Sarah Cook,
curator of “Broadcast Yourself: Artists’ interventions into television”
June 14, 2016
How did you find out about Joanie 4 Jackie and how old were you at the time?
I recall an email from Miranda asking for advice about a legal letter she had received concerning her use of the term Moviola, when the project was called Big Miss Moviola; at the time what is now FACT in Liverpool was also still referred to as Moviola – it started in 1985 as Merseyside Moviola launched by Josie Barnard and Lisa Haskel, and became FACT in 1997.
What do you do now – professionally and otherwise? Are you still involved in filmmaking?
I am a curator of media art and other interdisciplinary art activities. I saw the Joanie 4 Jackie archive displayed first at Yerba Buena though was aware of the project before then (I studied at Bard where the J4J archive was located). I included the project in the exhibition ‘Broadcast Yourself: Artists’ interventions into television’ which I co-curated for the AV Festival in Newcastle and Cornerhouse in Manchester in 2008. At the time I was researching how artists had created platforms for self-broadcasting, before the YouTube age we live in now. J4J remains a key piece of this history. In 2008 it was unclear how the archive was to be looked after long-term and I felt that including the work in the exhibition – through documentation of all of the posters of every edition of the tapes, and a screening copy of the co-star tape – was important to keep visibility of the project internationally, and to introduce it others who didn’t know of it.
Anything you would like to see on the J4J site?
An anotated history!