleeting audiovisual signal on reels of magnetic tape.