LAB HD
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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LAB HD was a three-year experiment by Voom HD Networks. It is the only channel in history devoted to video art and experimental film as a continuous flow of ambient television. While it is no longer broadcasting, the channel persists as Voom HD Lab, an outreach effort on the part of its parent company, and it continues to commission pieces from artists and filmmakers.
Voom launched as a DBS (direct broadcast satellite) service in the United States in October 2003. The service offered 21 channels of high-definition video focused on niche audiences. Most of the channels were conventional offerings, but one slot was reserved for an experimental channel called MOOV HD. The channel was produced by Concrete Pictures, a design and production house in Philadelphia founded by Jeff Boortz. The intent was to produce video art for public consumption. The branding of the channel was elegant, but the content was of uneven quality, and it was derided as “the screensaver channel.”
Voom assigned Ali Hossaini to serve as executive producer of the channel. He began revamping the programming with high profile productions, notably a series of “video portraits” directed by Robert Wilson and produced by Noah Khoshbin.