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--></style><title>RIP Gene Youngblood
(1942-2021)</title></head><body>
<div>https://www.artforum.com/news/gene-youngblood-1942-2021-85439</div
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<div><br>
April 07, 2021 at 4:14pm<br>
<br>
GENE YOUNGBLOOD (1942-2021)<br>
<br>
Visionary media arts theorist and critic Gene Youngblood,<br>
whose prescient 1970 book Expanded Cinema reshaped the<br>
fields of art and communications, predicted technological<br>
advances in filmmaking, and offered the first serious<br>
recognition of video and software-based works as cinematic<br>
art forms, died on April 6 in Santa Fe at the age of<br>
seventy-eight.<br>
<br>
Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1942, Youngblood spent<br>
most of the 1960s in Los Angeles variously working as a<br>
reporter and film critic for the Los Angeles<br>
Herald-Examiner, as a reporter for KHJ-TV, and as an arts<br>
commentator for KPFK. In 1967, he was hired at $80 a week as<br>
associate editor at the Los Angeles Free Press, the first<br>
and most influential countercultural organ of its time.<br>
<br>
He would remain at the publication until 1970, when he began<br>
co-teaching at California Institute of the Arts, with video<br>
artist Nam June Paik, one of the first college courses on<br>
the history of video. That summer, his "Call to Arms"
was<br>
published in the inaugural issue of the crucial journal<br>
Radical Software. The piece manifested Youngblood's unending<br>
drive to democratize the media, announcing, "The media must<br>
be liberated, must be removed from private ownership and<br>
commercial sponsorship, must be placed in the service of all<br>
humanity."<br>
<br>
A few months later, Youngblood published Expanded Cinema,<br>
much of which was based on his columns for the LA Free<br>
Press. Though the volume took as its title a term coined by<br>
Stan VanDerBeek, "it was Gene Youngblood who put it on the<br>
cover of a book, filled it with rocket fuel, and sent it<br>
buzzing through the late-1960s art world like a heat-seeking<br>
missile," wrote Caroline A. Jones in Artforum in 2020, on<br>
the occasion of the book's fiftieth anniversary. Expanded<br>
Cinema -- in which Youngblood limned concepts ranging from the<br>
Paleocybernetic Age to the videosphere to "new
nostalgia,"<br>
all in context of what he termed the "global intermedia<br>
network" -- is considered a seminal work in the field of<br>
communications. "I thought maybe four hippies would read<br>
it," Youngblood wrote decades later. The book sold nearly<br>
fifty thousand copies in seven years.<br>
<br>
Youngblood lectured on media arts theory at more than four<br>
hundred higher-learning institutions. In 1988, he founded<br>
the moving image arts department at the College of Santa Fe,<br>
where he remained a professor for years (the institution,<br>
which in 2010 was rechristened the Santa Fe University of<br>
Art and Design, closed in 2018). Though the rise of the<br>
internet hardly led to the utopian mediascape Youngblood had<br>
hoped for -- "The architecture of tyranny is in place,"
he<br>
wrote in 2013; "truth-telling and dissent are<br>
criminalized" -- he continued to advocate for a
counterculture<br>
media characterized by radical democracy. "Anything
less,"</div>
<div>he wrote, "is a betrayal of us all."</div>
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