Art of Memory

Woody Vasulka was born Bohuslav Peter Vasulka in Brno, Czechoslovakia in 1937. After graduating from a technical school, he was placed in a nearby factory. Dissatisfied with his lot, he tried for the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague to study film. Several documentary films later he graduated and moved in 1965 to New York with his wife Steina. Woody freelanced as an editor for various large format multi-screen projects. Upon encountering the half-inch video "portapak" in 1969, he quit film to dedicate himself fully to working with electronic media. In 1971, with Steina, he founded The Kitchen, an electronic media theater in NYC. After some pioneering work in video, he moved to Buffalo in 1973 to become a professor at the Center for Media Study. In 1976 he bought a DEC LSI-11 computer, which inspired him to build together with Jeffrey Schier rare and original imaging devices including the Digital Image Articulator. In 1980 he moved to New Mexico, where he continues his investigation into "The New Epistemic Space." Since 1993, he is also a visiting professor at the Faculty of Arts of the Polytechnic Institute in his hometown, Brno, Czech Republic. In 1992 under a commission from Peter Weibel, the Vasulkas curated Eigenwelt der Apparate Welt: Pioneers of Electronic Art, an exhibition of early electronic art toolmakers for Ars Electronica. Woody has participated in major video festivals worldwide, given lectures, published articles, composed music, built instruments of electronic visualization and made numerous videotapes. Presently, he is organizing the Vasulka Archive, a large collection of papers, publications, tapes and instruments related to the history of electronic art. With Steina, for over three decades, Woody Vasulka has maintained his presence on the international media art scene, formulating and articulating esthetic strategies of the new media.