V as a Creative Medium
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TV as a Creative Medium
OPENING SATURDAY, MAY 17 and
CONTINUING THROUGH JUNE 14, 1969
EXHIBITION HOURS: 11-5 TUESDAY THROUGH SATURDAY
Miss Moorman will perform al the opening from 12 to 5 P.M.
Thereafter periodically during the exhibition she will perform from 2 until 4 P.M.
HOWARD WISE GALLERY
Ever since Marshall McLuhan has become a household name, people have become aware of the tremendous force, both actual and potential, that TV is having and will have on their lives.
The machine is obsolescent. Magazines, books, newspapers and other publications making use of the written word as we have known it are threatened. The relationships of nations, classes, generations and individuals are deeply affected. Education will be revolutionized, schools transformed if not eliminated (why interrupt your child's education by sending him to school?). TV is at the cause, or at least at the root of the cause, of all these changes that are transforming our civilization.
Why has not art been affected by this all pervading influence? Perhaps quite simply, because, up until now the time was not right. Perhaps it had to await the maturing of the generation who were in their sub-teens in the 1950's, those who were "brought up" on TV. They read "do it yourself" books on how to make radio and TVs, They earned pocket money repairing the neighbor's broken sets. Or they were trained in the technology while they were in the armed forces. As in every generation, some were artists. These have been at work for two, three, five and even more years, scrounging around second hand shops for parts, working with TV because they were fascinated with the results they were able to achieve, and because they sensed the potential of TV as the medium for their expression.
Howard Wise
THE EXHIBITION
SERGE BOUTOURLINE
Teledlscretion
FRANK GILLETTE and IRA SCHNEIDER
Wipe Cycle
NAM JUNE PAIK
Participation TV
NAM JUNE PAIK and CHARLOTTE MOORMAN
TV Bra for Living Sculpture
EARL REIBACK
Three Experiments Within the TV Tube
PAUL RYAN
Everyman's Moeblus Strip
JOHN SEERY
TV Time Capsule
ERIC SIEGEL
Psychedelevlsion in Color
THOMAS TADLOCK
The Archetron
AIDO TAMBELLINI
Black Spiral
JOE WEINTRAUB
AC/TV (Audio Controlled Television)
TELEDISCRETION
by Serge Boutourline
Four mini-TVs with a device for fingertip selection of sound channels. Presentation will include three broadcast channels and one channel playing "A Commercial for Life," a video tape conceived and executed by Wyrm Chamberlain and Serge BoutourJine. Serge Boutourline, b. Son/a Fe, N. M.t 1932,
fl,A. Harvard, M.B,A, Harvard School of Business Administration. Developed a signal-oriented approach to the description of human environment Currently engaged in commur)reason research. Co-produced "Tefevanilla* with Svson Svirge*
PARTICIPATION TV
by Nam June Paik
Which comprises 3 or 4 color TV sets which show multi-color echoes, or fog, or clouds which are electronically produced. Sometimes you can see yourself floating in air, dissolving in deep water.
TV BRA FOR LIVING SCULPTURE
NAM JUNE PAIK - CHARLOTTE MOORMAN
In this case, the sound of the cello she ploys will change, modulate, regenerate the picture on her TV-BRA.
"The real issue implied in 'Art and Technology" is not to make another scientific toy, but how to humanize the technology and the electronic medium, which is progressing rapidly — too rapidly. Progress has already outstripped ability to program. [ would suggest 'Silent TV Station.' This is TV station for highbrows, which transmits most of time only beautiful 'mood art1 in the sense of mood music.' What 1 am aiming at is TV version of Vivaldi ... or electronic 'Compoz,1 to soothe every hysteric woman through air, and to calm down the nervous tension of every businessman through air. In that way 'Light Art" will become a permanent asset or even collection of Million people, SILENT TV Station wílí simply be 'there,' not intruding on other activities . , . and being looked at exactly like a landscape ... or beautiful bathing nude of Renoir, and In that case, everybody enjoys the 'original' . . . and not a reproduction ...
V11V Brassiere for Living Sculpture (CharEotte Moorman) is aiso one sharp example to humanize electronics . < « and technology. By using TV as br:i . , , the most intimate belonging of human being, we will demonstrate the human use of technology, and also stimulate viewers NOT for something mean but stimulate their phantasy to look for the new, imaginorrve and humanistic ways of using our technology."
Nam June Paik
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Nam June Paik, b. Seoul, Korea, 1932.
Took degree in Aesthetics, University of Tokyo, J 956, then studied music, art history and philosophy at several German Universities. He has hod numerous one man shows and performances in many countries, throughout Europe, America and Japan. Some in conjunction with Charlotte Moorman.
Recently, he was represented in MOMA's "Machine al tho End of the Mechanical Age'1 exhibition and was one of six artists participating in PBL's program "The Medium is the Medium" broadcast aver Ih* NET network March 23, 1969,
Charlotte Moorman, Cellist, fa. little Rock, Arkansas.
Master of Music, U\ of Texas. Member of American Symphony Orchestra under Leopold Stokowski. Nofed for her unusuof performances of Happenings, Concerts, Mixed Media, mostly in conjunction with Nam June Paik. Founded and produced the Annual New York Avant Garde Festivals.
THREE EXPERIMENTS WITHIN THE TV TUBE ^M^^^^^M
by Eqrl Reibock :^WM
Normally the inside of a TV tube is a vacuum. Earl Reiback, with the cooperation of R.CA. tube laboratories, has worked within the depth of the TV tube, painting the walls of the tube with color phosphors,
"In 'Electron Beam" the flow of electrons that normally scans the TV tube face can be seen. This is achieved by leaving the phosphor off the front face of the tube, and adding neon gas to the partial vacuum. With an external magnet, the viewer can bend the beam of electrons.
4,ln "Suspension/ o phosphor coated grid is suspended within the tube. This grid receives the broadcast image, while the back of the tube provides a colored phosphor background excited by the back scattered electrons.
"In "Thrust," a phosphor coated screen is mounted perpendicularly to the face of the tube. As the electron beam scon sweeps across the Inner screen, shooting images In color are produced in response to the broadcast program,"
Ear/ Reiback
Earl Reiback, b, 1936, N.V.C
B.S., Lehigh U., M.S. in Nuclear Engineering, M.l.T. Has numerous patents in the fields of sound, light ond nuclear radiation. At the age of 12, he applied for his first patent. It was fof a Co for Television system. Since 1965 ho has devoted his career to the creation of luminal art works.
EVERYMAN'S MOEBIUS STRIP
by Paul Ryan
A Moebius strip Is a one-sided surface made by taking a long rectangle of paper, giving it a half-twist, and joining its ends. Any two points on the strip can be connected by starting at one point and tracing a line to the other without crossing over a boundary or lifting the pencil. The outside is the inside, The \ns\6e is the outside. Here the power of Video Tape Recorder (VTRJ is used to take in our own outside. When you see yourself on tape, you see the Image you are presenting to the world. When you see yourself watching yourself on tape, you are seeing your real self, your "inside."
"The query of the person viewing himself "Are we live or on tape?" can be answered by saying we are both live and on tape. What is on tape is your intended image, your monkey. VTR enables you to get your monkey off your back where you can't see him, and onto tape, where you can see him. Even though you think '3 can't believe that's me!f the monkey business going on in front of you on tape is yours and nobody else's. That is the precise way you have been making a monkey of yourself. Your monkey has been able to get away with his business because he operates on the other side of your inside/outside harrier, The Moebius tape strip snips the barrier between inside and outside. It offers you one continuous [surjface with nothing to hide. You hove the option of taking in your monkey and teaching him your business or letting him go on with his*"
Paul Ryan
Paul Ryan was bam in N.V\C in 1943.
&.A. (English), N.Y,U.f 1967. Sept. 1967-June 1968, Research Assistant to Marshall McLuhan, Fardham U., June 1968 to present:
Experimenting
Writing
Speaking
Collaborating in videotape
Producing
Consulting
CYCLE (a}   Monitor* 2, 4, 6 and 8; Programmed change cyde, Program No* 1 alternating every eight seconds with Program No. 2.
CYCLE {b)   Monitors \t 3, 7 and 9: Delay change cycle, Nos. 1 and 7 and 3 and 9 alrernot* mg (exchanging) every four second*.
CYCLE (c)   Monitors 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, $ and 9: Wipe cycle, grey "light'1 pulse, moving counterdockwfse every two seconds.
CYCLE (d)    Monitor 5: Ltve cycle, four seconds of live feedback alternating with four seconds of broadcast television. '7-
WIPE CYCLE
by Frank Gillette and Ira Schneider
"Wipe Cyde is o television mgrol designed to engage and integrate the viewer's television Image' at three separate points in time and five exchanging points in space. Synchronized cycle patterns consisting of live and delayed feedback, broadcast television, and taped programming are developed through four (a, b, 4 d) programmed pulse-signals every two, four, eight and sixteen seconds. Separately, each of}the cycles acts as a layer of video Information, while the four levels of information in concert!determine the overall composition of the work at an given moment. The intent of this overloading (something tike a play within a play within a play) is to escape the automatic Worrriation1 experience of commercial television without totally divesting it of its usual conteht. thus, the information on the programmed tapes juggles and re-combines elements within the Gallery and its Immediate environment with porta its, landscapes, montages and vidio distortions. The soundtrack accompanying the composition serves to amplify the video imagery. It is structured so as to enhance further the sense of "information overload1 and to provide sequential unity to the work."
FronJt Grflefre
Frank Gitlettet b. 1941, Jersey City, N. Jt
Studied pointing at Pratt Institute. Since 196$, experiments in communication, video-tape programing} co-founder and director, Media Heteorth Group, N.Y.C, and San Francisco,
Ira Schneider, fc+ T 939, N,V>C
B.A, (Psychology} frown MA, V. of Wisconsin? studied art history, Lvdmg MaximiUtan U., Munich. Research in psychology, 1964-66t film-maker, 1963 to present
Gillette and Schneider recently conducted teaching and experiments in video-tape at Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio.
TV TIME CAPSULE
by John Seery
"The embedment of a TV in clear plastic so that it is totally viewable, seals it from all human contact except for plugging and unplugging it* ft is a re/ic of this civilization. When the TV stops functioning the work is complete. "TV TIME CAPSULE
the piece is not finished until the tight goes out
the Instantaneous change from light to dark Is the creative finish
the object Is similar to a living organism but on a lower level
it was conceived in a factory, modified by the artist, until its programmed death
its death is its great creative act — the change of state"
John Seer/
John Seery, b. Maspeth, N. V*t 1941.
Graduated from Ohio State University, mojor in Zoology and minor In Chemistry. Cincinnati Art Academy. Travel, Mexico and Canada. Teaches at Cooper Union.
PSYCHEDELEVISION IN COLOR
by Eric Sfegel
11 Ail is sometimes called the 'transmission ecstasy.* Because TV is commission with ecstatic potentials, I have chosen this o s my means of expression,
"However, commercial broadcasting instead of exploring the medium's infinite possibilities, uses it to no other purpose than to insult the viewer's intelligence and sensitivities,
"With the knowledge I have of the Electronics of television, J have tried to show some other directions broadcasting can take.
"Why can't Hie viewer, after a trying day, sit down at his TV set and listen to music while watching the screen burst with beautiful colorful displays? These visual phantasies would relax you better than any tranquilizer and or the same time give your spirit a wonderful lift,
"TV is sometimes accused of causing some of our ills. But it could be a mass healing device if it were in the hands of artists and other sensitive persons. These exist, but the industry pays no attention to them.
"Television has the ability to enter your subconscious mind — note the power of TV advertising — and to influence your feelings as well as your thoughts. It works through your audio-visual senses into your mind and sou)h Someday it will be worthy of you/1
Fric Siege/
Eric Sieget, b. 1944, NT,C.
At ma age of *hlJe c* student of Samue/ Gampers Vocotiont*? and Technical High School, Siegel won Second Prize of the 19*50 NT.C Science Fair for his h&me-mode closed circvit TV wh/efi he buííř from second-hand tubas, a microscope i*nr and ah torts of scrounged miscelianeout parts. The next year ft* won art Honorable A word m íh« samů competition for "Cotor through Stack oné While TW After graduation from high school, he was employed by several concerns engaged in the field of Closed Circuit TV, mostly rebuilding and designing equipment, t ft 1966 he wot employed in the tducatienat TY Deportment of The University of London, Goldsmith College.
Returning to the States, he resumed his work with closed circuit TV tomponíet, One or his assignments, in 19Ó&, was to repair some television equipment in Gvom. In May, 196B, he produced "Psyched* J* v Ji/on1' a yřdeoíop* program at New York's closed circuit TV theatre. Channel One. f e May, \968f ho designed and bviit the special etfectt TV components of Serge Bavtourfine's production, "TelevanHia" at the Martinique Theatre, "an improvisattonal theatre dance piece choreographed and performed fay Susan Buirge in which various TV devices were wed to change the stope and scale of Ihe event"
By means of a console with innumerable knobs, switches, dials and other mysterious tooking controls, three small TV monitors and o system of mirrors and color alters. Tad lock ts able to compose on a TV screen constantly moving and changing colorful kaleidoscopic images* In accomplishing this, Tadlock uses all or part of three separate live broadcasts, ft is now possible for this artist (or any other using the Archetron| in effect to create simultaneously works of art on TV screens in countless homes, thus making Nam June Paik+s "Silent TV Station" possible. Alt that is needed is for a broadcasting organization, a closed circuit TV company or a cable TV company to avail itself of this remarkable development. Thomof Carter TadfocJt, ilt, was born in Washington, Dr C, in 1941.
Studied Rhode Istand School of Design. In the years 1963-66 worked wiih kinetic and luminal art, 1967-69 wffh ielekineiic art (TV).
"In these years I developed devices with patterns, sequences, motion, color, programmed to make the viewer get involved in the unfolding composition, to relax and vvant mare, to develop a new way of seeing. As the requirements of this new art revealed themselves, a need for an instantaneous, flowing, comprehensive device for expressing these images arose. This vacuum was filled by the use of the color television tube as the readout device for the program apparatus/1
... The^AftCHETRQN—shown in the exhibition was commissioned by Dorothea Weittner.
Tadlock bat been represented in most of the important "lighf exhibitions, including "Kuntt ilcht KunsT Stedlijk van Abbe Museum, Eindoven, 1966. One of six artists participating in the PM "The Medium it the Medium" broadcast over the NET network, March 23, 1969.
BLACK SPIRAL
by Aldo Tambellini
In collaboration with Tracy Kfnsel and Honk Remdold of Bell Lobs. Nature, as we will see it in the future, in circular or spiral form. No up — No down — No gravity. Floating, From live broadcasts.
"And what are we going to do through the media? Let's say we are going to keep it open and whatever I think is possible I would like ro do. Whatever one might dream of which somebody would not wont if I hod the possibility to do it. Let's break all the rules possible. Let's open up the possibility which everyone else has told you this is not right and this Is not feasible. And I would fike to start It from there, from a reality. So what one wonts to do is more like an attitude rather than the specific of what one wants to do.
"To show that light is a constant moving force, an ever changing form. That light Is energy and energy is going through us, the same energy which is going through the universe today. And when creative people begin to get involved, with this idea of energy rather than the idea of making pictures, then we will come to some creative aspect not belonging to one particular class but toward a new exploration which is for all , . /'
A Ida Tambellini
Aldo Tambeflini, b, 1930, Syracuse, N> Y,
B.F+A. Painting, Syracuse U.,- M.F.A. Sculpiure, Noire Dome U. Founder of the "Black Gate" Electro-media Theater of environmental performances encompassing all areas of light, sound and motion. Involved in film, TV programming, commontcaf/ons ond their import on education. Won 1969 International Grand Prix, Oberhausen (Germany) Film Festival. One of six artists participating in PBL's "Medium is the Medium" broadcast March 23, 1969 over the N.E.T. network.
AC/TV (AUDIO-CONTROLLED TELEVISION)
by Joe Welntraub
Translates music into a compfex kinetic image on the screen of any color TV- The brightness is controlled by the volume of the music. The colors are controlled by the pitch* The patterns are dependent on both. Installation is simple, as the AC/TV clips onto the antenna terminals of any color TV. Patents pending*
*'As a child I would often close my eyes and 'see' music as colored patterns. One day two years ago, f woke up in the middle of a dream with the intense desfre to recreate this experience electronically. This developed into an obsession, and I created dozens of Audio Controlled lighting effects, culminating In a work in which the speed of a motor was controlled by music,
"As soon as I became aware of the Color Cathode Ray Tube, I realized that the red, blue and green guns in the CRT were ideally suited for audio control by the lowr middle and high frequencies of music.
fi\ view the Color Television receiver as one of the highest technological achievements of mankind, and the fact that it is generally used to transmit sub-human material points out in dramatic fashion the imbalance between man's technological and social progress. The AC/TV is radical art because it allows the viewer to tyrn off the endless stream of garbage and use his Color TV in a personal aesthetically satisfying way.'1
Joe VVernfrauo
Joe Weintravb, b. 1943, N.Y.C.
B.A. in Psychology, C.C.N .Y. Edits The Electronic Art Review.
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