What is video art?

Video and experimental film doesn't have to tell a story.

It can be a texture, a gesture, a rhythm, a memory, a mistake, a performance, a sound, an accident or an idea.

Found Footage

Found footage is the practice of taking existing film, video, photographs, television broadcasts, advertisements or other recorded material and transforming it into something new. Rather than starting with a camera, the artist begins with images that already exist, changing their meaning through editing, repetition, juxtaposition, sound or disruption. A familiar image can become strange when removed from its original context. One of the most influential examples is Bruce Conner’s A Movie (1958), which assembles fragments of newsreels, documentaries and entertainment films into a fast-moving meditation on violence, spectacle and the language of cinema itself. Found footage reminds us that images can be recycled, reinterpreted and given entirely new meanings.

Filmed Performance

Filmed performance brings together performance art and moving image, using the camera not simply to document an action but as an active part of the artwork. The artist might perform directly for the camera, stage an action specifically to be filmed, or use editing, framing and repetition to transform the performance into something that could not exist in a live space. The camera can become an audience, a witness, or even a participant. Vito Acconci’s Theme Song (1973) is a powerful example: Acconci lies on the floor and speaks directly to the camera, creating an uncomfortable sense of intimacy between performer and viewer. In filmed performance, the relationship between the body, camera and audience becomes the artwork itself.

Experimental Documentary

Experimental documentary combines the desire to explore real people, places and events with the freedom to break the conventions of traditional documentary filmmaking. Instead of simply presenting information, the artist might use fragmented editing, staged scenes, abstract imagery, personal narration, found footage or unusual sound to explore how we experience and remember reality. The result can feel more like a memory, dream or impression than a straightforward record of events. Chris Marker’s Sans Soleil (1983) is a landmark example, blending travel footage, fictional letters, personal reflections and philosophical observations to create a documentary that constantly questions the nature of memory, time and truth.

Video Installation

Video installation uses moving images as part of a physical environment, transforming the way an audience experiences both the artwork and the space around it. Instead of watching a film on a single screen, viewers might encounter multiple projections, monitors, speakers, objects, lights or architectural elements arranged together to create an immersive experience. The viewer's position and movement through the space can become part of the work. Nam June Paik's TV Garden (1974–77) is a landmark example, placing television monitors among living plants to create an unexpected relationship between technology and nature. Video installation expands cinema beyond the screen and turns the gallery itself into part of the artwork.

Abstract Moving Image

Abstract moving image moves away from recognisable subjects, characters and traditional narratives, using shape, colour, texture, light, movement and sound as its primary materials. Like abstract painting, it can be more concerned with creating a sensation or visual experience than communicating a specific story or message. Artists might work with light, shadows, reflections, digital manipulation, animation or extreme close-ups to transform ordinary images into something unfamiliar. Oskar Fischinger, one of the pioneers of abstract animation, created works such as An Optical Poem (1938), synchronising geometric forms and movement with music. Abstract moving image shows that film does not always need to represent the world—it can create its own visual language.

Glitch and Digital Manipulation

Glitch and digital manipulation turn the technologies used to create and display moving images into materials for artistic experimentation. Instead of hiding errors, compression, distortion or digital noise, artists can deliberately break, corrupt and manipulate images to reveal the systems behind them. Pixels can be displaced, colours altered, frames interrupted or footage stretched and fragmented until an image becomes something unexpected. Rosa Menkman is a key figure in glitch art, exploring the aesthetic possibilities of technological failure and digital error. Her work and writing demonstrate how a “mistake” can become a creative tool, challenging our expectations of what a digital image should look like.

Experimental Sound

In video art, sound does not have to simply accompany the image—it can become an artwork in its own right. Artists might record everyday noises, manipulate voices, use silence, create electronic textures or deliberately separate sound from what we see on screen. Sometimes the sound leads the image, while in other works the relationship between the two is deliberately confusing or unexpected. Nam June Paik's Global Groove (1973) demonstrates how sound, music, television and rapidly changing images can collide to create a new audiovisual language. Experimental sound encourages us to listen differently and consider sound as a material that can be cut, distorted, layered and transformed just like an image.

AI and Moving Image

Artificial intelligence is becoming another tool for artists working with moving images, opening up new ways to create, alter and question visual reality. AI can generate images and video from text, transform existing footage, create impossible environments or produce sequences that could never be filmed with a camera. But its value as an artistic medium lies not only in what it can produce, but in how artists use it to explore ideas about authorship, imagination, memory and reality. Hito Steyerl's How Not to Be Seen: A Fucking Didactic Educational .MOV File (2013) offers an important precedent for thinking about images, technology and visibility. AI continues this conversation, while also challenging us to ask who—or what—is creating the image.

Loops and Repetition

Loops and repetition can transform a simple action or sequence into something hypnotic, unsettling or strangely beautiful. By removing a clear beginning and end, the artist can make time feel circular rather than linear, encouraging the viewer to notice small changes, details and rhythms that might otherwise go unnoticed. A repeated gesture can also take on a completely different meaning as it continues. Bruce Nauman's Walking in an Exaggerated Manner Around the Perimeter of a Square (1967–68) uses repetition and duration to turn a simple physical action into a study of the body, space and time. In video art, the loop can make an ordinary moment feel endless.

Analogue Processes

Analogue processes use physical, mechanical or chemical techniques to alter moving images, often embracing the imperfections and unpredictability of the materials involved. Film can be scratched, painted, bleached, burned, photocopied or exposed to light, while analogue video can be distorted using feedback, magnets, mixers or other electronic equipment. These processes can produce textures and accidents that are difficult to replicate digitally. Stan Brakhage, one of experimental cinema's most influential figures, famously worked directly onto film, painting and scratching the surface to create abstract moving images. Analogue processes remind us that film and video are not just ways of recording images—they are physical materials that can be manipulated, damaged and transformed.

Expanded Cinema

Expanded cinema breaks the traditional boundaries of the film screen, transforming cinema into an experience that can occupy an entire space. Instead of watching a single image projected onto a screen, audiences might encounter multiple projections, live performance, mirrors, sculpture, light, sound or moving through the work itself. The term became associated with experimental artists in the 1960s who wanted to challenge the passive relationship between audience and screen. Anthony McCall's Line Describing a Cone (1973) is a landmark example, using a projected beam of light and theatrical smoke to turn the act of projection itself into a sculptural experience. Expanded cinema asks us to consider not just what we see, but where, how and with whom we experience moving images.