Daniela Bousso opens the roundtable by introducing the participants, their practices, and their work in the realm of audiovisual art. Christine Mello assesses the Prêmio Sérgio Motta, which, in her view, is limited insofar as it is a prize for media art not geared to technological innovation. She supports, however, the way that the prize has encouraged experimentation. She argues passionately that technological changes have had a major impact on forms of perception. Citing specific works, Lucas Bambozzi discusses the implications of technological media on the art world, mentioning specifically the novel possibilities those media open up in the sphere of documentary production. Kiko Goifman makes reference to specific works in a reflection on the concepts of “contamination” and “dirtiness” in video art. Lastly, Joel Pizzini cites his own work as he raises the issues of the border between film and video, focusing on the fatal limitations of each language as well as their intersections.

This document is a register of the presentations made in the context of the Fórum de Debates of the Prêmio Cultural Sérgio Motta, held on December 3 and 4, 2002, at the Instituto Sérgio Motta. Daniela Bousso, the coordinator of the event entitled “Arte mídia: novos enfoques, novas possibilidades e características da produção artística,” introduced each of the participants. According to the synopsis, the presenters were Christine Mello, Lucas Bambozzi, Kiko Goifman, and Joel Pizzini. 

Critic, curator, and art historian Walter Zanini (1925−2013) was active as a theorist, producing work on technology’s impact on art, and as a commentator, supporting technology-based art and effecting radical change by means of the institutions he directed. He was the director of the Museu de Arte Contemporânea of the Universidade de São Paulo (USP), for instance, from 1963 to 1978. Zanini’s essay “Primeiros tempos da arte/tecnologia no Brasil” [ICAA digital archive (doc. no. 1111029)] analyzes the beginnings of technology-based art in 1968, when painter and theorist Waldemar Cordeiro, in conjunction with engineer Giorgio Moscati of the Universidade de São Paulo, produced the first works of what they called “computer art” with a plotter printer. Zanini was instrumental to encouraging the production of emerging artists as well as marginalized forms of expression in works like “Vídeo-arte: uma poética aberta” (doc. no. 1110892).