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Guerrilla TV Archive

Call Number

MSS.138

Date

1965-2007, inclusive

Creator

Boyle, Deirdre
Boyle, Deirdre (Role: Donor)

Extent

17 Linear Feet in 20 containers

Language of Materials

English .

Abstract

The Guerrilla TV Archive contains files, publicity information, audiocassettes, printed materials and photographs relating to Deirdre Boyle's research for the book Subject to Change: Guerrilla Television Revisited and some materials related to her work on other publications and projects including Hong Kong Cinema, Video Classics, and Video Preservation.

Biographical Note

Deirdre Boyle is a video historian and media critic as well as a programmer, consultant and media preservation advocate. She received her Master's degree in Media Studies from Antioch College and currently is a senior core faculty member in the Graduate Media Studies Program at New School University. Deirdre Boyle received the New School's Distinguished Teaching Award in 1998. She also received a Fulbright Fellowship to study in Moscow in 1992 and an Ace Award for Best Documentary Series on Cable TV in 1988. As these awards indicate, Deirdre Boyle has remarkable expertise as a documentary historian, teacher and researcher.

Additionally, Deirdre Boyle is an accomplished author. She frequently contributes articles to notable popular and scholarly video, film and television journals including Afterimage, ARTnews, Cineaste, The Independent, Journal of Film and Video, Television Quarterly, Wide Angle and The Village Voice. This archive represents Deirdre Boyle's research for her 1997 book Subject to Change: Guerrilla Television Revisited for which she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and support from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA). In addition to this book, she has published two other books on video, Video Classics: A Guide to Video Art and Documentary Tape (1986) and Video Preservation: Ensuring the Future of the Past (1993).

Finally, Deirdre Boyle is an active organizer of video art and documentary exhibitions for museums, libraries, film festivals and universities throughout the world. Most notably, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, The Brussels Video Festival and the Hong Kong Arts Centre invited her to guest curate video art exhibitions.

Deirdre Boyle was and remains an important figure in the field of video, television and film through her work as a teacher, author and organizer. Her contribution to video arts, history and preservation is particularly significant. This archive represents a cross section of Deirdre Boyle's interests and is an especially valuable resource for anyone interested in the development of the medium and technology of video.

Arrangement

Materials have been kept in the order created by Deirdre Boyle.

Series I, Files are arranged by subject.

Series II, Videologs for Subject to Change are arranged alphabetically with miscellaneous videologs appearing at the end of the series. Videologs for Video Classics appear together at the beginning of the series.

Series III, Notes are arranged sequentially, as they were originally numbered by Deirdre Boyle, and by material type.

Series IV, contains interview transcripts arranged alphabetically by interviewee surname.

Series V, Photographs are grouped by publication and research project.

Series VI, Catalogues and Brochures are arranged alphabetically by sponsoring organization.

Series VII, Audiocassettes are divided into four subseries:

Subseries A contains interviews for Subject to Change: Guerrilla Television Revisited.

Subseries B is comprised of recordings of conferences arranged alphabetically by sponsoring organization.

Subseries C includes other interviews not specifically relating to any project or publication.

Subseries D contains interviews conducted by Deirdre Boyle on a trip to Australia in 1995.

Series VIII, Printed Materials is organized into 3 subseries: Subseries A, Books, Studies and Reports; Subseries B, Periodicals; Subseries C, Hong Kong International Film Festival Materials. Materials in each subseries are arranged alphabetically by author.

  1. Series I: Files
  2. Series II: Videologs
  3. Series III: Notes
  4. Series IV: Interview Transcripts
  5. Series V: Photographs
  6. Series VI: Catalogues and Brochures
  7. Series VII: Audiocassettes
  8. Series VII: Printed Materials
  9. Oversize - Series I: Files
  10. Oversize - Series V: Photographs
  11. Oversize - Series VIIIB: Printed Materials

Scope and Content Note

The Guerrilla TV Archive primarily reflects Deirdre Boyle's research for the book Subject to Change: Guerrilla Television Revisited. The guerrilla TV movement began in the late 1960s with the commercial release and marketing of the portable video camera. The archive documents the growing accessiblity of video technology and the rise of video collectives committed to using videotape as an artistic, storytelling, documentary, and socially transforming medium. Additionally, the archive shows the development of video preservation concerns, the rise of video collections within public and academic research libraries and the connections between underground video, cable and corporate television networks.

The archive is particularly rich in personal interviews between Deirdre Boyle and many influential individuals such as Skip Blumberg, Allen Rucker, Wendy Apple, and Michael Shamberg, who were involved in video collectives such as Top Value Television (TVTV), the Videofreex, New Orleans Public Access Cable, and Broadside TV, among many others. The materials span the mid-1960s through the early 1990s offering a comprehensive view of the guerrilla tv movement and activist media, in general, through interviews, articles, publications, photographs and publicity materials.

Documentary film and video, as an activist genre, is also reflected in the collection through interviews with John Reilly and Julie Gustafson of Global Village, programs for documentary film festivals as well as interviews with filmmaker George Stoney. Another strength of the collection is documentation of the development of video technology. The archive contains materials that document and publicize developments in portable video technology, including materials relating to satellite technology, videotaping and editing, the beginnings of cable television and numerous manuals, magazines and catalogues reflecting the cutting edge of video technology of the time.

The collection also contains a small amount of materials relating to Deirdre Boyle's other interests in video and film. These materials include festival catalogues and programs from Hong Kong Cinema, documentation of video preservation concerns and philosophy as well as video art exhibition catalogues.

Access Restrictions

Materials are open to researchers. Please contact the Fales Library and Special Collections, fales.library@nyu.edu, 212-998-2596.

Use Restrictions

Copyright (or related rights to publicity and privacy) for materials in this collection was not transferred to New York University. Permission to use materials must be secured from the copyright holder. Please contact the Fales Library and Special Collections, fales.library@nyu.edu, 212-998-2596.

Preferred Citation

Published citations should take the following form:

Identification of item, date (if known); Guerrilla TV Archive; MSS 138; box number; folder number; Fales Library and Special Collections,
New York University Libraries.

Provenance

Deirdre Boyle donated the Guerrilla TV Archive to Fales Library and Special Collections in July 2003.

Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements

The audiovisual materials in the collection were digitized by the Barbara Goldsmith Preservation and Conservation Department in 2018. Digital access copies are available by appointment for reading room viewing and listening only. Please contact fales.library@nyu.edu, 212-998-2596.

Separated Material

Printed materials from the Guerrilla TV Archive Library have been separated and individually catalogued into Fales' Downtown Collection. Call numbers for these items can be located through Bobcat.

Armstrong, David. A Trumpet to Arms: Alternative Media in America, 1981.

Afterimage: The Journal of Media Arts and Cultural Criticism. 2:7, 3:1-10, May-June 1976, 4:1-5, 5:5, 6:1, 6:2, 6:4, 6:6, 7:3, 7:7, 9:5, 11:1-10, 12:1-10, 13:1-10, 14:1-2, 15:3-10, 16:1-10, 17:1-10, 18:1-10, 24:2, 24:5, 24:6, 25:2.

Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies. Expanding the Choices for Television Viewing: A report from a Communications Policy Workshop, 1981.

Baer, Walter S. Cable Television: A Handbook for Decision Making, 1974.

Bateson, Gregory. Steps to an Ecology of Mind: A Revolutionary Approach to Man's Understanding of Himself, 1976.

The Bay Area Video Coalition. Needs Assessment and Feasibility Study.

Bell, Daniel. Toward the Year 2000: Work in Progress, 1968.

Blum, John Morton. Years of Discord: American Politics and Society, 1961-1974, 1991.

Carnegie Commission. A Public Trust: The Report of the Carnegie Commission on the Future of Public Broadcasting, 1979.

Carroll, Peter N. It Seemed Like Nothing Happened: The Tragedy and Promise of America in the 1970s, 1982.

Cater, Douglass., ed. Television as a Social Force: New Approaches to TV Criticism, 1975.

Chimaera Monagraphie: Lynn Hershman, 1992.

Contents Magazine, photocopy of Pilot issue.

Costello, Marjorie and Michael Heiss. How to Select and Use Home Video Equipment, 1984.

Crouse, Timothy. The Boys on the Bus, 1973.

Dubin, Morton Donald. A Videotape Glossary: A Practical Guide to Understanding the Professional Videotape Business.

Foundation of Independent Video and Film. Report: the 1979 National Conference of Media Arts Centers, 1979.

Fuller, R. Buckminster. Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, 1970.

Gill, Johanna. Video: State of the Art. Working Papers of the Rockefeller Foundation, 1976.

The Global Village Handbook for Independent Producers. A Guide to Public Television and the New Media. 2nd ed., 1981.

Goldstein, Neil. Alternative Television: Status, trends and issues, 1974.

Hoffman, Abbie. Steal This Book, 1982.

The Independent: Film and Video Monthly. [selected issues] 1979-2001.

Independent Television-Makers and Public Communications Policy, Working Papers of the Rockefeller Foundation, 1979.

Levine, Faye. The Culture Barons: An Analysis of Power and Money in the Arts, 1976.

Lyons, Nick., The Sony Vision, 1976.

Johnson, Nicholas. How to Talk Back to Your Television Set, 1970.

Mack, Theresa. Portable Video Documentary: An Historical Perspective, 1976.

MediaArts, issues 1:1-12, 2:5-6, 1983.

Murray, Michael. The Videotape Book: A Basic Guide to Portable TV Production for Families, Friends, Schools and Neighborhoods, 1975.

National Endowment for the Arts. Toward Civilization: Overview from a Report on Arts Education, 1988.

Nielson Report on Television, 1980.

Roszak, Theodore. The Making of a Counter Culture: Reflections on the Technocratic Society and its Youthful Opposition, 1969.

Shamberg, Michael and Raindance Corporation. Guerrilla Television, 1971.

Sinard, Craig Paul. Television and Video Access, 1979.

Sloan Commission. On the Cable: The Television of Abundance, a Report of the Sloan Commission on Cable Communications, 1971.

Smith, Ralph Lee. The Wired Nation, 1972.

Television: International Exchange of Cultural Programming, A Bellagio Conference. Working Papers of the Rockefeller Foundation, 1978.

Thompson, Hunter S. Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72, 1983.

The Video Handbook, 2nd Ed., 1974.

Videodance: a Notebook from ARC Videodance.

Wolfe, Tom. The New Journalism , 1973.

Radical Software, Contents, Videocity, 1:1-5 [photocopies of 1:1-4, originals of 1:3-5] 2:1, 2:4-6, 1970-1974.

Satellite Video Exchange. #8, 2:4, 2:5, 3:2, 5:1, 5:2, November 1978- January 1979.

Send: Video Communication Arts [Formerly Video Eighties] Summer-Fall 1983, Spring 1984, Spring 1985.

Video 80-1. 1:1, 1:2, #4, 1980-1981.

Video 81. 2:1, 1981.

Video Eighties, 1982-1983.

TeleVisions [formerly Community Video Report] 3:1-4, 4:1-3, 5:1-4, 6:1-4, 7:1-4, 8:1-2.

Videoscope: Incorporating Radical Software. 1:1-4, 2:1.

Hong Kong Cinema publications

A Study of the Hong Kong Swordplay Film (1945-1980). The Fifth Hong Kong International Film Festival. City Hall Lecture Hall. April 9-24 1981.

Cantonese Cinema Retrospective (1960-1969). Revised Edition. The Sixth Hong Kong International Film Festival. Space Museum Lecture Hall. April 1-16, 1982.

A Study of Hong Kong Cinema in the Seventies. The Eighth Hong Kong International Film Festival. April 12-27, 1984.

Cantonese Melodrama 1950-1969. The Tenth Hong Kong International Film Festival. March 27-April 11, 1986.

Cantonese Opera Film Retrospective. The Eleventh Hong Kong International Film Festival. April 10-25, 1987.

Phantoms of the Hong Kong Cinema. The Thirteenth Hong Kong International Film Festival. March 23-April 7, 1989.

The China Factor in Hong Kong Cinema. The Fourteenth Hong Kong International Film Festival. April 6-21, 1990.

Overseas Chinese Figures in Cinema. The Sixteenth Hong Kong International Film Festival. April 10-25, 1992.

Mandarin Films and Popular Songs 40's-60's. The Seventeenth Hong Kong International Film Festival. April 8-24, 1993.

Cinema of Two Cities: Hong Kong-Shanghai. The Eighteenth Hong Kong International Film Festival. March 25-April 4, 1994.

Early Images of Hong Kong and China. The Nineteenth Hong Kong International Film Festival. April 7-22 1995.

The Restless Breed: Cantonese Stars of the Sixties. The Twentieth Hong Kong International Film Festival. March 25-April 19, 1996.

Fifty Years of Electric Shadows. The Twenty-First Hong Kong International Film Festival. March 25-April 4, 1997.

Hong Kong Panorama 96-97. The Twenty-First Hong Kong International Film Festival, 1997.

(1947-1997)50 Years of the Hong Kong Film Production and Distribution Industries: An Exhibition, 1997.

Hong Kong Films 1993.

Hong Kong Film Archive Newsletter. [also called "HKFA Newsletter" and "Newsletter"] Nos. 7, 9-19, 21-24.

Related Material at Fales Library and Special Collections

The Jaime Davidovich Collection, MSS 155

Women's Independent Film Exchange Collection, [ca. 1950s-1980s]

Collection processed by

Processed by Jessica Shimmin, September 2003-February 2004.

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-20 17:13:19 -0400.
Language: Description is in English.

Processing Information note

In March 2016, boxes from Oversize Materials Series I, V, VIIIB were renumbered to numerically follow boxes in Series VIII. Researchers with citations to previous box numbers may contact fales.library@nyu.edu for assistance with identifying new box numbers.

Revisions to this Guide

May 2018: Updated by Sigridur Sigurthorsdottir and Mary Elizabeth Lennon to add post-digitization access notes for 191 audiovisual records.
June 2018: Updated by Jasmine Larkin to include materials from accretion 2007.138, and edited for compliance with DACS and ACM Required Elements for Archival Description.

Edition of this Guide

This version was derived from guerrillatv.xml

Repository

Fales Library and Special Collections
Fales Library and Special Collections
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South
2nd Floor
New York, NY 10012