Computers, mobiles, and media continue to create symbioses between performance and screens. YouTube, founded in 2005 and purchased by Google in 2006 for $1.6 billion, catalyzed a tremendous global communications revolution—digital technology with virtually unlimited storage capacity greatly expanded accessibility, transforming the making of videos, movies, and their dissemination and archiving. Video and movies became virtually synonymous as 16 and 35 millimeter celluloid were replaced by HD, and further accelerated by smart phones whose advanced camera and sound technology has also been used to shoot commercial movies as well as to watch them.
YouTube’s mega streaming platform is comprised of millions of free public- access channels with billions of videos, viewers, and revenue enabling anyone to have an outlet and to enjoy unlimited programs (most are free although some require a fee). The new possibilities of instant distribution and social media would have been inconceivable to the pioneering sixties underground...