Beyond typical narrative experiments in video art

From André Brasil, Chistine Mello, Eduardo de Jesus, Ronaldo Entler and Solange Oliveira Farkas. 'Southern Panoramas' in Performance:15th Festival Internacianal de Arte Eletronica Videobrasil, Catalogue, São Paulo, Brasil, 2006, in which John Gillies' Divide was exhibited:

"Historically, electronic art has always shown itself to be resistant to stable narratives characterized by a linear syntax. For various reasons the historical progression of video art has always highlighted works structured in more open, associative and fragmentary narratives. This tendency seems to stem from a set of legacies from historical vanguard and experimental cinemas that have gathered round video in a way that broadens the path opened up by the pioneers. In this sense, the most typical narratives in video art are seen as experimental and polysemous spaces."

I love this depiction of "a set of legacies from historical vanguard and experimental cinemas that have gathered round video". But also, the proposition of moving on from that:

"... the chameleonic nature of electronic art and the restlessness of its artists take the production down other tacks. Works are emerging that, while not relinquishing their formal experimentalism, nonetheless make forays into what at first glance appears to be the realm of more conventional narratives. As always, these processes of assimilation and fusion are not calm transitions, but powerful ruptures that end up weakening certain aspects as they strengthen others. In this process, images and sounds are combined in unusual narratives that no longer limit themselves to the typical discontinuity of video, nor adhere to the stable structures associated with classical cinema. What emerges from this are narratives that flirt with linearity, but provoke small, intense displacements, creating an ambiguous space between audiovisual traditions and its far from naïve appropriation by the artists."