# Gene Youngblood [Wikipedia Link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Youngblood) ( 1942 – 2023 ) ## Description American media theorist and critic whose 1970 book *Expanded Cinema* was the first serious critical treatment of video, computer art, and holography as cinematic media, reframing "expanded cinema" as expanded consciousness rather than a set of new film techniques; later a leading writer and teacher on media art, telecommunications, and the politics of media technology. ## Key Tags #theorist #critic ## Essential Works - [[Expanded Cinema]] (1970) - his foundational book theorizing cinema, video, computer art, and holography as consciousness technologies; see the dedicated page for full notes ## Details A film and media critic before writing *Expanded Cinema*, Youngblood went on to teach media theory and history for decades (California Institute of the Arts, UCLA) and remained an advocate for artist-controlled media, telecommunications art, and computer-based art practice into the digital era. ### Concepts and Theories - [[Transpersonal and Consciousness Studies]] - *Expanded Cinema*'s central thesis reframes technological/cinematic expansion as an expansion of consciousness - [[Computer Art]] - surveyed and theorized early computer film practice in *Expanded Cinema* - [[Video Art]] - theorized television/video as a creative medium in its own right ### Creative and Technical Practices %% none yet %% ### Collaborators - [[Jordan Belson]] - profiled at length in *Expanded Cinema* as a model of "cosmic cinema" and expanded consciousness in film ### Institutional Affiliations and Associated Movements %% none yet %% ## References ### Primary Sources Bibliography Youngblood, Gene. *Expanded Cinema*. Introduction by R. Buckminster Fuller. P. Dutton & Co., 1970. See [[Expanded Cinema]] for full annotation. ### Secondary Sources Bibliography %% none identified with confidence — Fordham UP's 2020 Fiftieth Anniversary Edition of *Expanded Cinema* carries a new introduction, but by Youngblood himself, making it an extension of the primary text rather than independent criticism %%