Department of Art History, CAEA, and the VRC present:
Whose History Is It
On February 19, 2026, acclaimed curator and media art scholar Barbara London will participate in a joint RAVE/VMPEA session from 5:00–7:00 pm in the Cochrane-Woods Art Center, Room 152 (5540 South Greenwood Ave., Chicago, IL 60637). A dinner reception will follow in the CWAC Lounge.
London’s workshop will discuss the madcap trajectory of video, which in the early 1970s opened up as a pliable medium and became a multifaceted art form that grew to encompass a range of formats. This included not only single-screen videos but also multiscreen installations and projections; immersive audiovisual environments (sometimes incorporating interactive components); and moving-image works that are streamable as digital files.
From the start, London saved every ephemeral document that came my way, which was vital for her own curatorial research. She will reflect upon the importance of these historical records, which are now maintained in MoMA’s Library and are open to scholars by appointment.
Barbara London is a New York-based curator and writer who founded the video-media exhibition and collection programs at The Museum of Modern Art, where she worked between 1973 and 2013. Her current projects include the book Video/Art: The First Fifty Years (Phaidon: 2020), the podcast series “Barbara London Calling,” and the exhibition “Seeing Sound” (Independent Curators International, 2020-24).
London organized one-person shows with such media mavericks as Laurie Anderson, Peter Campus, Teiji Furuhashi, Gary Hill, Joan Jonas, Shigeko Kubota, Nam June Paik, Song Dong, Steina Vasulka, Bill Viola, and Zhang Peili. Her thematic exhibitions at MoMA included Soundings: A Contemporary Score (2013); Looking at Music (2009); Video Spaces (1995); Music Video: the Industry and Its Fringes (1985); and Video from Tokyo to Fukui and Kyoto (1979). She was the first to integrate the Internet as part of curatorial practice, with Stir-fry (1994); Internyet (1998); and dot.jp (1999).
London’s writing has appeared in numerous catalogs and publications, including Artforum, Yishu, Leonardo, Art Asia Pacific, Art in America, and Modern Painter.
London teaches in the Sound Art Department, Columbia University, and previously taught in the Graduate Art Department, Yale, 2014-19. Her honors include: Getty Research Institute scholar, 2016; the Courage Award, Eyebeam, 2016; Gertrude Contemporary Residency, Melbourne, 2012; Dora Maar House Residency, Menerbes, 2010; a CEC Artslink award in Poland, 2003; a Japanese government Bunkacho Fellowship, 1992-93; and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, 1988-89.
Please visit the official Event Page for more information.
This event is made possible due to the support of the Department of Art History and the Center for the Art of East Asia. Additional promotional support is provided by the Visual Resources Center at the University of Chicago.