'An expansion of the public sphere': how video transformed the world

From its exterior, the industrial metal dome nestled in the woods outside Stony Point, New York, could be anything: perhaps someone is doing horticulture experiments, or maybe it's secretly a yurt. Stepping inside would reveal a different surprise: Stan VanDerBeek's Movie-Drome, an "experience machine" complete with both film and slide projectors blanketing the curved ceiling of the immersive, exuberant space with an array of color and black and white imagery. However, it was neither the dome or the content on its ceiling that made Movie-Drome an important development in 20th century art - it was its unrealized connection to a…