GoNightclubbing is a collaboration between video artists Pat Ivers and Emily Armstrong, who worked together to document the New York punk rock scene beginning in 1977. Ivers had previously worked with Metropolis Video from 1975 until their dissolution in 1977. Originally, Ivers and Armstrong were known as Advanced TV, but they incorporated as GoNightclubbing in 2001.

Background

Ivers and Armstrong videotaped hundreds of bands between 1977 and 1981 at venues like CBGB’s, Max’s Kansas City,

Mudd Club The Mudd Club was a nightclub located at 77 White Street in the TriBeCa neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It operated from 1978 to 1983 as a venue for underground music and counterculture events. It was opened by Steve Maas, Die ...

and Hurrah’s. Described as “the Lewis and Clark of rock video,” they used hand held cameras and audio from the sound board of the clubs to make their Gonightclubbing archive. The use of this equipment created a visual style that fit the scene that it documented—Michael Shore of ''Rolling Stone'' called their "visual fidelity" "perfect." Their archive was arguably the premiere video record of the Downtown punk scene. In 1979, their music series ''Nightclubbing'' debuted on Manhattan Cable TV’s Channel 10. It was a weekly half-hour program, showcasing live performances of bands they had documented from their vast archive. ''Nightclubbing'' was nominated for a Cable Ace award for best variety series in 1980. It was shown at

Anthology Film Archives Anthology Film Archives is an international center for the preservation, study, and exhibition of film and video, with a particular focus on independent, experimental, and avant-garde cinema.Danceteria Danceteria was a nightclub that operated in New York City from 1979 until 1986 and in the Hamptons until 1995. The club operated in various locations over the years, a total of three in New York City and four in the Hamptons. The most famous locat ...

, pioneering the concept of the VJ (Video Jockey) and designing the first standalone Video Lounge.Zeichner, Arlene. 1982. “Rock'n Video”. ''Film Comment'' 18 (3). Film Society of Lincoln Center: 39–41. Originally designed as a one-night-only art installation, it proved so successful that it became a regular nightly feature of the club. With multiple TV sets arranged as living room groupings, Ivers and Armstrong showed a mix of found footage, music videos, artists work and selections from their own archive and also documented bands live, feeding the video up to the Lounge in real time. After the club was closed by the State Liquor Authority, a robbery occurred, costing them a third of their video archive. The tapes were never recovered. In 1981, Ivers and Armstrong toured the country with their GoNightclubbing video programs, showing at museums and nightclubs in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis and San Francisco. In 2000, GoNightclubbing resurfaced at the opening of the Pioneer Theater, an independent cinema in the East Village, with a five-week series of programs. Ivers and Armstrong resumed shooting with a series of interviews of veterans of the punk scene, including Lenny Kaye and Jay Dee Daugherty of the

Patti Smith group Patricia Lee Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, poet, painter and author who became an influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album ''Horses''. Called the "punk poet ...

, Richard Lloyd of

Television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

, Cheetah Chrome and Jeff Magnum of the

Dead Boys The Dead Boys are an American punk rock band from Cleveland, Ohio, United States. The band was among the first wave of punk, and regarded by many as one of the rowdiest and most violent groups of the era. They were formed by vocalist Stiv B ...

. The same year, they were invited to the Institute of Contemporary Art in London to host a series of screenings.

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

applauded it as “five priceless programs… capturing the raw visceral energy of bands unhindered by MTV self-consciousness." In 2001-2002, they toured the US, invited to the

Andy Warhol Museum The Andy Warhol Museum is located on the North Shore of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is the largest museum in North America dedicated to a single artist. The museum holds an extensive permanent collection of art and archive ...

in Pittsburgh, the

Experience Music Project The Museum of Pop Culture or MoPOP is a nonprofit museum in Seattle, Washington, dedicated to contemporary popular culture. It was founded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen in 2000 as the Experience Music Project. Since then MoPOP has organized ...

in Seattle and the

Walker Arts Center The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in the United States and, t ...

in Minneapolis, with stops in Portland, Chicago and San Francisco as well. In 2010, New York University’s

Fales Library New York University's Fales Library and Special Collections is located on the third floor of the Elmer Holmes Bobst Library at 70 Washington Square South between LaGuardia Place and the Schwartz Plaza, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhat ...

and Special Collections digitized and restored the GoNightclubbing Archive as part of their Downtown Collection. The archive is now available for use by scholars and researchers. With videos of over 82 bands at 112 performances, 27 on camera interviews, hundreds of photos, ephemera, music videos, and video art, this "massive" collection offers a snapshot of the time and culture of Downtown New York in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In 2012, ''Bedford and Bowery'', part of the ''New York Times Magazine'', invited Ivers and Armstrong to write about the restoration of their archive in a weekly feature, which ran for nearly a year. To celebrate the acquisition by the Downtown collection, in 2014, Ivers and Armstrong created “GoNightclubbing: A Modern Punk History,” a multi-media project including video screenings at the

Museum of Art and Design The Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), based in Manhattan, New York City, collects, displays, and interprets objects that document contemporary and historic innovation in craft, art, and design. In its exhibitions and educational programs, the mus ...

, a photo and ephemera exhibition at Fales, live talks, and a recreation of the iconic Video Lounge and larger than life images of punk icons at the 80 Washington Square East Gallery. In 2015, Ivers and Armstrong premiered “Alone At Last: an Interactive installation Exploring Gender, Identity and Desire Before the Aids Crisis” at the Howl! Happening gallery. Using the trope of the Times Square peep show booth, "Alone at Last" examines the broad spectrum of sexual expression that existed in the heady days of downtown bohemia before AIDS struck the artistic community there. Fifty video seducers invite the viewer/participant to share some time in the dark with a stranger and question what s/he really wants. Anticipating YouTube and cyber hookups, "Alone At Last" can be described as a cultural record of a time gone by and a celebration of its freedom.

Screenings and exhibitions

2000–present

* Austin Film Society Cinema, Austin 2018 *

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

, Athens, Georgia 2016 * Cine Theater, Athens, Georgia 2016 * Howl! Happening Gallery, New York, New York 2015 * Tropic Cinema, Key West, Florida, 2015 * Key West Museum, Key West, Florida 2015 * Tracey-Barry Gallery at New York University Fales Library, New York, NY 2014 * 80 Washington Square East Gallery, New York, New York 2014 *

, New York, New York 2014 * International House,

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

, Philadelphia, PA 2014 * CBGB Festival, New York, New York 2013 * CBGB Festival, New York, New York 2012 * Pop Montreal Festival,

Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-pea ...

, Canada 2012 * Big Sky Documentary Film Festival,

Missoula Missoula ( ; fla, label=Salish language, Séliš, Nłʔay, lit=Place of the Small Bull Trout, script=Latn; kut, Tuhuⱡnana, script=Latn) is a city in the U.S. state of Montana; it is the county seat of Missoula County, Montana, Missoula Cou ...

, Montana 2012 * Guggenheim Lab, New York New York 2012 * Webster Film Festival,

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

2011 * Exile on Bowery, New York, NY 2011 * Downtown Show II, New York, NY 2010 * Howl Festival, New York, NY 2008 * Galatos Art Center, Auckland, New Zealand, 2007 * North By Northwest Music Festival, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, June 2007 * The Downtown Show, New York City, March 2006 *

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), sometimes simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and othe ...

, Cleveland, Ohio, September 2004 *

The Knitting Factory The Knitting Factory is a nightclub in New York City that features eclectic music and entertainment. After opening in 1987, various other locations were opened in the United States. The Knitting Factory gave its audience poetry readings, perform ...

, Los Angeles, California 2003 *

, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, November 2002 * Gene Siskel Theater,

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, October 2002 * Snake Pit,

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

, Colorado, August 2001 * Bluebird Theater,

, Colorado, May 2001 *

Walker Art Center The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in the United States and, t ...

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

, Minnesota, March 2001 * VIEWPOINT Documentary Film Festival,

Ghent, Belgium Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded in ...

, February 2001 * Experience Music Project,

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

, January 2001 * Clinton Street Theater,

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

, January 2001 *

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (YBCA) is a multi-disciplinary contemporary arts center in San Francisco, California, United States. Located in Yerba Buena Gardens, YBCA features visual art, performance, and film/video that celebrates local, natio ...

, San Francisco, January 2001 *

Institute of Contemporary Arts The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. Located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch, the ICA c ...

, London, UK, December 2000 * Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, September 2000 * ARTHOUSE,

Dublin, Ireland Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 cen ...

, August 2000 *

, London, UK, July 2000 * Pioneer Theater, New York City, February 2000

1970s–1980s

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...

, New York, New York * National Video Festival,

American Film Institute The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private funding and public membership fees. Leade ...

, Washington, DC * Beauborg Centre, Paris, France *

, London, England *

MoMA PS1 MoMA PS1 is a contemporary art institution located in Court Square in the Long Island City neighborhood in the borough of Queens, New York City. In addition to its exhibitions, the institution organizes the Sunday Sessions performance series, th ...

Opening, Long Island City, New York *

, Minneapolis, Minnesota *

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...

, Chicago, Illinois *

Long Beach Museum of Art The Long Beach Museum of Art is a museum located on Ocean Boulevard in the Bluff Park neighborhood of Long Beach, California, United States. The museum's permanent collection includes over 4,000 paintings, drawings, sculptures, works on paper, a ...

, Long Beach, California * BACA Video Festival, Brooklyn, NY * 544 Natoma Performance Gallery, San Francisco, California * Roxy Cinema, San Francisco, California *

Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art The Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago is a contemporary art museum near Water Tower Place in downtown Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The museum, which was established in 1967, is one of the world's largest contemporary ...

, Chicago, Illinois * Kitchen Center for Art and Music, New York, New York *

, New York, New Yorl *

, New York, New York * Zerozero, Los Angeles, California * Youthinasia, New York, New York * 9:30 Club, Washington, DC * Neo,

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

* Café Argyle,

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, California * Café de Grande,

, California * Flipper, Los Angeles, California * 688 Club,

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

, Georgia

Public collections

The GoNightclubbing archives are held as part of the Downtown Collection at the

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

Fales Library and Special Collections.

Awards and nominations

* Acker Award for Achievement in the Avant Garde

References

{{Reflist, 30em

External links

Archive
at Fales Library, New York University * Artis
webpage
Punk films