KQED Arts Looks at San Francisco’s Vibrant Video Art Movement of the 1970s

KQED Arts explores the vibrant video art movement that emerged in San Francisco in the 1970s in this fascinating mini documentary. The movement was spearheaded by a loose community of San Francisco artists and collectives who produced counterculture video art and media-jamming performance art with the first generation of portable video cameras. A quintessential event from the era was Media Burn, a publicity stunt/performance art piece by the Ant Farm art group. In the event, which took place on July 4, 1975 at the Cow Palace, a Cadillac was driven into a pyramid of flaming TVs in front of the perplexed Bay Area news media. The Ant Farm also created the iconic Cadillac Ranch installation in Amarillo, Texas.

photo by John F. Turner/Ant Farm