Margaret Morse

Margaret Morse was an emerita professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz who taught film and video. She was also a well-versed author known for her critical analysis of both United States and European media artists. She had a propensity for closed-circuit video installations. Much of her work and career revolved around subjects in experimental film, video art, interactive Media and written works looking into our interaction with modern media and digital machines.

Margaret Morse served in a chair position at ISEA2006 Symposium + ZeroOne San Jose: A Global Festival of Art on the Edge, and gave a keynote presentation in which she presented a general overview of how the "umbrella term" of new media or digital art can no longer be applied to many emerging forms of artwork.

Life and education Morse obtained her PhD and M.A. in German literature and the philosophy of film from the University of California, Berkeley, where she attended from 1967 to 1977. She also received her B.A. in philosophy from Humboldt University of Berlin, and a B.A. in history, philosophy, and German at Freie Universität Berlin. At the end of her time here, Morse would receive a Fulbright Fellowship. During this fellowship, Morse would conduct research on women writers and artists in the Cold War era of the German Democratic Republic and their representation in literature and film.

Between 1979 and 1991, Margaret worked in multiple teaching positions at the San Francisco State University, the University of San Francisco, and the San Francisco Art Institute. She taught in subjects dealing with film and experimental video art. In 1980-1982, Margaret worked as an assistant professor at Vanderbilt and dealt with archival research in the Vanderbilt Television archives. These archives dealt with early TV news and sports themes and their usage in media.

In 1985, Morse wrote "Shaking and Waking" This was Morse's first essay on video art and was featured as the third chapter in the book "Talkin' with your mouth full : conversations with the videos of Steve Fagin ."

In 1986, Morse contributed to the community publication project, Video Networks with her review and interview piece, "Mary Lucier: Burning and Shining". Video Networks was initiated by artist and editor Doug Hall and covered video art, installation, and digital media criticism aimed at the media arts public rather than academic discourse. This publication was reprinted, translated, and included in her later 1998 book, Virtualities.

In 1997, she worked as the principal author for the book "Hardware, Software, Artware". With both an English and German translations, this was arguably one of the most successful projects Morse was involved with. The book served as a lexicon of twenty artists and their respective works. Such a tool was an invaluable resource for curators.

In 1999, she published a digital CD-ROM called "Media-Architectural Installations". It included translated versions in English, Spanish and French in the "On Translation" version.

Themes explored New media Media history German cinema Film history and theory Media art, digital culture

Personal life In 1982, during her time at Vanderbilt, Morse was a participant in the Third International Institute for Semiotic Studies, where she learned theory on the signs and symbols of communicative behavior.