About
The Satellite Video Exchange Society received posters from around the world. Considered an art form in addition to conveyers of information, they were displayed prominently, edge to edge, on a wall at the original Video Inn, a custom begun by co-founder Michael Goldberg. Most of these posters, and hundreds of others that arrived by mail and hand delivery over the subsequent years, were kept and are preserved by the CDMLA. Subjects include film, video, art, artist-run centre culture, and various sociopolitical movements.
Photographer Kazumi Tanaka
Finding Aid
There is currently no finding aid for this collection. See Videographics for a curated selection from the collection.
Other poster collections at the CDMLA
Contact us about the punk poster collection and the Metro Media poster collection, both from the Lenore Herb Archive. A selection of these posters can be found here.
Related Project
Videographics
Curated by Paul Wong
Videographics was curated by media artist and SVES co-founder, Paul Wong, from the Archive on the occasion of the centre’s 40th anniversary in 2013, and exhibited September 12—October 24, 2013 at VIVO’s 1965 Main Street location. Wong traced his history with the SVES through posters in the CDMLA collection.
Wong’s homage recalled the original 1973 poster wall created by Michael Goldberg at 261 Powell Street, the homebase for Video Inn (The Satellite Video Exchange Society) from 1973 to 1986. These were critical years in the organization’s development as a leading center of independent media and video art. Wong was one of S.V.E.S.’ founding members and a mentee of Michael Goldberg, whose social, political and aesthetic influence on the Society was crucial to its future trajectory.
Videographics is a first helical scan of VIVO posters and graphics, a process of recording and creating digital memory. Far from nostalgically rewinding and pausing on the past, this mixed media installation conveyed the traces left by the analog era in its transition to the digital world.
Video Component
The video produced for this installation, and projected as a component of the poster collage, features Wong’s recollections of the events and artists central to his and VIVO’s history (local and international). Touching, smelling, reframing, zooming in and out of the printed paper surfaces allows the emergence of their stories as well as the first questions about their preservation.
