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National Center for Experiments in Television Records
PFA.MSS.001
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Table of contents
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
BAMPFA Film Library
Title: National Center for Experiments in Television records, 1967-1975, 1998-2003
creator:
National Center for Experiments in Television
creator:
KQED-TV (Television station : San Francisco, Calif.)
creator:
Beck, Stephen, 1950-
creator:
Hallock, Don
creator:
Howard, Brice
creator:
Sears, Loren
creator:
Kyger, Joanne
creator:
Olson, Charles, 1910-1970
Identifier/Call Number: PFA.MSS.001
Physical Description:
2 storage cartons
2.5 linear ft.
Date (inclusive): 1967-1975, 1998-2003
Language of Material: Collection materials are in English
Physical Location: UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive Film Library and Study Center
The Collection is open for research.
Accruals are not expected.
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.
[Identification of item], National Center for the Experiments in Television recorcds.[PFA-MSS-001]. UC Berkeley Art Museum
and Pacific Film Archive, University of California, Berkeley.
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.
All videocassettes from the collection have been separated to the BAMPFA film and video collection. Posters relating to the
collection are included in the BAMPFA Film Library and Study Center's poster collection.
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.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Experimental films--United States
Video art--California
National Center for Experiments in Television
National Center for Experiments in Television
KQED-TV (Television station : San Francisco, Calif.)
Beck, Stephen, 1950-
Hallock, Don
Howard, Brice
Sears, Loren
Kyger, Joanne
Olson, Charles, 1910-1970