At the Thresholds of the Medium: CCTV, Playback, and Feedback Breaking the Possibilities of Video

By examining the video closed-circuit system, feedback, and the materiality of magnetic tape, this essay explores the influence these operational protocols had on experimentation with the video medium in the late 1970s. Originally conceived as a mere recording device for television images, the medium is subjected to performative actions that turn its limitations into strengths, revealing its unexpressed potential—as seen in the works of Goran Trbuljak (Untitled [Cut]), Michele Sambin (VTR & I), and Dalibor Martinis (Open Reel). All these videos include performative actions that are activated by the use of the ½-inch open-reel system, just before its complete disappearance in favor to the ¾-inch cassette system. The actions of the artists with the tape become integral to the work itself and, in combination with CCTV, feedback, and a particular use of magnetic tape, allow for a transgression of the purposes for which the medium was originally designed. What emerges relevant is a use of videotape that finds its artistic significance not in the space of the apparatus, but in that of the performance.