Programs & Services

Founded in 1971, Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) is one of the world’s leading nonprofit resources for video art and interactive media. A pioneer and advocate of media art and artists, EAI's core program is the international distribution of a major collection of new and historical media works by artists. EAI’s leadership position in the media arts extends to our preservation program, viewing access, educational services, online resources, exhibitions and events. EAI's programs and services include the following:

The EAI Collection: Spanning the 1960s through the present, EAI’s collection features 3,000 new and historical media works by 175 artists. From seminal tapes by early video pioneers to the newest interactive works by emerging artists, the EAI collection is one of the most important sources for video art and experimental media.

Artists Videotape Distribution Service: The works in the EAI collection are available for distribution to educational, cultural and arts institutions and television markets worldwide. Works may be rented or purchased in a range of formats. EAI works closely with curators, educators and collectors to facilitate exhibitions, screenings and acquisitions.

Online Catalogue: This comprehensive resource includes artists’ biographies, bibliographies, QuickTime excerpts, descriptions of works, extensive research materials, and artists’ Web projects. Artists’ works may be ordered directly online.

Preservation Program: This major initiative for the conservation and cataloging of works in the EAI collection, begun in 1985, was developed to preserve the artistic and cultural legacy of the media arts for future generations.

Viewing Access: You may view any tape in the collection and archive for research and study, by appointment and free of charge, at EAI. Consultations by EAI staff are available. Classes are hosted on-site.

Exhibitions & Events: Public presentations of works from the EAI collection, including screenings, lectures, and special events, are a vital component of EAI’s programs. For example, since 1997 EAI and Dia:Chelsea have collaborated to present ongoing programs in New York. EAI has forged many other partnerships and alliances with cultural and educational institutions worldwide.

Equipment Access: Digital and analogue editing facilities for artists and nonprofit organizations are available.

Museums, educators, curators, students, artists, and many other professionals in a range of disciplines from around the world rent and purchase works in the EAI collection. EAI’s online resources, viewing room, and public programs provide diverse international audiences with access to media art and artists.

Hours

EAI's offices are open Monday through Friday, 10:00 am to 6:00 pm. The Screening Room is available, by appointment, from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm, Monday through Friday.


Contact Information

Mailing address:

Electronic Arts Intermix
535 West 22 St., 5th floor
New York, NY 10011

Tel: (212) 337-0680 Fax: (212) 337-0679 email: info@eai.org

Distribution and Order Inquiries: (212) 337-0694


Location

EAI is located at 535 West 22nd Street, 5th floor, between 10th and 11th Avenues, in the West Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. Public transportation: E or C train to 23rd St (at 8th Avenue). Walk one block south and 2 1/2 blocks west, or take the 23rd Street crosstown bus to 11th Avenue. EAI is wheelchair accessible.


EAI Staff

To reach a staff member by email, please use the email address following the person's name followed by "@eai.org".

Lori Zippay
Executive Director

Ann Adachi (aadachi)
Distribution Assistant

Rebecca Cleman (rcleman)
Distribution Coordinator

Galen Joseph-Hunter (ghunter)
Assistant Director

Josh Kline (jkline)
Communications and Public Programs

Trevor Shimizu (tshimizu)
Technical Coordinator

John Thomson (jthomson)
Distribution Director

Funders

EAI receives public funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency; the New York State Council on the Arts, a state agency; and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. EAI also receives funding from the Barbara and Howard Wise Foundation, New Art Trust, National Television and Video Preservation Fund, and the Media Arts Technical Assistance Fund. EAI has also received support from the Daniel Langlois Foundation, Absolut Angel, the Rockefeller Foundation, and Tin Man Fund, among numerous foundation, corporate and individual donors. EAI receives in-kind assistance from the Dia Art Foundation.



EAI History

Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI) was founded in 1971 as one of the first nonprofit organizations dedicated to the support of video as an art form. EAI has played a pioneering role in the history of the media arts field. (For a comprehensive resource on EAI’s history, please see The EAI Archives Online: A Kinetic History.)

EAI was founded by Howard Wise, an innovative art dealer and visionary supporter of video as art. From 1960 to 1970, the Howard Wise Gallery on 57th Street in New York was a locus for kinetic art and multimedia works that explored the nexus of art and technology. The gallery featured several groundbreaking exhibitions, including On the Move (1964) and Lights in Orbit (1967).

Wise’s most influential and provocative show was TV as a Creative Medium, the landmark 1969 exhibition that served to link the kinetic art movement of the 1960s with the emergent medium of video art. The first exhibition in the United States devoted to video, TV as a Creative Medium signaled radical changes and defined an emerging artistic movement. Among the twelve artists in the show were Nam June Paik, Charlotte Moorman, Paul Ryan, Ira Schneider, Frank Gillette, and Eric Siegel. This prescient exhibition featured performance, objects, closed-circuit tapes and installations, with works ranging from Paik and Moorman’s TV Bra for Living Sculpture to Gillette and Schneider’s Wipe Cycle.

Seeking to create new paradigms to support artists working in the nascent video underground, Wise closed the gallery in 1970 to found the nonprofit organization Electronic Arts Intermix. The founding mission was to support video as "a means of personal and creative expression and communication."

In its first years, EAI served as an umbrella or sponsor for an eclectic range of innovative projects relating to the intersection of video and contemporary art.

Among these projects were festivals such as the Annual Avent-Garde Festivals, organized by Charlotte Moorman; the first Women’s Video Festival, held at the Kitchen in 1972; and the Computer Arts Festivals of 1973-75.

Other initiatives included Perception, an early collective of artists exploring the parameters of the medium, and Vasulka Video, a research project directed by Woody and Steina Vasulka to develop new video technologies. EAI also fostered the development of Eric Siegel’s Synthesizer and colorizer, which were among the earliest image-processing tools.

The Kitchen Center, the seminal intermedia artists’ space and cultural center, was founded in 1971 by Steina and Woody Vasulka under EAI’s sponsorship.

Another project was Open Circuits: An International Conference on the Future of Television, held at the Museum of Modern Art in 1974, a seminal gathering of some forty video artists, filmmakers, curators, arts administrators, and critics.

In addition to these sponsored projects and events, EAI initiated its own programs to serve the burgeoning needs of artists and audiences in the emergent video field. These programs were to become the core of the organization.

In 1972, EAI began the Editing/Post Production Facility tin response to a need for a creative workspace and equipment access for artists. This facility was one of the first nonprofit services of its kind in the U.S., and enabled the creation of many seminal video works, by artists including Mary Lucier and Joan Jonas. The facility has served thousands of artists and organizations with analogue and digital editing systems.

In 1973, the Artists’ Videotape Distribution Service was founded to answer a need for a new paradigm for the dissemination of artists’ video works, apart from the conventional gallery system. Created around a core of seminal video artists, including Peter Campus, Juan Downey, and Nam June Paik, this service grew into one of the world’s foremost resources for video art, and remains the oldest distributor of artists’ video.

In 1986, the EAI Preservation Program was begun to facilitate the archival restoration and cataloging of tapes in the EAI collection. This was one of the first such programs that addressed the preservation needs of a video art collection, and is today a leading initiative for video preservation.

About this Site

Copyright:

All text, images, video or sound on EAI's Web site is protected by copyright laws. Express permission to reproduce any content on this Web site must be obtained by contacting EAI at 535 West 22nd Street, 5th floor, New York, NY 10011, or (212) 337-0680.


The new EAI Online Catalogue was made possible with support from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency; the New York State Council on the Arts Technology Initiative; Absolut Angel; and with technical support and in-kind assistance from Dia Center for the Arts.

In-house Design Consultant: Robert Beck

Content Management, Concept and Architecture: Galen Joseph-Hunter

Editor: Lori Zippay




Programming and Design: Supercosm LLC.

©2002 Electronic Arts Intermix