Rosler and "Video: Shedding The Utopian Moment"

In Martha Rosler’s essay, “Video: Shedding the Utopian Moment”, a deep history and analysis is provided as to the flexible, reflective, and sometimes-polarizing nature of, not just video art, but art in general and, especially, the aspect of mediums that emphasize and divulge in capturing the essence of its current societies. Rosler starts from the beginning, outlining the rise of science and technology and its effects, both external and internal, on society as a whole, and how those effects were reflected and further expressed through the art movements of their time. Through the advent of new technologies, ranging from tools of convenience and progress to tools of consumer enjoyment, art, with its ever fluctuating nature, grew to express a simultaneous acceptance and rejection of current technological and societal advents. These varying art movements throughout the century would prove to provide an unending cycle of counterculture critique, followed by mainstream acceptance and regurgitation. The irony of this cycle was the fact that due to art’s flexing nature in regards to its level of reflectivity and inevitable acceptance and/or absorption, and considering the heavily progressive nature of the society shaping technology and science that art was trying to prove a counter point to, the aspect of art that would work to be purely a counter point became meek. Rosler then shifts ahead to the 1960’s. This era is emphasized for two reasons; the first being that it was the era that marked the beginning of the advent of video technologies. Rosler even goes to give some personal insight of this period in regards to video’s history, due to the “mythical” nature of it all, and the fact that nothing about this very prominent beginning is exactly written in stone (But then again, as far as any art goes, one cannot pinpoint exactly when it began to form… only when it made the biggest bang). The second reason for emphasis on this period is due to the rise of art that worked to critique the material, technological world by embracing its image and essence (Read: Warhol). Essentially, the world in the 60’s, being saturated in its own meticulous makings, and undergoing a disillusioning period, emanated an aura that stewed in the world’s, and society’s, own doings. In short, McLuhan’s message, the fact that the message is the medium, was being expressed, and it was resonating. We had become (And according to Rosler’s critique in her section on “pre-history”, this had always been the case since the rise of technology and science) a society that embraced our advances, but didn’t understand their true power and shaping capabilities. The last section of Rosler’s piece focuses on video art specifically; it’s roots, the people (Or person) that brought it to light, and the myth about it. Though the history is fleshed out in a pretty straightforward manner, what is of interest is the aspect of myth that is interjected into this summation, and that is analyzed in terms of its relation to art, even in a time of mechanization and science. Nam June Paik, in particular, is singled out in a mythic manner as the one who brought the medium forth in a manner that undid what the “institution” deemed appropriate of it, therefore turning a technology of a controlling society into its own harshest critic. However, Paik aside, the aspect of the mythical qualities that artist bring forth in their time is proposed. Mythology is human history, free of the slant that is typically given by those in power. Through storytelling, it proves to be the pathway of human essence and being that we have undergone in times before us. Right now, technology is the means that is used shape and communicate our sense of being. It is up to the artists, and, according to Rosler, media artists and video artists in particular due to the dominating factor of media in today’s world, to document, reflect, and critique the current state of us. Out of this, a message is being crafted that preaches the balance of technology and humanity; the identification of ourselves within this ever cycling sequence of fluctuating being. We must embrace what our progressive natures have provided, but be weary of its lure of over-saturation, unless we are willing to lose ourselves and the art that is our extension.