Gene Youngblood is a theorist of media arts and politics, and a respected scholar in the history and theory of alternative cinemas. His
Expanded CinemaExpanded Cinema by Gene Youngblood , the first book to consider video as an art form, was influential in establishing the field of media arts. In the book he argues that a new, expanded cinema is required for a new consciousness...
(1970), the first book to consider
videoVideo is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...
as an art form, was influential in establishing the field of media arts as a recognized artistic and scholarly discipline. He is also widely known as a pioneering voice in the
media democracyMedia democracy is a set of ideas advocating reforming the mass media, strengthening public service broadcasting, and developing and participating in alternative media and citizen journalism. The stated purpose for doing so is to create a mass media system that informs and empowers all members of...
movement, and has been teaching, writing and lecturing on media
democracyDemocracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
and alternative cinemas since 1970.
Mr. Youngblood has lectured at more than 400 colleges and universities throughout North America, Europe, Japan, and Australia, and his writing is published extensively around the world. He has received research grants from the
Rockefeller FoundationThe Rockefeller Foundation is a prominent philanthropic organization and private foundation based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The preeminent institution established by the six-generation Rockefeller family, it was founded by John D. Rockefeller , along with his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr...
, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the U.S.
National Endowment for the ArtsThe National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current...
, The New Mexico Arts Division, and the New Mexico Endowment for the Humanities.
In the 1960s, Mr. Youngblood was a
journalistA journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
for newspapers, television, and radio in Los Angeles: reporter and film critic for the Los Angeles Herald Examiner; reporter for KHJ-TV, a Los Angeles television station; arts commentator for
KPFKKPFK is a listener-sponsored radio station based in North Hollywood, California, United States, which serves the Greater Los Angeles Area, and also streams 24 hours a day via the Internet...
, Pacifica Radio in Los Angeles; and from 1967 to 1970 he was co-editor and columnist for the
Los Angeles Free PressThe Los Angeles Free Press , also called “the Freep”, was among the most widely distributed underground newspapers of the 1960s. It is often cited as the first such newspaper...
, the first and largest of the underground newspapers of that era.
In 1970, Mr. Youngblood became a founding member of the Faculty of Film and Video at the
California Institute of the ArtsThe California Institute of the Arts, commonly referred to as CalArts, is located in Valencia, in Los Angeles County, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the United States created specifically for students of both the visual and the...
, where he taught for eighteen years. He also taught at the
California Institute of TechnologyThe California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...
,
Columbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and in the film departments at UCLA and
USCThe University of Southern California is a private, not-for-profit, nonsectarian, research university located in Los Angeles, California, United States. USC was founded in 1880, making it California's oldest private research university...
. In 1988, Mr. Youngblood joined the founding faculty of the Department of Moving Image Arts at the
College of Santa Fe Santa Fe University of Art and Design is an institution of creative and performing arts based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The university offers programs in creative writing, theatre, art, graphic design, moving image arts , music, and photography, based on a liberal arts core curriculum...
in New Mexico (renamed Santa Fe University of Art and Design in 2010), where he taught until retiring in 2007. That same year Mr. Youngblood received an Arts Writers Grant from the
Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts for a major study of
George KucharGeorge Kuchar was an American underground film director, known for his "low-fi" aesthetic.-Early life and career:...
's video diaries, which was in progress at the time of this entry in the summer of 2010.
Also in progress in 2010 were four other books by Mr. Youngblood: (1)
Secession From the Broadcast, about the media democracy movement in America, (2)
Emotional Bandwidth: The Telepresent World of Kit Galloway and Sherrie Rabinowitz -- A Visionary Legacy For the Internet, (3) a book of his collected articles from the Los Angeles Free Press, 1967–70, and (4) a book of memoirs. He was also co-producing with filmmaker
Bryan Konefsky a documentary on his life and work, titled
Secession From the Broadcast: Gene Youngblood and the Communications Revolution (see trailer below).
External links