Electronic Audio/Video Instrument Descriptions
This second section of the catalog focuses upon the tools and instruments on exhibit. The barcodes in this section provide access to more in-depth examples of the origins and processes associated with each tool. Following the tools are similar descriptions of the installations which are also on exhibit. Likewise we include a list of tapes of associated artworks generated with many of the exhibited tools. These will be screened during the exhibition. D.D.
FINALLY, video inherited the world that audio had held private for so long. As soon as the hegemony of the MG STUDIO began to crumble, an army of workers started pilfering the fireplace of the gods and diligently bringing it down to the people piece by piece. More than a struggle for the new art, the effort under way was to transform the newly acquired knowledge: New language appeared, some from the tradition of art, some from mathematics and logics, some from technology. Finally, they merged into a different socio-political reasoning.
Take the word video: a latin word for seeing, a portion of a standard television signal, a small format recording system, a counter-cultural movement, an artform.
As in electronic music, the internal began to critique the external. From the most brilliant manifestos of Dziga Vertov, through Balasz and Bazin, the "imperial dominance of a camera" was to be questioned again.
On the surface video seemed too busy with the topics of the day, yet this particular discourse began to manifest through other, more pragmatic activity: The instrument building!
For me it was much, much more, and this is my attempt to narrate my technological wanderlust. Woody Vasulka
N.B. –All the information about chronology is subject to generous doubt because it was obtained from the inventors themselves. -W.V.
Lee Harrison Associates ANIMAC (Hybrid graphic animation computer) Destroyed, documented on film
Don Buchla BUCHLA 100 SERIES (Audio synthesizer) Collection of Michael Czajkowsky, New York City
Robert Moog MOOG MODULAR AUDIO SYNTHESIZER Courtesy of Norman Lowrey, Professor of Music, Collection of Drew University, Madison, New Jersey Donated by CBS (Columbia Broadcasting Systerm)
Bill Hearn VMHM (Analog XYZ driver/sequencer) Courtesy of Steve Anderson, Physics Department, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, California. Collection of Bill Hearn
EMS PUTNEY, MODEL VCS 3 (Audio synthesizer) Collection of the Experimental Television Center, Ltd. & The State University of New York, Binghamton
Aldo Tambellini BLACK SPIRAL (TV sculpture) Engineering by Tracy Kinsel & Hank Reinbold (Awaiting restoration) Collection of the Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York
Glen Southworth CVI (COLORADO VIDEO INC) QUANTIZER (Colorizer) CVI DATA CAMERA (Camera/scan processor) Collection of the Experimental Television Center, Ltd. & The State University of New York, Binghamton
Eric Siegel EVS, ELECTRONIC VIDEO SYNTHESIZER (Analog) Whereabouts unknown, last in the possession of Al Phillips, documented in photographs DUAL COLORIZER (Analog) Collection of the Vasulkas, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Stephen Beck DIRECT VIDEO SYNTHESIZER (Analog) (Awaiting restoration) BECK VIDEO WEAVER (Digital) Collection of Stephen Beck, San Francisco
Nam June Paik & Shuya Abe PAIK/ABE VIDEO SYNTHESIZER (Keyer & colorizer) & SCAN MODULATOR (a.k.a. the "Wobbulator") Collection of the Experimental Television Center, Ltd. & The State University of New York, Binghamton
George Brown VIDEO SEQUENCER (a.k.a. FIELD FLIP/FLOP SWITCHER, with digital control) MULTIKEYER (Analog with digital control) Collection of the Vasulkas, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Dan Sandin IP (Analog IMAGE PROCESSOR) Collection of Phil Morton, West Yellowstone, Montana
BM Etra & Steve Rutt RUTT/ETRA SCAN PROCESSOR (Analog) Collection of the Experimental Television Ltd. & The State University of New York, Binghamton
David Jones JONES FRAME BUFFER (Digital buffer) Collection of Gary Hill, Seattle, Washington
Don McArthur SAID (SPATIAL AND INTENSITY DIGITIZER) Collection of the Experimental Television Center, Ltd. & The State University of New York, Binghamton
Don McArthur & Jeff Schier DIGITAL IMAGE PROCESSOR Collection of the Vasulkas, Santa Fe, New Mexico
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