Smashed cars and Chinese chewing: the five masterpieces of video art

Half a century ago, an art form flickered into life as mavericks from Nam June Paik to Bill Viola took up technology to transform the way we see the worldI was a bright-eyed young curator with a passion for the unconventional when video art first took off. Lured by its galvanising pandemonium, I jumped into its wide-open terrain. It was the mid-60s and portable equipment had just started appearing in shops. Although the gear was rudimentary, activist mavericks ran with it, suddenly able to storm