Video and film have sorely been abused by inept artists, some fans would argue the opposite. Video art, in most cases, consists of a small monitor and a vcr placed on a pedestal. Video has an aesthetic all to itself, and the tele-present image claims an authority and validity unequaled by other mediums.

The moving image whether video, digital conceived, or cinematically captured on film, still maintains the final word. But there are basic things an artist might do well to consider when using this medium as a form of expression, especially within a gallery setting. The nuts and bolts of the moving image experience rests on a couple simple concepts, which include: cinematography, editing, audio, length (time required of viewer) and of course a comfortable chair for viewing pleasure. Most artists ignore this last request, but it is the surest way to captivate a gallery-hopping audience.

Screenings? A gallery converts into a makeshift theater with folding chairs in Steve Doughton's 'travelogue Circuit', at Marianne Boesky Gallery. Shot in 16mm film, it is a detailed itinerary of pit stop road trips and other such travels he made in the course of one year. Many of the images were taken from a car window while driving across the various landscapes, offering up many an unsatisfying view. Nothing cataclysmic or eventful seems to happen except that time passes. This is not a very new concept. Time passes every second, minute, hour, day, and yes, time passes over the course of one year.

Some galleries are not suited for lengthy viewing times, most notable was 'Snowflake Office' at Greene Naftali Gallery where a group of artists spuriously called a 3movement2 make a little art in video form. Denise Lasagni's 'Baby Aliens', is a bunch grainy images that appear to be melting baby doll faces. In Stefan Romer1s Analysis of Beauty a person leafs through a fashion magazine at his leisure. No viewing chairs to be had. I am not even sure how to approach Joan Jonas 'theater of the absurd' at Pat Hearn Gallery. The artist engages in a display of movements and acts, non sequiturs that can only be interpreted as nonsensical interpretive dance. A private language that sadly will remain private and whose subject banks on the viewer's ability to endure.

Maura Jasper's 'Karaoke Project' at Threadwaxing Space documents a group of randomly selected individuals, who perform private Karaoke performances of their favorite songs for the artist's benefit. As a result, Jasper is able to capture the endearing personalities of these amateur performers, exposing their sincerity. Also at Threadwaxing as part of the Mr. Fascination show, Ellen Cantor's 'Remember Me', slyly and with a sense of humor examines pop culture's meaning of love through movie dialogue and through clips chosen to accentuate the body in erratic gestures of love, alienation, and dance. On another sentimental note, Maria Marshall's laser disc video projections at Team Gallery, preserve and interrupt a child's world from an adult perspective. In 'Don't Let the T-Rex Get the Children', a child smiles queerly at the camera. As the camera pulls away, the child is shown kneeling in a padded room. The last piece, the most successful one, a sped up time lapse view of a playground loops while a child can be heard reciting a version of the three little pigs.

The otherworldly video projections by Stephen Murphy at 303 Gallery usecomputer generated imagery to create phenomena found in the natural world. In the first room, snow falls from a black sky in a seamless pattern across a three-part screen. In the next room, an asteroid spins and hovers in space. At the Swiss Institute, in 'Empire Without States', Aleksandra Mir stages the first moon landing by a female artist off the coast of Holland. Her video documents the entire project with images of beach bathers, and landscapers bulldozing sand into craters. The American flag is planted seaside by the artist in a white smock dress. I sat deeply engrossed in this farce while sitting on a bucket-seat couch, parked in front of a well-chosen big-screen TV.