EZTV’s roots began in West Hollywood, in 1979. It was an early advocate for the part that independent media would play as a transformative voice for a wide range of cultural communities.  Its ever-evolving role has embraced a diverse community of artists, thinkers and an activated audience who rallied to support the new tools of accessible computers and video equipment.

EZTV is credited as being America’s first video theater, virtually inventing the notion of microcinema. It also created CyberSpace Gallery, among the world’s first art galleries dedicated to digital art.

EZTV artists have been principal collaborators in many projects, which have been seen at the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Institute of Contemporary Art (London), Lincoln Center,  and institutions such as University of Helsinki, School of Visual Arts (New York), UCLA, USC, Duke University, Parsons New School, and many other universities, as well as at festivals and conferences such as Cannes Film Festival, SIGGRAPH, Dance Camera West,  Los Angeles Film Festival,  as well as on the BBC, PBS, BRAVO, and other media outlets.

They were presented by 18^th Street Arts Center in their participation in the Getty Museum & Research Institute’s initiative “Pacific Standard Time.”

Curators as well as artists, over the decades, they have presented film/media including works by Keith Haring, Yoko Ono, David Hockney, Jean Luc Goddard, as well as visual art ranging from Jim Shaw to Tom of Finland. And from Dr. Timothy Leary to Daffy Duck. Media artists such as Jennifer Steinkamp had their first one-person shows at EZTV. Poets such as Allen Ginsberg and Octavio Paz, and notable performance artists, dancers, and musicians have all collaborated with members of EZTV’s core group.

EZTV was also among the first art spaces to recognize the emerging role of the internet, first inter-state experimenting with it in 1984 (in collaboration with LA ACM SIGGRAPH). In 1987, in collaboration with KPFK, it did its first international internet arts project, connecting scientist/writer Dr. Arthur C. Clark in Sri Lankan to West Hollywood.

In 1995 EZTV launched online one of the earliest websites with a focus on computer art, and as far back as 1999, understood and articulated the immense and impending transformative effects which mobile communications would play in the 21^st century, collaborating with Finland’s technology ministry: TEKES .

EZTV history contributed by Michael J. Masucci.

Michael J. Masucci (host for March 12, 2014 telecast of What’s on [My] Mind?) is an award-winning experimental media producer, video-artist, writer, curator, educator, and musician. Masucci was a founding member of EZTV, and along with computer art historian Patric Prince, created CyberSpace Gallery, one of the world’s first art galleries dedicated to digital art. Masucci’s early video work was recently included inCollaboration Labs: Southern California Artists and the Artists Space Movement at the 18thStreet Art Center, part of the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A., 1945-1980. Collaborations spearheaded by Masucci have been exhibited internationally at venues such as the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Institute of Contemporary Art (London), and the American Film Institute (Los Angeles). His work has been seen on commercial television as well as t festivals, art galleries, conferences, and universities.