The Video Arts program at Alfred University is one of the oldest, most
diverse, and well-developed video art programs in the country. Emerging out of the intensive discussions concerning art, technology, and structuralism mapped out in the late sixties and early seventies, Alfred ’s video arts program is grounded in an experimental approach to image making with strong ties to the practice of real time imageprocessing and imaging tool development. To work in real time means to process the video image live, directly as it happens on the television screen. The video arts studios are comprised of technologies that support this approach allowing the students working in video to experience a wide range of technologies and theories necessitated in the production of video art across both digital systems and analog/digital hybrid systems.

These technologies range from early tools such as the Sadine Image
Processor, developed in 1970, to the newer evolving tools such as
Imagine and Big I, which are regularly updated. These elements are explored within an extremely creative atmosphere where students are
encouraged to explore both assignment based works and independent
projects, which include but are not limited to:digital image processing and post production techniques, analog video tape editing, real time video image processing, digital animation, digital sound processing, story boarding, media analysis, signal analysis, visual scoring strategies, performance art, contemporary time based art theory, and film analysis.
Video Arts incorporates performance and sonic art strategies and encourages the free use of these and other synergistic approaches
throughout its curriculum.

Projects range from the production of single channel videotapes to multi media installations to interactive DVD authoring. In keeping with the philosophy of the Division of Expanded Media, students are encouraged to investigate the multitude of possibilities for time based images to cross over into other disciplines. The video image, exported in various formats, becomes as fluid as any other kind of image, ready to become a print, a frame in an animation, a button on a web page, or a structure for sound. Thus, the investigative research and work produced in the video arts program cross all forms of time based electronic art, including real time image processing, digital image manipulation, digital video, interactive media, installation, animation, and studio design.