A Letter for Phil suggests an institutional critique in the form of a correspondence signed by “Matt/Rose/Tom/Isac.” The video juxtaposes two angles of the typewriter—one showing the typed text in realtime, another showing hands of the writer. The continuous sound of the typewriter creates an intimate space between the writer and the viewer.
–Gordon Dic-Lun Fung
For more information, visit the Phil Morton Memorial Research Archive page.
The date for this title is approximate.
The Phil Morton Memorial Research Archive (PMMRA) is an archive of early video and media art created and collected by artist and School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) instructor Phil Morton and his students and collaborators. The collection includes nearly 800 videos, a large portion of which documents the emergence of experimental video and media art education in Chicago during the 1970s. During his time at SAIC, Morton developed an anti-copyright approach called COPY-IT-RIGHT, which advocated that media art should be shared widely and be freely available. In honor of this ethos, all PMMRA titles on Video Data Bank’s website are available to watch for free. Visit a title's artwork page to view the video in full.
For more information and to access the full list of available titles related to PMMRA, visit the Phil Morton Memorial Research Archive Collection page.
The titles listed on this page are videos collected and produced by Morton's collaborators and students, titles for which Morton may have had an ancillary role. Visit Phil Morton's artist page for a list of titles produced by Morton.