The video years: Stuart Cunningham and screen industry research

This essay explores Stuart Cunningham's foundational contributions to screen industry research. Cunningham's work is grounded in the understanding that industrial and expressive processes are co-constitutive. More than a gestural attempt to articulate opposing fields (industry and culture), it is instead a career-long thinking-through of their mutual constitution. This manifests in Cunningham's close attention to the everyday work of screen industries: distribution; exhibition; promotion; professional training and education; institutional representation and lobbying; regulation. The essay explores Cunningham's thirty years of work on these topics, including his recent studies of online video production and distribution. It also reflects on his intellectual trajectories and his legacies for the field.