[1] Sykes is known for her pioneering experimentation with computer graphics in her video work, utilizing the Electronic Visualization Laboratory at the University of Illinois, Chicago, at a time when this technology was just emerging.
Her early works broke new grounds in Chicago's emerging New Media Art scene, and continue to inspire women to explore experimental realms.
Her paintings are lyrical, colorful abstractions reminiscent of organic shapes, ethereal forms and underwater landscapes - evocative impressions of spiritual and elemental worlds.
[4] While a student at the UIC, Sykes worked at their Media Production Center and as a freelance videographer and editor, producing dance, instructional and documentary videos.
[4] Much of Sykes' work from the 1970s such as The Poem (1975), Circle 9 Sunrise (1976), Movement Within (1976), Reflections (1976), Off the Air (1977), Environmental Symmetry (1978) and By The Crimson Bands of Cyttorak (1978) utilized the Sandin Image Processor to create tapes as montages of meditative, poetic abstractions and her multimedia installations and interactive performance environments.
Notable, her pioneering figurative tapes, Electronic Masks (1978) and Emanations (1979), illustrate the innovative work created solely using the IP's oscillators and editing.
In 1977, Gene Siskel, film critic and host of Nightwatch, interviewed Sykes about her work and performance of Circle 9 Sunrise during this live television program on WTTW, PBS, Chicago.
Her later works evolved into lyrical video poems, mystical stories and experimental ethnographic documentaries that demonstrate more personal and expressive narratives and themes.
They showcased her strength as a storyteller grounded with an aesthetic sophistication of great emotional depth that depicted the underlying sacred nature of the people and events portrayed.
Sykes created videos that "reflect her interests in female mythological figures, rituals, dance, art, and music of other cultures as well as depicting dream states and fantasized visions.
[6] In a statement about the film, Sykes describes that "from birth to death, special rights and ceremonies mark the important events of one's existence, assuring a symbiosis of body and soul with the divine.
The symposium preceded and helped to promote the 2018 release of the book New Media Futures: The Rise of Women in the Digital Arts published by the University of Illinois Press.
[14] New Media Futures captures the contributions of twenty-two trailblazing mid-western women creators that were integral to the development of the digital arts and at the forefront of social change, technical innovation and artistic inquiry.
New Media Futures featured artists and contributors are Barbara Sykes, Ellen Sandor, Donna Cox, Janine Fron, Carolina Cruz-Niera, Tiffany Holmes, Maxine Brown, Brenda Laurel, Copper Giloth, Jane Veeder, Martyl Langsdorf, Annette Barbier, Joan Truckenbrod, Claudia Hart, Margaret Dolinsky, Dana Plepys, Colleen Bushell, Nan Goggin, Mary Rasmussen, Sally Rosenthal, Lucy Petrovic and Abina Manning.