Dara Birnbaum, a pioneering video artist known for subverting mainstream media through her re-edited television clips, has died at age 78. Her longtime representative, Marian Goodman Gallery, confirmed her death but did not disclose a cause. Birnbaum rose to prominence in the late 1970s and 1980s by pirating TV programs and resequencing their images to disrupt passive viewing. Her most famous work, *Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman* (1978–79), loops clips of Lynda Carter as the superhero, exposing hidden politics and questioning the show's brand of feminism. The piece is now regarded as a landmark in both feminist art and video art.
Birnbaum's work matters because she fundamentally transformed video art, a medium that was then new and difficult for artists to access. By creating installations that revealed latent biases in mass media, she paved the way for generations of video artists. Her innovations included what is considered the first video wall in the US, installed in an Atlanta shopping center, and she brought her art to mainstream platforms like MTV. Her legacy is cemented by retrospectives, inclusion in major biennials such as Documenta, and recognition as a defining artist of her era by publications like *The New York Times Style Magazine*.