When video art began, various objects were already being sought or found in order to describe, study, or interact with them in front of and by means of the camera. Sometimes it is about the relationship of art objects and everyday objects. For example, John Baldessari said of Folding Hat, a video he produced in 1970–71 for the now legendary Düsseldorf video gallery of the cameraman and gallerist Gerry Schum: “I was thinking of ephemerality, mutability, fashion and that the division between a useful object and an art object is about intent.”

In any case, many artists were attracted to the technological possibilities to measure and capture objects in space-time but also to change them and link them to other things and ideas. Thus the pioneers of video art gave birth to the videographic ready-made.