Video

Test Tube

1979, 28:00 minutes, colour, English

TAPECODE 123.08

Made for broadcast at de Appel, Holland, this tape incorporates television formats and video special effects in a witty and visually sophisticated production. General Idea uses the media to create a complex visual portrait of the artist in the 80's. This tape represented Canada at the Venice Biennale, 1980. Test Tube shows off to glorious advantage the trio's inimitable brand of collective humour and its irrepressible fascination with the elegance of the dramatic moments.

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Critical Writing

Oral history interview with AA Bronson, 2017 March 3, 5, and 6
by Theodore Kerr. Archives of American Art, March 2017.
Cinematic Folds: the furling and unfurling of images
by Firoza Elavia. Toronto: Pleasure Dome, 2008.
Art Star: Video Art Biennial
Art Star, 2003. Ottawa: Saw Gallert, 2003.
Mirror Machine: Video and Identity
by Janine Marchessault. Toronto: YYZ Books, 1996.
Mirror Machine: Video and Identity
by Janine Marchessault. YYZ Books, McGill University, 1995.
Hot Art In A Cool Medium
by Brian D. Johnson and Mark Budgen. Maclean's, Mar. 3, 1986.
Homo Video
by John Greyson. Jump Cut, Mar 1985, no. 30.
Making Airwaves: Homo Video
by Bruce W Ferguson. Prime Time Video, 1984. Saskatoon: Mendel Art Gallery, 1984.
Introduction: Transmissions
by Elke Town. Transmissions, 1982. Cambridge: Cambridge Library/Art Center, 1982.
General Idea Le "Conte" Du Temps
by Johanne Lamoureux. Parachute, Winter 1981, no. 25.
VIDEO/VIDEO: If this event was a dry run for PAY-TV, one must view...
by Clive Robertson. Fuse, Nov. 1981, v. 5, no. 8 & 9.
Test Tube: Some General Instructions for Media Artists
by Virginia Wilde. Parallelogramme, Dec. 1981, v. 7, no. 2.
Test Tube
by Robert Handforth. Fuse, Mar. 1980, v. 4, no. 3.
Biennale 1980: A View from Venice
by Theodore Allen Heinrich. Vanguard, Oct. 1980, v. 9, no. 8.
Video is not television, Performance is not theatre: A View from...
by Martha Fleming and Douglas Durand. Body Politic, June 1980, no. 64.