By distributing I mostly mean “getting it out there” to the public.
Do you upload it to Vimeo? Youtube? Spotify? Social media? Or do you do physical installations or performance? Maybe you sell VHS tapes or DVDs perhaps?
Post your best solution!
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I’m glad you asked!
Mike Videopunk here! I’ve been running VXPX (formerly The Basement Labs) since 2003, and i’ve been doing experimental VHS releases since 2015.
I stood up the VHS side of the label specifically to release video art from all sorts of video artists. . . Mostly analog video artists, but we’ve also done all sort of wacky compilations and digital video art on VHS.
Typically, we do 50-200 tapes per release, try to keep it super affordable, and try to get it into as many people’s hands as possible.
If you (or anyone reading this!) have a release that you think could fit, hit me up at videopunksnotdead@gmail.com, head over to http://vxpx.info to learn more about the label, or pick up some tapes from http://vxpx-vhs.bandcamp.com !!
I know for a fact that we’re not the only folks releasing VHS tapes. . .
@BleuNuitVideo runs Bleu Nuit Home Video over at https://bleunuitvideo.bandcamp.com/ , and there’s also Baudway Video (https://baudwayvideo.bandcamp.com/).
I know Cryptic Carousel (Preston Spurlock - Math Rock Countdown - VHS – Cryptic Carousel) Random Man Editions (https://www.randomman.net/) and Video Arena (Label: Video Arena - Oven Universe) have also done video art VHS releases, as well.
TL;DR - VHS IS WHERE IT’S AT, DAWGIE
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Nice! I will definitely consider VHS…
I distribute through Youtube right now and I don’t really have enough content to do a VHS release yet, but my white whale is to do a VCD release at some point! I’ve never been able to create fully compliant VCDs however. There are a lot of tools that will create ones that work on SVCD/DVD players, but don’t work on original VCD players. At one point I was messing with some authoring tools from the 90s even.
If anyone has ever done this before that’d be rad to hear. My test unit is a Sega Saturn with the VCD card
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I have vimeo, youtube, and my site, but I definitely want to go further, both in terms of tape/DVD distribution, as well as in terms of installations.
Right now I am in early talks with some folks about doing a duration gallery performance, like an 8 hour improvisation, and that is a space I really want to explore over the next few years.
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Right now I am in early talks with some folks about doing a duration gallery performance, like an 8 hour improvisation, and that is a space I really want to explore over the next few years.
That sounds fun! How are you going to perform your stuff? Plain old TVs? Rescan+projection?
I upsample the output using either a cheap composite to HDMI converter or a Blackmagic Analog to SDI converter into a Hyperdeck for recording and then through that put out HDMI for a projector.
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YouTube. I know, what a revolutionary.