Taking Measures. Usage of Formats in Film and Video Art

An exploration of film and video as devices to test art’s effectiveness in public space.

This book’s title—Taking Measures—has a double meaning: it references both the practices of measurement and the political potential of power and resistance. Throughout history, film and video have served as measuring devices for scientific, economic, and political purposes, and have been employed in a variety of fields beyond art. Acknowledging these uses also creates the opportunity for art to test its own effectiveness in public space and to uncover potential for resistance in artistic action.

Taking Measures has evolved from a series of dialogues between artists and researchers as part of the research project Exhibiting Film: Challenges of Format at the University of Zurich. It addresses issues of measures and formats in both content and design. In which practices of measurement are film and video involved? In what way can artistic practice challenge and test these involvements? How can technologies of measurement in art be used politically and be made operative for the public sector? These questions and more are explored in illuminating and richly illustrated essays.