Dara Birnbaum: Reaction

Fifty years of media critique from the leading exponent of feminist video art

Throughout her five-decade career, New York-based artist Dara Birnbaum (born 1946) has relentlessly dissected the process of watching and has argued against the passive absorption of mass media, information and ideology, through various techniques–many of which can be described as subversive reactions or reversals. As media itself has evolved over the years, from the monolithic nature of TV broadcast networks to the Internet’s decentralization of information, Birnbaum’s work has remained consistently prescient and vital, incorporating new technologies and providing a touchstone for generations of younger artists. Including original scholarship by leading critics and curators of moving image and media art, this book examines Birnbaum’s key works and concepts to illustrate how much her practice has to teach in a technology and media laden culture that demands constant participation and response.