John Sanborn

Biography

John Sanborn has been a dynamic presence in both video art and commercial television production since 1977. Energetic and kinetic, his music videos, dance pieces and experimental narratives are characterized by high-tech computer editing and post-production.

In 1983 Sanborn began collaborating with Mary Perillo on a series of innovative public television productions, for which she has served as co-director, producer and editor. Collaborating with musicians and performers, including dancer Twyla Tharp, playwright Lee Breuer and avant-garde percussionist David Van Tieghem, Sanborn and Perillo used electronic imaging devices, formats and techniques, including paintbox animation and high-definition television, to create startling visual effects.

Sanborn has also worked with Dean Winkler, a design engineer/specialist in computer graphics and optical services (now Creative Director of Post Perfect in New York), on a series of tapes that fuse computer graphics and live action, combining state-of-the-art technology with arresting visual and aural motifs. From 1976 to 1982, Sanborn collaborated with Kit Fitzgerald on a widely acclaimed body of experimental video works.

Sanborn was born in 1954. He attended Fordham University and New York University. The recipient of grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the New York State Council on the Arts, he was an artist-in-residence at the Television Laboratory at WNET/Thirteen from 1977 to 1983, and at WXXI-TV, Rochester and Synapse Video Center, Syracuse University. He has taught at numerous universities. Sanborn's collaborative work has been exhibited throughout the world, at festivals and institutions including the Whitney Museum of American Art Biennial, New York; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; American Film Institute National Video Festival, Los Angeles; Berlin Film Festival; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Institute of Contemporary Art, London; SF Camerawork, San Francisco; Galerie de l'Angle, Paris; and the San Sebastian Film Festival, Spain. Sanborn lives in Berkeley, California.