This is all very much a work in progress.
I wanted to collect all the information necessary for someone to dive into video art.
first of all everyone is welcome to join the Video art study group @Zifor and I started a while back just follow the link. No experience or hardware is necessary this is just a video/audio chat about video art we hold every 2 weeks.
Video fundamentals
The playlist is simple collection of videos talking about analog video. It can be very helpful to understand how the medium works if you want to understand larger concepts in the future.
Analog video basics video playlist
A practical guide to video synchronization & frequency ranges
History
Get to know the old in order to bring video art into something new.
Video synthesis in music videos collected from conversations
Hardware
Video synthesis manufacturers and utilities to use within a video system.
System planning
If you want to put a LZX based system together you will want to know where production is at and where it will be in the future.
Patch visualization with graphviz
graphviz is a wonderful way to visualize patches or workflows for people who don’t like to draw or want something that is easier to share with others. Taking notes and drawing out your system is a special part of video art.
You may find that you want some older equipment to fill in gaps for your system. This will usually mean you are going to end up with a 19 inch rack in your space.
Patching
Getting to know how to patch your system or modules you would like to incorporate into a system is important but can be hard.
VideoPainting w/ cskonopka playlist
A screenshot from the old (circa 2012) LZX PatchTool app
Flash based
RIP
I love graphviz but have the actual modules pictured along with knob/switch settings was so rad.
Recording
At some point you are going to want to record your video work. You may also need help getting an external source into your system.
Pre Production
Making video samples for yourself or finding ones that fit into your workflow can be helpful. Playing back old videos of your own to further process is such a blast. Memory palace still workflow hopefully will become easier in the future but there are still some good tips in that thread.
Raspberry Pi
The raspberry pi is a cheap platform for video art. I made Scrawl as a project at the beginning of the pandemic.
Software/programming
There are so many software options when it comes to making video art. There are lots of interesting visual games that have been made over the years for different video game systems and you can find a collection of some of them here. Shaders can be very helpful in a video art workflow when using an erogenous tones structure or anything else that can handle a shader. FFmpeg is a wonderful multi tool for video work.
DIY
DIY is very rewarding and can be a great way to get into video art for those who are inclined.
Community
We like to share video around here as well as talk about it! There is also a link to the archive of vidicon from 2020 (which it seems like has more than just vidicon stuff in it and it doesn’t seem to have our vidicon talk which I linked below)
Extras
Manuals for old video equipment archived. The reading list has lots of history and practical information about working with video art.
I hope this is helpful 