This collection comprises reports, researchpapers, correspondence, artist files, meeting transcripts, and other papers relating to the National Center for Experiments in Television. Also contains secondary source materials and materials relating to the BAMPFA exhibition about the NCET, Videoscape, in 2000.

The National Center for Experiments in Television (NCET) was an unusual artists' research center initially affiliated with San Francisco's public television station, KQED. Initiated in 1967, the NCET sought an answer to a simple but hitherto overlooked question: Can artists work with the medium of television? Under the guidance of director Brice Howard, the NCET developed the concept of "videospace," an expressive realm that shunned the conventions of theater and cinema. In videospace, the electron served as raw material, and the monitor's surface of phosphors as a lively canvas. In 1975, the NCET closed its doors due to lack of financial support, leaving behind a groundbreaking body of works that redirected video technology toward unconventional visual modes. NCET members, artists from various disciplines including composers, visual artists, writers, choreographers and others, collaborated to create explorations in the artistic possibilities of television. They created approximately 120 videoworks and approximately 15 research papers dealing with aesthetic concerns that had important political and social implications, making connections among the disparate fields of psychology, social anthropology and moving image making. Several of the members participated in the Television: Art and Technology Meeting in Asilomar, California in 1973 where they presented papers.

2 storage cartons 2.5 linear ft.

Property rights reside with the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. For permission to reproduce or publish, please contact the Head of the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive Film Library and Study Center.

The Collection is open for research.