Dean and Dudley Evenson are video pioneers who became immersed in the half-inch scene when in 1970 they purchased one of the first Sony Portapaks sold in Manhattan. They traveled around New York and the rest of the country, recording and exhibiting video in their “Fobile Muck Truck” before joining the Raindance video group. Dudley co-edited Radical Software, to which both Dean and Dudley contributed as writers. Those contributions included Dean’s landmark article “Open-Ended Nervous System,” in which he put forward an artistic philosophy that focused on energy and the perception and channeling of natural energies that would guide their work in video and in music for the next five decades:
Each of us is a channel and source for the life force which nature sings to. We are emitters of energy on many levels and bandwidths. We are each producing a song deep inside which, when unfettered, can join with others in a choir of harmonious sound. We have the ability to control our technology by learning our life source, our energy song. The ego in us wants to force the gross parts of our songs down other people’s throats. But harmony and beauty swell not from homogeneity but from diversity and love.
Dean and Dudley remained at the forefront of video throughout its early years. They taught video to high school students at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Dean was the first person to hook up a half-inch video deck to the Sterling Manhattan Cable system paving the way for Public Access Television. They created Downsville TV in upstate New York, where they would shoot weekly programs and transmit them from their Volkswagen van.
As the decade progressed, Dean and Dudley converted a school bus into a home and studio and traveled the country documenting what they called “the emerging consciousness,” creating hundreds of videos of activists, artists, musicians, Indian gurus, mystics, healers, and new thought leaders. They filmed Native Americans from tribes around the country, who shared traditions, beliefs, stories, and wisdom for the future of the planet, and documented the Wounded Knee occupation. They had a front row seat to the emerging environmental movement, documenting both landmark global conferences and local activists.
There was, however, no system of distribution for the tapes they had made. More recently, they have begun digitizing their archive and releasing it on their “Soundings Mindful Media” YouTube channel, bringing their remarkable videos to a broad global audience for the first time.
In 1979, Dean and Dudley founded their record label Soundings of the Planet with a mission of sharing and promoting “Peace Through Music.” The music of Dean and Dudley and their roster of artists from around the world, helped to invent and define “New Age” music: music for meditation and contemplation, for relaxation and inner peace. Soundings of the Planet has released hundreds of albums of music and spoken word recordings, including albums from spiritual leader Ram Dass, pianist Tom Barabas, guitarist Scott Huckabay, guqin master Li Xiangting, sitar players The Mishras, Native American elder Chas-das-ska-dum, singing bowls master Walter Makichen, and the Dalai Lama, as well as the dozens of albums of the music of Dean and Dudley.
Dean and Dudley continue to make music and videos, which they post to their “Soundings of the Planet” YouTube channel. They also have a new lifestyle channel called “Dean & Dudley Living Dreams.”
Our complete collection of Dean and Dudley Evenson’s work can be found here.
Dates: 1970-present
Selected Videography:
Earthart / Earthlab Sampler / Essentially Elementary
The Rainbow Gathering of the Tribes
Soundings of the Planet / TAO OM / Desert Dawn Song / Great Mystery / Desert Airs
Virtual Talks with Video Activists: Dean and Dudley Evenson