A Kinetic History

A Kinetic History: The EAI Archives Online is a digital resource that celebrates a remarkable artistic and cultural legacy. EAI's 30th anniversary in 2001 was the catalyst for this ongoing initiative to digitize and provide online access to EAI's extensive archives of rare materials about the emergent video art movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The project charts the history of EAI from its roots in the alternative art discourses of the late 1960s, and also illuminates the evolution of an artistic movement and its cultural and art historical context. Primary materials (documents, catalogues, video footage, ephemera) and contextualizing essays trace a rich and eclectic trajectory of art, artists and ideas, from Kinetic Art to the Avant-Garde Festival to contemporary video art.

The first two "chapters" of this project are currently available online: Howard Wise & the Howard Wise Gallery, and Beginnings: Sponsored Projects 1970-74.

A work-in-progress, this "living archive" will continue to expand, linking the history of the media arts to its future.

Click here to enter A Kinetic History.