This anthology examines the expanded field of the moving image in recent art, tracing the genealogies of contemporary moving image work in performance, body art, experimental film, installation, and site-specific art from the 1960s to the present day. Contextualizing new developments made possible by advances in digital and networked technology, it locates contemporary practice within a global framework.

Among the issues it examines are how new technologies, forms of apparatus, and modes of editing or framing affect innovations in artistic practice and strategy; how work is defined by local contexts, and the tensions that can arise when the local is represented globally; how we define a 'third space' for the filmic image and whether an installation area can be abstracted from geography; how performance-based work in this field explores bodies as borders or territories; the ways in which political, pedagogical, and collective forms of practice have affected the moving image; and the new platforms and modes of viewing that are evolving in response to the globally distributed condition of contemporary media.

Artists surveyed include Jananne al-Ani, Francis Al˙s, Yuri Ancarani, Oreet Ashery, Ed Atkins, Judith Barry, Gretchen Bender, Dara Birnbaum, Black Audio Film Collective, Brad Butler, Olga Chernysheva, James Coleman, Minerva Cuevas, Stan Douglas, Olafur Eliasson, VALIE EXPORT, Harun Farocki, Omer Fast, Morgan Fisher, Hollis Frampton, Melanie Gilligan, Joana Hadjithomas, Gary Hill, Susan Hiller, William Kentridge, Anja Kirschner, Steve McQueen, Jumana Manna, Karen Mirza, Rabih Mroué, Otolith Group, Nam June Paik, Luther Price, Yvonne Rainer, R.V. Ramani, Pipilotti Rist, Ben Rivers, Ryan Trecartin, Trinh T. Minh-ha, Bill Viola

Writers include Robert Bird, Claire Bishop, Christa Blümlinger, Jonathan Crary, T.J. Demos, Jean Fisher, Tim Griffin, Andrew Grossman, Félix Guattari, Shanay Jhaveri, Sven Lütticken, Francesco Manacorda, H.G. Masters, Andrew V. Uroskie, Ian White, Maxa Zoller, Thomas Zummer