In May 2009 I Started using Studio Artist, a digital paint program, and posting online. For the next 10 years, until May 2019, I posted a painting a day.
(10) limited editions are now available for sale as 8.5×11″ high resolution prints on bamboo paper. Cost per print $60, includes mailing (USA/Canada)
To order email me at:
walter_wright@verizon.net
For the month of January 2024, I’m reducing the cost per print to $48.
Day 01: Monday July 31
12:00pm – leave Cville VA
07:30pm – arrive Erie PA, unload equipment, Lavery Brewery for dinner
09:30pm – off to bed
I was to be FEED’s first resident artist, that was back in the Spring. Unfortunately, my Southern Airways flight from Washington DC to Erie PA was cancelled, then cancelled again. Two days waiting at Dulles airport, I gave up and returned home to Charlottesville, VA.
I am now FEED’s last resident artist for Summer 2023. I’m driving a rental car from Charlottesville to Erie! It’s the best option: too expensive by air, the cheapest flight routed me through Ft Lauderdale FL; two days by train, overnight from Washington DC to Cleveland OH. So, it’s by car, up and over the mountains of West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania.
Google maps takes me by ‘the shortest route,’ up I81 to Winchester VA and through the mountains. Mostly 2 lane roads, up and down. A brief stretch on I76 cost $11 and featured lane closures and construction. Then I79 from Pittsburgh. I arrive ‘right on time.’
Benton meets me at 1307 State Street, the FEED Media Art Center. I unload and, after a brief tour, we walk to Lavery Brewery for dinner. After dinner we walk to the resident artist’s residence, an apartment, a block from the center.
Day 02: Tuesday August 1
08:00am – FEED, setting up my computer
09:00am – bring gear to 1301 State St, Benton demos the LZX3
11:00am – tour 1307 with visiting artists
12:00pm – lunch with Benton
01:00pm – work on Video Shredder
09:00pm – turn in for the night
Up early, meet Benton at FEED TOO, which is the temporary office/studio at 1301 State St. The Media Art Center is under construction.
FEED Media Art Center is a 5+ story building in downtown Erie PA. Benton bought the building, an abandon furniture store, two years years ago. He got the keys on New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2021, and Immediately put Derek Holzer’s New Years Eve-themed oscilloscope graphics piece in the window. Benton and team are repurposing the building as a Media Art Center to include galleries, performance spaces, a media server farm, artists’ studios, and related businesses. Next door, south on State St is Calamari, a popular restaurant/bar. North on State St is a small storefront, rented out to the Erie County Democratic Party, and, on the corner of 13th St, FEED TOO, which is the media center office, the resident artist’s studio, and a community gathering place for local media artists.
So, FEED TOO! We move my gear from 1307 to 1301. My studio consists of several tables, a Hackintosh PC, a 24 channel audio mixer; an LZX generation 3 video synthesizer plus a nearly complete set of older LZX modules and third-party modules in LZX format, random keyboards, video monitors, more mixers, etc. I clear off a table and set up my computer.
Benton demos the LZX3 and Hackintosh with BlackMagic’s Media Express, captures and stores a test clip. I play around with the patch. Look up LZX Industries online. There’s a ’Getting Started’ guide on the Community page. I try a patch of my own. There’s a lot to learn!
Iki Nakagawa and Chris Moore, visiting artists from NYC, arrive. Benton takes us on a tour of 1307, here are some pics –
The visiting artists leave. Benton takes me for lunch at Dina’s Authentic Dominican Kitchen downtown in the Flagship City Food Hall.
Back at 1301, I’m getting organized. I spend part of the afternoon patching the studio together. I record a short LZX3 test video.
I spend the rest of the afternoon checking out the Video Shredder. For live performance, coming up this Friday, I need an easy way to switch between effects modes.
Tired out, back to apartment, a good first day.
Day 03: Wednesday August 2
09:00am – administrivia, set up IFM Synth
12:00pm – talk about setup for Friday with Benton and Adam, visit 1307 to check out space
01:00pm – work on Video Shredder
07:00pm – Shish Kabob for diner, 9th St Beer Store, back to the apartment
Up early, spent the morning answering email, etc, then setting up audio in/out from my computer to the LZX3 and Blackmagic. Benton helped me find cables and adapters in and amongst many boxes filled with hundreds of miscellaneous cables and adapters.
Adam Holquist drops by at noon, we discuss plans for Friday night’s performance. I’m planning to project a Processing sketch that Al Margolis and I used on our last ELKA BONG tour, and play my BugBrand Board Weevil through a small amp. Adam plans to bring his modular synth and will play through the PA. Joe Popp will bring his own amps.
Benton, Adam and I walk over to 1307. We decide to play in Gallery 2, the central space directly off the lobby. There’s 14’x10.5’ screen set up and a PA with pair of huge, JBL theater speakers. Benton encourages me to project live video and play my IFM synth through the PA. I’m not sure.
My first goal for this residency is to bring the Video Shredder online, as a performance instrument. The current version is a port from C++ on Truevision’s TARGA+, to Processing on my MacBook Pro. It needs to be ‘tuned up’ for live performance. I spend the afternoon trying effects with the different video clips, pushing the limits for reading and processing frames in real-time. It just might work!
Benton takes me to Shish Kabob for dinner, two blocks from the studio. We both have the ‘mixed grill’ including a very good lentil soup, then crispy salad, then a big bowl of rice with veggies and a plate with grilled vegetables with beef, chicken and lamb kabobs. The food was delicious. We eat about a third and doggy-bag the rest. From the restaurant we walk downtown to 9th St Beer Store, then back to 1301.
Tired out, a good second day, lot’s to think about!
Day 04: Thursday August 3
09:00am – continue work on Shredder, rehearsing with video and IFM Synth
04:00pm – check out LZX online, read LZX manual, patch a simple example
06:00pm – back to apartment, leftover shish kabob and a beer
I spend most the day programming the Video Shredder, I’ve decided to go for it! The big screen, the huge speakers, the theater PA. I’ll use the Video Shredder, live! Here’s a flowchart for the ‘current’ shredder, written in Processing –
The Video Shredder is a frame buffer, which records and plays back frames captured from video. The updated version uses video clips stored in computer memory. There are two basic routines common to all Processing sketches, setup() and draw().
Setup() starts by setting the screen size, in this case either 720×480 for viewing on the computer or ‘fullscreen’ for output to a video projector. Next setup loads and plays several, 480p video clips. These clips run continuously. The clips are often of different lengths and therefore run ‘out of sync.’ Finally setup creates and clears the an image buffer of (40) 720×480 frames.
Draw() assembles an image and outputs the result to the screen in either record or playback mode. In record mode, draw grabs a frame, or frames, from the available video clips, blends them with the current image in the frame buffer, and outputs the blended image to the screen. In playback mode, draw simply outputs the current image in the frame buffer to the screen. Finally, draw advances the frame buffer to the next frame and loops.
During performance, I need to switch, seemingly seamlessly, between clips. That’s a matter of limiting the number of clips to be read between outputs to the screen, plus some sleight-of-hand. I can only read from from (2) clips at a time. Also, I can only write once each frame to the screen. I’m running the sketch at (12) frames per second. Even at that ‘slower’ rate things can bog down!
I spend most of the day playing with the shredder. Late afternoon, I check out the LZX3 system, visit the online LZX Community, read the manual, and copy a simple patch.
Day 05: Friday August 4
08:00am – work on Shredder, select clips, add effects modes, setup fullscreen
12:00pm – quick break for lunch, final tuneup for the Shredder,patch the IFM Synth
04:00pm – setup at 1307 in Gallery 2
06:00pm – beer at Calamari’s before the show
08:00pm – OPEN FEED
10:30pm – back to the apartment
Early start, I cull the clips, from twelve down to seven, and add effects modes 0-4, 9. Some clips work better with others, and with different effects modes. These modes, part of the draw routine, control blends and filters, the ways in which captured images are combined with frames from the buffer and output to the screen –
The Video Shredder, like the LZX3 video synthesizer, is a ‘visual instrument.’ I ‘play’ the shredder using the computer keyboard – ‘q’ initiates record mode; ’spacebar’ triggers playback mode; ’left arrow’ runs the frame buffer in reverse, ‘down arrow’ freezes the frame, ‘right arrow’ runs the frame buffer in forward; and, finally, the number keys ‘1,2,3,4,9’ initiate the effects modes charted above. The effects modes may be thought of as movements in a score. In this case the score is a progression from b&w images and simple layering, to color and abstraction.
I run through a couple rehearsals with the shredder. Set up the IFM Synth. I’m ready for tonight’s show!
Mid-afternoon, I move my gear over to 1307, and set up on a table in front of the big screen on Gallery 2. Adam arrives with his gear including his modular synthesizer, a couple of mixers, and lots of cables. He sets up beside me on the table. I patch into his mixer. He sets up the PA, which includes the large JBL theater speakers. With Benton’s assistance, I set up the shredder and video projector. Sound and video check, the sound is huge! As is the image. Joe Popp arrives with (2) guitars, (2) amps, and a table full of effects pedals.
I go for a pre-show beer next door at Calamari’s with some of the other performers.
OPEN FEED opens in Gallery 1 with Nathaniel Garnon, David Tamulonis, and Betty Sweaters. Live video projection on (3) screens, modular synthesizer, and (2) amplified violins. After a brief intermission, over to Gallery 3 for Lonesav with Anthony Carson. Another brief intermission, back to Gallery 3 for Adam Holquist, Joe Popp, and myself. To start the set I accompany Adam and Joe on the shredder, then switch to IFM Synth, leaving a free-running sketch running on the screen. I think it went well 8^)))
Benton’s live stream https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOoSVrmE7a8
Tired out, back to apartment, asleep by midnight.
Day 06: Saturday August 5
09:00am – tear down at 1307, set up back at 1301, clean up Shredder code
12:00pm – walk downtown to harbor, pick up supplies at Iraqi grocery
01:00pm – hook up sound from MacBook to LZX sensor input, fix encoder output
06:00pm – dinner at Calamari’s
07:00pm – back to the apartment
Back at the studio by 9:00am, Benton has coffee brewing. I move my gear from 1307 back to 1301, set up my computer and start the day by ‘wrapping up’ the Shredder. I clean up the code, add comments and save the sketch. Next, the LZX3 video synthesizer.
But, time for a break, for a walk to the harbor on Presque Isle Bay. It’s very quiet. I pass only a few people downtown, as I walk north on State St. There’re more people at the harbor, a whole Pirate Ship full, fishermen on the dock, some tourists. On my way back to 1301, I stop at the Iraqi grocery for eggs, bread, and milk.
My second goal for this residency is to learn more about LZX video systems. For the past ten or so years, I’ve followed LZX Industries online. I know a couple of artists, including Benton, who have LZX video synthesizers. I can’t afford one of my own. I’m excited to, finally, get my hands on one! I spend the rest of the afternoon ‘playing’ with the LZX3, the latest, Generation 3, video synth. I patch my MacBook audio output to the Sensory Translator module on the LZX. The translator takes audio in and produces control voltage outputs derived from (5) frequency bands, from low to high. The (5) CV outs can be set to fast/medium/slow; that is, as triggers or envelopes. I’ll use prerecorded audio tracks to ‘drive’ effects on the LZX3.
I chose a patch from the LZX Industries Community online blog and go to work. I use Blackmagic’s Media Express to make a test recording. I notice that Blackmagic does not see the same encoder output, color bars, that I see on the LXZ3 monitor. After reading more about the ESG3 encoder online, I’m able to reset the mode switch and fix the mismatch. Progress.
I go next door to Calamari’s, treat myself to dinner, Cobb salad and a Sierra Nevada Hazy Little Thing. Back at apartment, I’m reading a book I found in the apartment bookshelf, ‘Schismatrix’ by Bruce Sterling, a cyberpunk classic.
Day 07: Sunday August 6
08:00am – write logs for last week
12:00pm – Voodoo Brewery for brunch
01:00pm – hook up audio in to Media Express, sound & video recording
05:00pm – write Processing sketch to play clips from a movie
06:00pm – finish the last of the shish kabob
Early start, back in the studio, I catch up on email, write up logs for last week, clean up files on my MacBook and on the Hackintosh. I’m getting set up to record using the LZX3 video synth.
I break for brunch at the Voodoo Brewery.
Back at the studio I go digging through cables in the backroom. Eventually, I find (2) Y adapters for RCA audio cables, which allows me to patch audio from my MacBook to both the LZX3 and the Blackmagic video board on the Hackintoch. I record a short test video. The sound recorded by Media Express is missing the right stereo channel. I check the cables, everything looks good. Also, available disk storage on the Hackintosh is limited. So, I’ll edit on my MacBook and use Premiere to sync up the original audio and recorded video tracks.
After rechecking the set up, I take a break from the LZX3 and write a Processing sketch to play clips from a movie. It works and will allow the shredder to run using a single movie, instead of two or three, and, hopefully, will allow more time and open up more possibilities for combining images.
A long day, I head back to the apartment to finish up the last of the shish kabob.
Day 08: Monday August 7
08:00am – back in the studio, tune LZX3 patch for recording
12:00pm – lunch break
01:00pm – record feed01
06:00pm – apartment for dinner
My goal this week is to learn as much as I can, in a week, about the LZX system. I’m ready to record my first video. I spend the morning fine-tuning the patch and checking the system.
After lunch I record two videos. I use the same sound track for both videos so that, when I bring the recordings over from the Hackintosh to my MacBook, I will be able to ‘sync-up’ both tracks. I can also, easily, re-dub the original track onto the final edit.
Of course everything takes longer than planned. But, by late afternoon, I have two good videos and a workable work schedule.
Day 09: Tuesday August 8
08:00am – back in the studio, edit feed01
12:00pm – lunch break
01:00pm – record feed02
06:00pm – Lavery Brewery for dinner
07:00pm – back in the studio
08:00pm – turn in
Up early, in the studio. I load the two videos into Premiere, twiddle them into alignment using the left channel only audio tracks. I use luminance key to foreground video 1 over video 2, then export the result to a temporary file. I load the temporary file back into Premiere, mute the audio, then ‘sync’ the original sound file to the video. I add black leader and credits and output the result. Editing takes only an hour or so, but rendering video takes over two hours. I’m happy with the results.
Link to feed01 https://vimeo.com/40181456
After lunch and after consulting the LZX Industries Community online, I chose a new patch to try out on the LZX3. I play with the patch then record two new videos using a new soundtrack. Time flies when you’re having fun.
I walk over to Lavery Brewery for ‘roulette tacos.’
Day 10: Wednesday August 9
08:00am – back in the studio, edit feed02
12:00pm – lunch break
01:00pm – record feed03, set up mic input to MacBook
07:00pm – apartment for dinner
I have a comfortable work schedule – editing in the morning, developing a new LZX3 patch mid-day, and recording in the afternoon. The two videos from yesterday are very similar. Again, I key video1 over video 2, export a temporary file, then add the ‘original soundtrack’ back in along with black leader and credits.
Link to feed02 https://vimeo.com/856518204
After lunch I select a new patch, and record two new videos.
I’m working faster. I take the rest of the afternoon to improvise a ‘drum kit’ and set up a mic input to my MacBook Pro. The drum kit consists of a broken, antique snare drum, the snares muted with paper; alarm bells; several bowls; a small skillet; a chewing tobacco tin filled with marbles; drinking glasses; plastic water bottles; a mallet, being a spring with an attached rubber ball; and a box of pencils, unsharpened.
Day 11: Thursday August 10
08:00am – back in the studio, edit feed03
12:00pm – lunch break
01:00pm – record feed04, edit feed04, record new audio tracks
07:00pm – apartment for dinner
Again, I spend the morning editing LZX3 videos recorded yesterday afternoon.
Link to feed03 https://vimeo.com/857893619
I set up a new patch and, after lunch record three new tracks, two in color and a third in b&w using KEYCHAIN and SMX3 3×3 mixer. I’m starting to ‘grok’ the video synth rgb-wise. I have time to edit the tracks, keying video 1 over video 2 then using video 3, the b&w track, to invert or DIFFERENCE the result. I like running oscillators at twice the frame rate, splitting the odd and even fields. It’s my own foible, going back to my time working with Scanimate and the PAVS. It produces seemingly transparent layers that flicker at twice the frame rate. Some people find this annoying!
Link to feed04 https://vimeo.com/859123120
I record three new sound tracks – the first reading from a page from ‘Capital Realism’ by Mark Fisher, the second and third with the ‘found’ objects as percussion.
Day 12: Friday August 11
08:00am – record feed05, edit feed05
12:00pm – lunch break, record feed06
06:00pm – dinner at Calamari’s
I start the day by mixing the three sound tracks recording yesterday afternoon. I reverse the reading soundtrack, slow down and reverse the second found percussion track. The first found percussion is left as is. I playback the mixed track and, with the Video Shredder, perform and record feed05 on my MacBook Pro. Note: feed05 will be similar but not the same as the video performed at OPEN FEED. Video clips appear in a different order, and the effects vary, randomly. As a ‘vusician,’ I use the frame buffer and play/record modes to create and loop visual phrases.
I edit the video, syncing it with the original audio track, adding black leader and credits.
Link to feed05 https://vimeo.com/859459026
After lunch, I move back to the LZX3 and record three new video tracks. Each video track is triggered by live sound. The first video is recorded in color using my Board Weevil. The second video is in color but with found objects as percussion. The third is in b&w, again with found objects as percussion. The videos are recorded on the Hackintosh and the audio tracks on both the Hackintosh and my MacBookPro.
Enough for today, TGIF. I go to Calamari’s for dinner.
Day 13: Saturday August 12
08:00am – walked to Jo’s Bagels at Food Hall for breakfast, edit feed06
01:00pm – walked to Voodoo Brewery for lunch
02:00pm – re-examine LZX synth, take notes
06:00pm – apartment for dinner
Back in the studio, I wrap up production. Editing feed06 takes longer than expected. I sync all three videos to it’s own soundtrack, adjust track 1 brightness and contrast, key track 2 over track 1, and, finally, set opacity for track 3 to 80% and DIFFERENCE it over tracks 1 and 2. Because of the three separate audio tracks. the syncing of sound to the final video is less obvious. Layers don’t necessarily move together, each responds to it’s own part of sound mix. I’m happy with the result.
Link to feed06 https://vimeo.com/859472104
I walk to Voodoo Brewery to restock, then back to the apartment for lunch.
I spend the afternoon experimenting with the LZX3 synth using SHAPES, ANGLES and STACKER to combine shapes, then animating the resulting shapes with DWO3 Oscillators patched to appropriate VD & HD inputs. The SENSORY TRANSLATOR controls the oscillators, triggers shape changes.
Day 14: Sunday August 13
07:00am – tidy up studio
08:00am – walk to Zodiac Dinor for breakfast
10:00am – back at the studio, check out LZX Industries online, pack my gear
6:00pm – apartment for dinner
Last day in the studio, about time to get organized, I tidy up.
I walk south on State Street, away from downtown to check out the Zodiac Dinor. That’s how they spell it! Five stars on Google.
Back at 1301 I go online to read up on all the LZX3 modules that I didn’t use, and test them out. If I were to put together my own LZX3 synth, which modules would I choose, for abstract pattern animation, for video processing? An interesting thought experiment.
Mid-afternoon I pull cables, shut down and cover the synths. Time to pack up my gear.
Back at the apartment for dinner. I clean out the fridge, the cupboards, and pack my suitcase.
Day 15: Monday August 14
06:00am – finish cleaning apartment
08:00am – meet Brad at 1301
09:30am – pick up rental car, leave for Cville
05:00pm – arrive Cville
Up early, coffee, then bag the linen, take out the garbage. Wheel my suitcase over to 1301, check my email then shut down the computer.
I move my gear to the Sex Ed Bakeshop. Brad Ford arrives. We load my gear into his SUV, drive downtown for coffee, more coffee.
After coffee, Brad takes me out the car rental. I surrender the keys to FEED, reluctantly, transfer my gear to the rental car and hit the road. This time I stick to the interstates, an easier, less stressful drive. Even with the usual slowdown on I81, by 5pm, I’m back in Charlottesville!
Painting A Day: Digital Paintings, 2009-2019
Synthetik’s Studio Artist is a digital paint and animation program that offers all sorts of options for both still and moving images; original, photographic and AI-generated. I thought that I might, eventually, use the program live with improvising musicians and dancers.
I started with basic drawing, using pre-programmed brushes included in the software. I decided the best way to learn the software was to set myself a goal: creating a painting a day. No excuses, I had to sit down at the computer and come up with one painting every day. This was to be part my ‘practice’,’ which includes electro-acoustic music, video, teaching, and helping to run a gallery. Somehow, I thought, these paintings might relate to ideas I was exploring in my studio, on my computer, and in performance.
On May 21, 2009, I posted this image to my blog –
This, my first posted image, wasn’t all that bad. Of course, the idea behind ‘Painting A Day’ is that it doesn’t matter if the painting is good, bad or indifferent. It’s a painting and that’s all that counts. The idea is to stop being ‘self-critical’ and just let it happen, good or bad. Who cares? Well, I suppose we all care. We don’t want to waste our own and everyone else’s time. However, according an article I read in a design magazine while teaching at VCU, this caring often inhibits us, as artists, from simply ‘diving in’ and exploring a new medium.
Looking back at the first couple of hundred paintings, I can see that this was sound advice. It’s not until, somewhere in the 500’s, after nearly a year, that I got a handle on the software.
I hadn’t set an end time for the experiment. The idea was to keep on keeping on until I was working ‘as one’ with the software. The first few years it was simply fun to experiment with the possibilities that the software offered. Yes, there were limits. The painting are lo-res, 720×480 pixels, the same resolution as my video projects. Scattered throughout the blog are posts showing some of these video images. I can see now that the 10 year run of paintings influenced both my video and sound projects. In fact, they led directly to my work with Processing, which is the second set of prints in this exhibition.
Geometry: sketch_200822a
Processing is a free graphical library and integrated development environment built for the electronic arts, new media art, and visual design communities. The project was initiated in 2001 by Casey Reas and Ben Fry, both formerly with the Aesthetics and Computation Group at MIT’s Media Lab. I started using Processing in 2005.
After 10 years of one painting a day, it was time to up the ante, to move from paint program to a program that paints. Sketch_200822a, the first sketch written on August 22, 2008, creates it’s own ‘art.’ I’m not wielding a brush or mixing pigments. I’m writing code that tells the computer to create 20 images using various geometric shapes and colors, then combine 3 of these images into a frame of video, over and over again …
Here’s a flowchart for the sketch –
In the ‘declarations’ block I reserve memory 20 images, p[0-19], and 3 temporary buffers, p0-2, In the ‘setup’ block I set the resolution of the output window to a resolution of 640 x 480 pixels then create 20 images using a number of simple drawing routines. I load 3 of these images, chosen randomly, into the temporary buffers and, finally, set the frame rate and hide the cursor. In the ‘draw’ block I combine 2 of the buffers, p0-2, using one of 12 raster operations routines and output the result to the output window. Each time through the draw routine there’s a 1:10 chance that a new image will be loaded into p0-2.
Here are 3 of 20 images combined using 6 of the 12 rops –
The 3 images selected are copied from the 20 images created in setup. The source images, p[0-19] are 800×600 pixels. The destination images, p0-2, are 640×480 pixels and highlighted in the graphic above. The area copied is chosen randomly when p0-2 a new image is selected. There are only 6 rops shown; the remaining 6 rops are repeats. This doesn’t effect the animation. What does effect the animation is the use of random numbers to select images and rops, and … a happy accident that occurs when the same source image is selected for a pair of temporary buffers, then combined (see frame 22) –
Projektor: sketch_180503a
In 2015 I wrote a simple Processing sketch, a ‘film’ projector. This first sketch became a series of sketches that assemble images stored in computer memory into ‘films.’ The resulting films are ‘projected’ in real-time on the computer screen.
This sketch begins by reserving memory space for multiple images and a smaller, buffer. Then it selects and loads into memory 16 random images from 46 images stored on the computer hard drive. Next it assembles a frame by selecting 1 image, at random, from those in memory, copying a smaller piece of that image into the temporary buffer and, from there, to the display screen.
This all seems pretty simple: each frame of the film is assembled from a smaller 640×480 pixel area copied from a larger 2048×1152 pixel image.
But wait! Not only is the selection process random for the set of 16 images in memory, the 1 chosen for each frame, and the area selected from that image; but the process of copying the selected area includes 8 options for filtering, 4 options for re-sizing and 14 options for blending the area into current frame.
All this taken together means that every time I run the program it will produce a different film. From the selection of the initial images, to the order of images selected for each frame, to the area selected from each image copied to the frame and, finally, to the many options used by the copy function.
This raises some interesting questions. Where is the art? Is it a process or a product?
I wrote my first computer graphics program, in 1965. I’ve worked as a video animator, with electronic music and video synthesis, and with computer ‘mediated’ art for almost 60 years. For me, the computer is a means by which I can model the creative process. So, perhaps, the art is not the product, or in the process, but in the program itself. A ghost in the machine!
Back to the sketch, here are a couple of flowcharts: the first shows the steps in creating a single frame, the second includes code from the program broken out into the 3 major program blocks: declarations, setup and draw –
Let’s run the sketch/program. These are the first (15) frames of video. The choice of images and the options for filtering, re-sizing and blending are random and can change frame to frame –
For frame 0, the first frame, the sketch chooses image 2. There are no filter or blend options set. The image is re-sized from full frame to 3/4 size and copied to the display buffer, which for the first frame is black. For frame 1, image 1 is selected. No filter option is chosen. The image is re-sized from full frame to 3/4 size and, this time, blended with the contents of the display buffer using the HARD_LIGHT option. Image 0 is selected for frame 2. The filter, re-size and blend options remain the same. Options start to change for frame 3: there’s a new filter option, ERODE, and a new blend option ADD …
And so it goes. Depending on the frame rate, this video clip could be 1.25 to 15 seconds long. Like the choice of images, the options for filtering, re-sizing and blending; the frame rate is random. It varies from 1 to 12 fps.
[1] String Figures 10:07
[2] Tentacular Thinking 10:05
[3] Symbiogenesis 10:02
[4] Making Kin 10:13
Al Margolis – viola [1,2], violin [3,4], contact mics
Walter Wright – Board Weevil, contact mics, objects, drums & percussion
Mixed by Walter Wright in Audacity.
“Chthonic ones are beings of the earth, both ancient and up-to-the-minute. I imagine chthonic ones as replete with tentacles, feelers, digits, cords, whiptails, spider legs, and very unruly hair. Chthonic ones romp in multicritter humus but have no truck with sky-gazing Homo. Chthonic ones are monsters in the best sense; they demonstrate and perform the material meaningfulness of earth processes and critters. They also demonstrate and perform consequences. Chthonic ones are not safe; they have no truck with ideologues; they belong to no one; they writhe and luxuriate in manifold forms and manifold names in all the airs, waters, and places of earth. They make and unmake; they are made and unmade. They are who are. No wonder the world’s great monotheisms in both religious and secular guises have tried again and again to exterminate the chthonic ones. The scandals of times called the Anthropocene and the Capitalocene are the latest and most dangerous of these exterminating forces.”
~ Donna J Haraway, Staying With The Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthlucene.
Donna J Haraway is an American Professor Emerita in the History of Consciousness Department and Feminist Studies Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz, United States.
Haraway majored in Zoology, with minors in Philosophy and English at the Colorado College, on the full-tuition Boettcher Scholarship. Haraway moved to Paris and studied evolutionary philosophy and theology at the Fondation Teilhard de Chardin on a Fulbright scholarship. She completed her Ph.D. in Biology at Yale in 1972 writing a dissertation about the use of metaphor in shaping experiments in experimental biology.
Speculative fabulation is a concept which is included in many of Haraway’s works. It includes all of the wild facts that won’t hold stil. In She defines speculative fabulation as “a mode of attention, theory of history, and a practice of worlding,” and she finds it an integral part of scholarly writing and everyday life. In Haraway’s work she addresses a feminist speculative fabulation and its focusing on making kin.
Track titles are the titles of the first four chapters of the book.
[1] Nipkow Disks 10:27
[2] Iconoscopy 10:31
[3] Projected Oscillite 10:14
[4] Cold Cathode Dissector 10:23
Al Margolis – snare drum [1]; rusted tool box [2]; kalimba [3]; piano [4]
Walter Wright – amplified drum kit
with
Nico – homemade bowed strings with distortion, acoustic guitar [1,2]; circuit bent toy with effects [3]; trombone and vocals [4]
Philo Farnsworth worked out the principle of the image dissector in the summer of 1921, not long before his 15th birthday, and demonstrated the first working version on September 7, 1927, having just turned 21. A farm boy from Indiana, his inspiration for scanning an image as series of lines came from the back-and-forth motion used to plow a field.
In the course of a patent interference suit brought by the Radio Corporation of America in 1934 and decided in February 1935, his high school chemistry teacher produced a sketch Farnsworth had shown him in Spring 1922. Farnsworth won the suit. Farnsworth received royalties from RCA, but he never became wealthy. The video camera tube that evolved from the combined work of Farnsworth, Zworykin, and others was used in all television cameras until the late 20th century,
Farnsworth also developed the “image oscillite”, a cathode ray tube that displayed the images captured by the image dissector. He called his device an image dissector because it converted individual elements of the image into electricity one at a time. He replaced the spinning disks with caesium, an element that emits electrons when exposed to light.
In 1984, Farnsworth was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
~ Wikipedia
Video by Dimitri Devyatkin and Walter Wright, 1972.
tracks
[1] 10:14
[2] 10:30
[3] 10:11
[4] 10:29
mixes
[1+2] 10:30
[3+4] 10:29
[1+3] 10:14
[2+4] 10:30
[1+2+3+4] 15:00
For the final mix I created envelopes for tracks 1-4, weaving them together. It was missing bass, so I chose a 2 min section from track 4, placed it in track 5, and stretched to 15 minutes. Here’s the mix –
[1] Beacons and Pigeons 10:07
[2] Big Bugs 10:19
[3] Token Rings 11:20
[4] Thermionic Valves 10:20
Al Margolis- snarebone (snare drum with trombone mouthpiece) [1]; transformed snare drum [2]; violin, contact mic, objects [3]; trombone [4]
Walter Wright – IFMSynth
with
Birgit Goldbourne – saxophone [Kassel, Germany]
Transatlantic telegraph cables were undersea cables running under the Atlantic Ocean used for telegraph communications. Telegraphy is now an obsolete form of communication and the cables have long since been decommissioned, but telephone and data are still carried on other transatlantic telecommunications cables.
The first cable was laid in the 1850s across the floor of the Atlantic from Valentia in western Ireland to Bay of Bulls, Trinity Bay Newfoundland. The first communications occurred August 16, 1858 but the line speed was poor and efforts to improve it caused this cable to fail after three weeks. A second cable was laid in 1865 with much-improved material. The cable was laid by the ship SS Great Eastern. More than halfway across, the cable broke and after many rescue attempts, they had to give up. In July 1866, a third cable was laid and on July 27th 1866 the cable was put into service.
This cable altered for all time personal, commercial and political relations between people across the Atlantic. Before the first transatlantic cable, communications between Europe and the Americas took place only by ship. Sometimes, however, severe winter storms delayed ships for weeks. The transatlantic cable reduced communication time considerably, allowing a message and a response in the same day.
~ Wikipedia
IFMSynth tracks [1-4] recorded on March 11 mixed with Amplified drum kit tracks [5-8] recorded on April 8, 2021.
mixes
[1+5] 10:20
[2+6] 10:13
[3+7] 10:18
[4+8] 11:24
[1+3+5+7] 15:00
[2+4+6+8] 15:00
The first four mixes, [1+5] through [4+8], are made by pairing IFM and amplified drum kit tracks. Nothing special here, simple level adjustments. I reduce the IFM tracks -3db and the drum tracks -9db.
Mix five, [1+3+5+7], is a different matter, here I’m mixing four tracks, two IFM tracks and two drum tracks. I start by swapping stereo channels on the second drum track, moving the bass drums on the two drum tracks to separate channels. Then I set the two IFM tracks to 10:00 min, and stretch the drum tracks out to 15:00 min. I move the second IFM track along the timeline so that it starts at 5:00 min. I create envelopes for each track. Finally, I add reverb to the drum tracks, creating ‘space’ in the mix.
Here’s the mixing chart –
Mix six, [2+4+6+8], is similar. As above I move the bass drums to separate channels, adjust the timing for each track. Note, track is set at 11:00 min. In this mix track one is moved along the timeline to start at 5:00 min. Lastly, I add reverb to the drum tracks. Here’s the mixing chart –
Noh TV 