Robert Arn delves into film history to right misconceptions about the filmic treatment of time. Film theory is used in analogy with experimental video practice in an attempt to foster a formal description of video, or television-as-an-art-form. He presents film as having a history of theater mimicry, only becoming interesting as it forges it's own aesthetic, and that television follows the same trajectory. He claims video art utilizes the electronic signal in a way that is medium specific, while television remains trivial in it's imitations of film. Further discussions, with diagrams, on the essential differences between film and video - film as a frozen medium, video as a constantly moving electronic dot - are postulated. Arn uses Nam June Paik's experiments with televisions and magnets as a rudimentary precursor to Steve Rutt and Bill Etra's synthesizers which exert analog control over all aspects of the video image.

Published as part of Artscanada's Issue of Video Art.