Ritchie’s Perfect Press

On a pleasant day, on a wooded island not far from Seattle, a troop of amateur geologists trudged across a tall grassy meadow with a purpose: find a lost culture which was completely devoted to television. Led by a self-appointed, charismatic videophile, ＂Dr. Chew,＂ they unearthed the remains of a 15,000-year old treasure of artifacts, identified, tagged, and dutifully recorded details about them. C. T. Chew, an artist, conceived the expedition as an art ＂happening.＂ Over thirty years later, his ＂Video Dig＂ is the focus of an exhibition proposed by Bill Ritchie, who was at the site. Now Bill wants to show the ＂Video Dig＂ plus many videos that vivified his years as a media arts professor. In this anthology he shares his musings, the soul of the exhibit, ＂Video Dig Reloaded.＂ The reader is sure to find it enlightening - a must for anyone curious about northwest schools of art or, which is a more likely lesson, how video figured in the development of a few artists’ careers started at the UW in the 1970s.