‘Parallel Universes’ showcased the often overlooked genre of video art in its negotiation with technology, radical politics, performance documentation and interdisciplinary art practices. With few artists continuing to sustain the medium today, this was a rare opportunity to see many pivotal works which are now considered major precursors to today’s multimedia art. Because of the fragility of the medium, you could not find a hissing VCR in sight, instead the works had been reframed on Apple computer screens in digital format. To give the exhibition an up-to-date feel, the curatorial team of Matthew Perkins, Dr Mark Pennings, Lubi Thomas and Rachael Parsons chose QR labels, for use with a smart phone, to label the artworks. This was the first time I made use of that app, however most gallery viewers were content to explore the multitude of screens in a random and unguided approach. The exhibition was also followed up with screenings of Bill Viola’s films and with panel discussions, in which Danni Zuvela, Naomi Evans and Reuben Keehan responded to issues such as the movement’s rejection of objectification as art; the interdisciplinary and disposable aesthetic of the medium; and the ways the tools of the medium have been modified and adapted to artistic purposes.
David Perry, one of the co-founders of the Sydney based Ubu Film Group, opened the exhibition and introduced his film Mad Mesh (1968). Working at the time for the Australian Broadcasting Commission, Perry became fascinated with the possibilities provided by a malfunctioning image orthicon tube, which, then, was a component in television cameras intrinsic to converting the optical image into an electrical signal. Manipulating the signal with magnetic interference and using coloured filters, he produced