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Kate Johnson viewing John Dorr's "Sudzall Does It All!", a behind-the-scenes look at COLAB, prior to the Getty's PST grand opening, 2011
introduction
In addition to the more objective chronological histories contained in this online museum archive, a number of more subjective and expressionistic narratives by EZTV’s principals are included.
These writings range from short portraits of interesting persons associated with the EZTV experience to a long-form history of the over-four decades of the alternative art space.
History is the Art of Forgetting
an ebook
Published in 2014, “History is the Art of Forgetting” is a short book written by Michael J. Masucci that recounts the details of his then 30-year long journey with EZTV. In his own words, Masucci dives into the curatorial as well as personal stories of the various changes throughout the decades, questioning the social belief of what creates ‘historical’ art.
Essays by Kate Johnson
Nureyev's Last Lover
Wallace Potts was brilliant, gentle and beautiful. One of the guardian’s of Nureyev’s film and video archives, Wallace would come to transfer recently found footage to archive it to a more stable format...
Lions and Tigers and Bears - Oh Really!
Randy Miller is a man’s man all the way through. Foregoing most human creature comforts he lived in a trailer above Tippi Hedren’s exotic animal estate. Outside his door he had his own menagerie which included Zircon...
We Haven't Forgotten How to Live
On a recent trip to Croatia to film some of the last shots for a documentary, my partner Michael found himself running at a breakneck pace alongside a producer with a huge list of shots and just a few days to get them. You know, the typical...
ARTICLES by Michael James Masucci
Kate Johnson (1969–2020)- Digital Artist and Hyphenate
Sometimes an artist leaves this plane of existence before her work is appreciated fully, and often artists are not recognized for their greatness until they have departed.
Featured in Medium.com
THE DECENTRALIZED MUSEUM
From so-called algorithmic art to today’s ubiquitous NFT-centric PFP art, these artistic movements are all based on an ever-evolving set of tools, techniques and artistic innovations that are rarely discussed or recognized within the hype of the today’s media-soaked discourse.
Featured in Medium.com
The Question is not who is a Digital Artist, but who isn't?
In today’s computer-mediated world, imagine an architect designing a building without the use of a computer, or a recording artist mastering her latest hit without a computer. Or a writer not using one either.
Featured in Medium.com
If you don't know SIGGRAPH, you probably should...
As I meet more and more people who have only recently become interested in digital art, especially through its widespread publicly because of NFTs, I am often surprised how little they know about the almost 70-year history of what was once called computer art, now renamed digital art.
Featured in Medium.com
Essays by Michael James Masucci
Artist-Run Philanthropy
A brief discussion about EZTV's philosophy, vision of total support, philanthropy as marketing, and how artists can collaborate with EZTV...
Autoethnography
Intended for cultural historians and other academic specialists, this essay is about EZTV Museum as an autoethnographic work...
Bad to the Bone - An Essay on Mark Gash
Of all the biases which humans endure, perhaps the discrimination suffered by the physically challenged is most pervasive. Members of every...
What is an Alternative Space?
Reported in the LA Times, in 2009, LACMA’s Govin was being paid almost $1 million. The US Pres gets $475,000. In an industry where living artists...
The Strange Saga of Savannah Sue
Decades after I last saw her, I still do not know what to make of the tumultuous, and often contradictory force of nature that was Savannah Bentley...
Digital Dinosaurs
In the long march to digital mobility and the rise of social media, a number of evolutionary ‘dead-ends’ should be noted...
Restage "Sky" at PDC
A draft of a proposal which is being developed as a collaboration between LA-SIGGRAPH, ONE Gallery & the EZTV Museum...
What Value Archive?
As I have gotten older, and now face the last chapters of this life, I look around and see that my colleagues, like myself, have been busy looking...
Ups and Down
When EZTV Video Gallery opened its doors to the public, on June 15, 1983, the ‘business model’ (if there ever was one), was to pay rent and...
The Careful Agnostic
This online museum holds the works and stories of many persons who have died, many far too young, others tragically, as well as those who lived full...
FORCE of NATURE - The Life of Zina Bethune
On and off for the next 20 years, I collaborated with her on a number of elaborate multimedia productions. She would tell me, “Art transcends limitations...
John Dorr's First VCR
Through an autoethnographic approach, and still living memory, the otherwise unsuspected history of a now obsolete and largely worthless piece of electronics, is revealed for the pivotal role...
