Based on close readings of approximately 200 works made between 1985 and the present, Gene Youngblood’s in-depth analysis of the video diaries of George Kuchar argued both for these works’ historical importance and for their relevance to the future of moving image practice. His project analyzed narrative strategies, allegorical modes, camera positions, editing techniques, and the scatological, kitsch, and amateur aspects of Kuchar’s work as tactics of transgression and critical commentary.
Gene Youngblood was a Professor of Critical Studies in the Department of Moving Image Arts at the College of Santa Fe in New Mexico. He was the author of Expanded Cinema, published by E.P. Dutton in 1970, the first book about video as an art medium. He wrote more than 200 articles since 1970, including, most recently, “Underground Man,” an essay on George Kuchar in the DVD box set of his video diaries, published by the Video Data Bank, Chicago; “What We Must Do,” in Fluid Screens, Janine Marchessault and Susan Lord, eds. (University of Toronto Press, 2007); and “Life in Counterculture,” in UMELEC International, Prague, Czech Republic. He received awards from the Rockefeller Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, New Mexico Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Endowment for the Arts, Media Arts Program.