New Language / New Knowledge

/ New Media (Part 03C)

Signal Culture

Signal Culture

Craig Baldwin (1999) Spectres of the Spectrum

Film makers, architects and authors all

tested the limits of formal structure as
art movements rapidly evolved and
were then supplemented with fresh
new perspectives
With the aid of electronic media such
as synthesisers, video tape recorders,
radio transmission and later computers
and software a whole new generation
of artists and art making emerged
These were known collectively as
media artists they played with the
structure and the signals produced by
electronic media

Ryral
Bob Snyder, Dan Sandin & Tom DeFanti, 1976

DeFanti, Tom/Morton, Phil/Sandin, Dan/Snyders, Bob

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnYwFstm4bk

In 1973 Dan Sandin and Tom DeFanti

developed the GRASS system
The Graphics Symbiosis System
This was developed for the digital
minicomputer PDP 11/45 of the Digital
Equipment Corporation (DEC, since
1972).
Ryral was a live video/computer
performance that they later developed
using synthesised images, sound and
live performance

Ryral
Bob Snyder, Dan Sandin & Tom DeFanti, 1976

DeFanti, Tom/Morton, Phil/Sandin, Dan/Snyders, Bob

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnYwFstm4bk

First demonstrated at the Electronic

Visualisation Event (EVEII) at the
University of Illinois, Chicago 1976.
Music was processed by an "analog
EMU Synthesizer" by Bob Snyder
Video footage of a dancer is
transformed into a black and white
2D image and separated from the
background
Images are then overlaid with effects
using the GRASS (Graphics
Symbiosis System)

Rutt/Etra Scan Processor

Steve Rutt and Bill Etra, 1973

Etra, Bill /Rutt, Steve: Rutt/Etra Scan Processor, 1973.

https://youtu.be/EZQiHuTbnes

Steve Rutt and Bill Etra developed

the Scan Processor
This enabled video images to be
converted rasterized - into 2D
forms and then manipulated
The signals are modified by
controlling the voltage along the
horizontal and vertical axes.
An analogue system, the Rutt/Etra
used conventional knobs to control
the effect

Rutt/Etra Scan Processor

Steve Rutt and Bill Etra, 1973

Etra, Bill /Rutt, Steve: Rutt/Etra Scan Processor, 1973.

https://youtu.be/EZQiHuTbnes

This process is known as analogue

video raster manipulation
It can be used with live or prerecorded black and white images
and are processed in real time
The system was refined and made
commercially available in 1975
This video synthesizer was used by
many video artists including Nam
June Paik and Gary Hill.

Digital Image Articulator

Steina & Woody Vasulka, 1974

Woody Vasulka (1980) Artifacts

Created the Digital Image Articulator

which was a software image processor
Like Sandin and DeFanti, Steina and
Woody Vasulka developed the software
using a version for the PDP-11 minicomputer
The system could control discrete
elements of the image and create
unusual colour and box-like graphical
effects
Here we have a meshing of video image
construction and software lead
computer aided image manipulation

Noisefields
Steina & Woody Vasulka, 1974

Woody Vasulka (1974) Noisefields

As demonstrated by their 1974 work,

Noisefields, the signal itself is
manipulated
Rather than the shape being dictated by
objects a circular frame is constructed
from two video signals
Here the video signal is manipulated to
create contrasting colour fields
Vasulkas work is greatly influenced by
the video vocabulary established by the
Rutt/Etra Scan Processor
Yet it is also very evocative of the colour
field experiments of Kenneth Noland

Signal Capture,
Stephan Tillmans, Berlin

Stephan Tillmans (2011) No. 06 / No. 04 / no. 07 (StephanTillmans.com)

Signal Capture
Bruno Levy, NY

Bruno Levy (2013) ALUMINUM series

Bruno Levy (2013) POLYVINYLIDENE CHLORIDE series

Signal Design
Scott Draves, NYC
Evocative of Sandin and DeFantis Ryral
video performances of the 1970s
Electric Sheep is a form of artificial life,
software that imitates the biological
phenomena of evolution and reproduction
though mathematics.
Born and bred on the network by
thousands of computers, Electric Sheep, is
a signal bending networked video art
piece.
Scott Draves (1999 - ongoing) Electric Sheep (see:
http://scottdraves.com/sheep.html)

Signal Design
Scott Draves, NYC
This is a distributed system, with all
participating computers working together to
form a supercomputer that renders
animations, called "sheep", that everyone
sees.
The human participants guide the survival of
the fittest by voting for their favourite
animations in the flock.
Scott Draves (1999 - ongoing) Electric Sheep
(see: http://scottdraves.com/sheep.html)

Signal Design
Scott Draves, NYC
Dreams in High Fidelity is a nonlooping animation composed of
high-resolution clips produced from
a decade of networked computing
by tens of thousands of computers
on the Electric Sheep distributed
system.

Scott Draves (2008) Dreams in High Fidelity

(see: http://scottdraves.com/hifidreams.html)

Dreams in High Fidelity is delivered

on a self-contained computer with a
database of 100 gigabytes of video
in 1000 pieces that play in infinite,
nonrepeating sequence.

Scott Draves (2008) Dreams in High Fidelity (see: http://scottdraves.com/hifidreams.html)

Signal Structure
Martin Hilpoltsteiner, Wuerzburg, Germany

Martin Hilpoltsteiner (2008) Echo Flow Software Interface & Linear stereo filter (See: video)

Signal Structure
Martin Hilpoltsteiner, Wuerzburg, Germany

Martin Hilpoltsteiner (2008) Echo Flow Audio frequency filter & Slitscan filter (See: video)

Nam June Paik

Nam June Paik

Nam June Paik (1965)

Magnet TV

Nam June Paik &

Charlotte Moorman (1971)
Concerto for TV

Nam June Paik - 108 Torments of Mankind

Nam June Paik

Electronic Opera #01 (1969)
For the program, Medium is the Medium,
broadcaster WGBH-TV in Boston commissioned
visual artists to create original work for TV
These works challenged the parameters of the
TV medium
Paiks contribution featured:
Staged choreography
Distorted images of public figures such as
Richard Nixon
Voice over instructions: This is participation
TV and Turn off your TV set
Nam June Paik (1969) Electronic Opera #01

Nam June Paik

Electronic Opera #01 (1969)
One of the key effects however was the use
of magnets to manipulate the signal.
This created what seemed like floating
transformations of three green-blue figureeight loops laying on or above each other.
The figure-eight loops were the result of
direct processing of the electronic signal.

Nam June Paik (1969) Electronic Opera #01

Nam June Paik

Global Groove (1973)
An extension of the signal distortion and overlay
techniques from the Electronic Opera.
A much longer piece featuring other avant-garde
and Fluxus artists such as John Cage
Heavily synthesised images and bright colour
overlays of physical performance and sound
This is intercut with excerpts from TV programs
and Paiks own back-catalogue
Nam June Paik (1973) Global Groove

This is media performance within the

performance of the TV signal

Paiks introductory statement set the tone:

This is a glimpse of a video landscape of tomorrow when you will be
able to switch on any TV station on the earth and TV guides will be as
fat as the Manhattan telephone book.
This is the spirit of Marshall McLuhan's global village meeting Paiks
own concept of channel zapping:

'If we could compile a weekly TV festival made up of music and dance

from every county, and distributed it free-of-charge round the world
via the proposed common video market, it would have a phenomenal
effect on education and entertainment.'
(Media Art Net, http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/global-grove/)

In an ironic form of interactive television, Paik presents

"Participation TV," in which he instructs viewers to open or close
their eyes. Paik subjects this transcultural, intertextual content to
an exuberant, stream-of-consciousness onslaught of disruptive
editing and technological devices, including audio and video
synthesis, colorization, ironic juxtapositions, temporal shifts and
layering a controlled chaos that suggests a hallucinatory romp
through the channels of a global TV. With its postmodern content,
form and conceptual strategies, Global Groove stands as a seminal
statement on video, television and contemporary art.
(Electronic Arts Intermix, http://www.eai.org/title.htm?id=3287)

Nam June Paik

Good Morning Mr Orwell (1984)
Paik explores the potential of satellite TV as a global
medium of art making
Broadcast on New Years Day 1984, it is a now
familiar mix of sound performance, superimposed
text, choreography and live video overlays and
effects.
Signal was mixed from the public broadcaster WNET
TV in New York, the Pompidou Centre in Paris and
broadcasters in Germany and South Korea
Nam June Paik (1984) Good Morning Mr Orwell

Artists featured were John Cage, Phillip Glass, Laurie

Anderson, Peter Gabriel and Allen Ginsberg.

Nam June Paik

Nam June Paik (1995) Information Superhighway: Continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii 1995-96

Nam June Paik

Laser Cone (1998-2001)
Following his move to the US, Paik became
fascinated by the laser as an untapped artistic
resource.
Here we see Paik taking the image outside of
the television to create a media
environment.

In the late 1990s, Paik began working with

Norman Ballard, an American laser artist Laser Cone is a product of this unique
creative collaboration.

Nam June Paik

Laser Cone (1998-2001)

Nam June Paik & Norman Ballard (1998 & 2001-11) Laser Cone

Laser Cone reflects Paik's interest in both the nature and

technology, which he believed were intimately
connected. It is a work of beauty, but also a mathematic
scientific experiment with laser lights projected across a
cone surface that creates precise patterns and forms
depending upon angles and tangents of light onto the
surface. Paik was using a wheel chair when Laser Cone
was created, and so the installation was conceived as an
accessible experience.
(Fact Liverpool, http://www.fact.co.uk/projects/nam-june-paik/lasercone.aspx and https://youtu.be/cky1Eu1s9GE)

Appropriating the Signal

Here Come the Videofreex

CBS & Videofreex, 1969

CBS / (1969/2015) Here Come the Videofreex

Group of people from a variety of backgrounds

with a common interest in the new technology
of personal video recorders (PVR)
Hired by CBS to go underground and get an
insight into what was happening in America
outside of the mainstream new networks
Filmed Abbie Hoffman and the Black Panther
movement
Moved to the Catskills and setup the first pirate
tv station, Chanel 3 Lanesville TV
Became a model for future public access
television and later internet broadcasting

Here Come the Videofreex

CBS, 1969

CBS / (1969/2015) Here Come the Videofreex

http://videofreexfilm.com/film-summary/

Appropriating the Signal

Dara Birnbaum , 1978/79

Dara Birnbaum (1979) Kiss The Girls Make Them Cry

Video & installation artist

Appropriated television programs such as
Wonder Woman, game shows and televised
sporting events
Critiquing the role of television in society,
portrayals of gender and the aesthetic
representation iof the broadcast image in
mainstream American TV programming
Birnbaum uses disruptive editing
techniques, signal overlay, text and music to
layer her compositions

Technology Transformation: Wonder Woman

Dara Birnbaum , 1978

Dara Birnbaum (1978) Technology Transformation: Wonder Woman

Commercial Entertainment Product

Electronic Broadcast Network, 1992
A collective of artist/technologists were graduates from
the Rhode Island School of Design
One of their members went to on to form the company
that developed the After Effects software
EBN remixed the Gulf War in 1991 as it was still being
fought
Called We Will Rock You the remix became one of the
first viral videos on the web
EBN featured on the very first Lollapalooza tour in 1991
Employed by U2 to provide the live video visuals for
their ZooTv tour in 1992/93

Behaviour Modification - We Will Rock You

Electronic Broadcast Network, 1991

EBN (1991) Behaviour Modification - We Will Rock You

Syncopated Ordinance Demonstration

Electronic Broadcast Network, 1992

EBN (1992) Syncopated Ordinance Demonstration

Numb Remix
Electronic Broadcast Network, 1993

EBN (1993) Numb Remix

Spectres of the Spectrum

Craig Baldwin, 1999
Video artist, underground film maker,
media archaeologist and culture jammer
He uses pirated footage to subvert
conventional documentary.
Films critique consumerism and the ethics
of copyright and intellectual property
His film Sonic Outlaws was made in
defence of the group Negativeland who at
the time were being sued by U2
Craig Baldwin (1999) Spectres of the Spectrum

Spectres of the Spectrum

Craig Baldwin, 1999
Spectres of the Spectrum is constructed
completely of kinescopes - 16mm footage of early
television broadcasts:
Threatened by the 'New Electromagnetic Order', a
young telepathic woman helps search for a way to
save the planet from a futuristic war-machine
based on the real life HAARP - High-Frequency
Active Auroral Research Program, a sophisticated
research component of the Star Wars weapons
arsenal. - V2 Media (Netherlands)
http://v2.nl/archive/works/spectres-of-the-spectrum
Craig Baldwin (1999) Spectres of the Spectrum

Spectres of the Spectrum

Craig Baldwin, 1999

Craig Baldwin (1999) Spectres of the Spectrum

Homage to the Signal

Eclectic Method, 2012

Eclectic Method (2012) Lasers

Signal Distortion
and Manipulation

Signal Distortion
Chris Cunningham, UK

Chris Cunningham & Aphex Twin (1997) Come To Daddy

Information Apocalypse series

Michael Najjar, Germany/USA

Michael Najjar (2003) Out of Focus I & II (michaelnajjar.com)

Information Apocalypse series

Michael Najjar, Germany/USA

Michael Najjar (2003) Permanent Erosion (michaelnajjar.com)

Signal Manipulation
Radiohead, UK

Radiohead (2008) Videotape

Signal Interpolation
Nabil Elderkin, Aus/LA

Nabil Elderkin & Kanye West (2009) Welcome To Heartbreak ft. Kid Cudi

Signal Manipulation
Mitch Goodwin, Aus

Mitch Goodwin (2011) Glitchaclysm (mitchgoodwin.com)

Signal Manipulation
Mitch Goodwin, Aus

Mitch Goodwin (2011) Glitchaclysm (mitchgoodwin.com)