Norman Cowie is a video artist and writer in Los Angeles. Some of his productions include: ''Signal to Noise: Life with Television'' (Co-Director; 1996), ''The Third Wave'', ''Miss Menu's Interactive World'', ''Poison Ivy'' (1995), ''Mr. Rogers Goes Begging the Question!!!'', ''It's a Proud Day for America'', ''About Face'' (1991), ''Lying in State'' (1989), and ''Nazareth in August'' (1986). Ranging from collaborative

documentaries A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in term ...

video art Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting ...

, Cowie's work interrogates the relations of power and domination in contemporary society, and seeks to problematize the ways in which meaning and consent are constructed through the

media Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass el ...

. Cowie's videotapes often use the techniques of documentary, off-air appropriation, and short form sound and text

collage Collage (, from the french: coller, "to glue" or "to stick together";) is a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but in music too, by which art results from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole. ...

. Currently a

video producer Video production is the process of producing video content for video. It is the equivalent of filmmaking, but with video recorded either as analog signals on videotape, digitally in video tape or as computer files stored on optical discs, hard dri ...

and a professor teaching media theory and production, Cowie has been drawn toward

media literacy Media literacy is an expanded conceptualization of literacy that includes the ability to access and analyze media messages as well as create, reflect and take action, using the power of information and communication to make a difference in the w ...

as an

activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

and pedagogical tool.

External links

Official Norman Cowie website
*
Norman Cowie
in the

Video Data Bank Video Data Bank (VDB) is an international video art distribution organization and resource in the United States for videos by and about contemporary artists. Located in Chicago, Illinois, VDB was founded at the School of the Art Institute of Chic ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cowie, Norman Year of birth missing (living people) American video artists Living people Artists from Los Angeles