To celebrate this young art form, the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, New York, presents Spectacle: The Music Video, said to be the first-ever museum exhibition all about the evolution of the music video. The exhibit includes more than 300 videos, as well as artifacts and interactive displays, grouped by genre — and videos are further classified by subdivisions like choreography and controversy.
This exhibition was curated by Jonathan Wells — who’s our go-to curator for interstitial videos at TED — and partner Meg Wells of the global art cooperative Flux.
Like so many others, Jonathan and Meg cite A-Ha’s “Take on Me” as a pivotal moment in their love for music videos. As Jonathan tells Fast Company, “It was just this magical moment of someone diving into a comic book that really stuck with people. That’s an example of how a video can introduce and break an artist. We have the original illustrations that were done for the video.”
TED’s own Shanna Carpenter wrote this from the exhibit opening: “It’s an incredible collection — taking you on a sensory journey that starts in teenage nostalgia and progresses to obscure experiments in moral sensibilities, interactive digital experiences and yarn-bombing,” she said. “And, all of it in a crazily chic contemporary museum in Astoria.”
Find Spectacle: The Music Video at the Museum of the Moving Image, Astoria, New York, April 3-June 16, 2013.
Can’t make it to Astoria? Watch a TEDx Talk about the making of one of the featured videos: “This Too Shall Pass” by OK Go »