New Directions in the Art of the Moving Image

For fans of video art, Christmas came early this year. Just last week, the Smithsonian American Art Museum joined a growing list of institutions that have opened dedicated long-term galleries exclusively for media art. The inaugural installation of "Watch This! New Directions in the Art of the Moving Image" features nine artworks, spanning 40 years of history and spotlighting technology as disparate as a digital animation in 3-D projection - the kind you look at through cheesy paper glasses with red and blue lenses - to an array of 1,782 twinkling LEDs controlled by customized electronic circuitry.