"Illuminating Video" is the most comprehensive collection of essays on video art, as well as an essential text for the general reader interested in new visual forms. It is a significant resource for anyone who is involved in new media, video art, art history, or contemporary social theory. The volume offers insights by several prominent artists in the field as well as revealing and instructive writings by both scholars and critics. It illustrates the complex, heterogeneous nature of video, and highlights its strong ties to the visual arts and social theory. While providing an essential critical context for understanding video's role as art, these writings show that video is at the forefront of contemporary cultural and aesthetic discourse. Using a wide range of strategies, from the poetic to the reconstructive, these essays provide a long-overdue academic-friendly context in which to evaluate video as art and its subsequent impact on social and cultural behavior. Editors Hall and Fifer have organized the book into five sections that address the varied aspects of video. From essays investigating the construction of a history of video; to articles on the relation(s) of video to other media, fine art, and culture; to pieces specifically created by leading video artists for this publication; "Illuminating Video" has much to offer any student or scholar of video production or aestheics.