Wise supported and helped to manage the Avant-Garde Festivals until 1977, when he decided that Moorman should incorporate on her own. Speaking about their collaboration she says, Mr. Wise has never stopped helping me. For me to make a list of all of the performances that he has made possible is basically the same as my biography. Somewhere, he has done something for almost every performance, and I have done hundreds of performances. He Is always such an elegant gentleman and his help isn't always financial; many times it would be an influential person we needed to reach. The 1974 Festival-held at Shea Stadium with a 12-hour video program displayed on the new Advent color video projector-was dedicated to Howard Wise. In 1973 EAI published a brochure called At the Leading Edge of Art which described the video community, possible directions for the medium, and activities of the organization. Outlining the potential of distribution systems such as cable television and cassette distribution as well as the problems of artists' access to equipment and to the broadcast networks, the booklet appears foresighted and a marker on the timeline of the gradual exploration and establishment of new outlets. Indeed, many of these issues remain current. When this publication appeared, EAI was supporting Perception, Vasulka Video, the Kitchen, the Avant-Garde Festival, the Open Circuits conference, and the Midnight Opera Company (an opera troupe based at the Kitchen which used video extensively as a stage device). Soon after, most of these projects became autonomous, and EAI changed from an organization which managed and supported separate activities to one consisting of two central functions: an editing facility and a distribution service. By 1973 the video community in New York City had expanded. Organizations such as Downtown Community Television (DCTV) and the Television Laboratory at WNET-TV had sprung up. The Whitney Museum began to include video in its Biennial exhibition, and since 1972 Castelli-Sonnabend Videotapes and Films represented the distribution arm of the gallery. At the same time, many of the artists in Perception who had been using the editing facility at EAI began to pressure Wise to find a means of distributing work, and EAI received funding from the NEA to conduct a feasibility study and establish a pilot distribution operation. Deciding that the only way to find out if distribution was feasible was to try it, Wise initiated the Artists Videotape Distribution Service in 1973. In 1974 the editing equipment from Perception, which by then had disbanded, was transferred to EAI's Editing/Post Production Facility. Editing there was then done on a hands on basis, with artists paying an hourly rate to use the equipment available around the clock. This system was later upgraded with a -->> next page |