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 at 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 Marshal! McLuhan has become a household name, people have become aware of the tremendous forte, 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 wilt be revolutionized, schools transformed if not eliminated (why interrupt your child's education by sending him to school?). TV is at the cause, or ot least of 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, scroungjng 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
Teiedfscretlon
FRANK GILLETTE and IRA SCHNEIDER
Wipe Cycle
NAM JUNE PAIK
Participation TV
NAM JUNE PAIK and CHARLOTTE MOORMAN
TV Bra for Living Sculpture
EARL R El BACK
Three Experiments Within the TV Tube
PAUL RYAN
Everyman's Moeblus Strip
JOHN SEERY
TV Time Capsule
ERIC SIEGEL
Psythedelevlsion in Color
THOMAS TADLOCK
The Archetron
ALDO TAMBELLINI
Black Spiral
JOE WEINTRAUB
AC/TV (Audio Controlled Television)
TELEDISCRETION
by Serge Boutourlirte
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 Wynn Chamberlain and Serge Boutouriine. Serge Boutouriine, b. Santo Fe, N. M.v J932.
fl,A. Howard, M.B.A, Harvard School of Business Administration, Developed a signal-oriented approach to the description of human environment. Currently engaged in communication research. Co-produced "Teievonitla" with Susan Buirge,
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, t would suggest 'Silent TV Station.' This is TV station for highbrows, which transmits most of time only beautiful 'mood art' in the sense of lmood music.' What I am aiming at is TV version of Vivaldi ... or electronic 'Compoz,' 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 will simpty 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 ...
MTV Brassiere for Living Sculpture (Charlotte Moorman) is also one sharp example to humanize electronics . . . and technology. By using TV as br:i . , , the mast intimate belonging of human being, we will demonstrate the human use of technology, and aiso stimulate viewers NOT for something mean but stimulate their phantasy to look for the new, imaginative and humanistic ways of using our technology."
Nam June PaiJc
i
Nam June Paik, fa. Seouf, Korea, J 932.
Took degree in Aesthetics, University of Tokyo, 1956, then studied music, art history and philosophy at several German Universities. He: has had numerous one man shows and performances in many countries throughout Europe, America and iapon. Some in tonjuncfion with Charlotte Moorman,
Recently, he was represented in MOMA's "Machine at tho fnd of the Mechanical Age" exhibition and was one of six artists participating in PBl's program "The Medium is rfre Medium" broadcast aver th* 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. Noted for her unusual performances of Happenings, Concerts, Mixed Media, mostly in conjunction with Nam Sune Paik. Founded and produced the Annual New York Avant Gorde Festivals.
THREE EXPERIMENTS WITHIN THE TV TUBE
by Earl Reiback
Normally the inside of a TV tube is a vacuum. Earl Reiback, with the cooperation of R.C.A. 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.
"In 'Suspension,' a 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 scan sweeps across the inner screen, shooting images in color are produced in response to the broadcast program."
Earl Reiback
Ear/ Reiback, b, 1936, N.Y.C,
B.5., Lehigh U.; M.S. in Nuclear Engineering, M.l.T. Has nymeroui patents in the fields of sound, tight and nuclear radiation. At the age of 12, he applied far bis first patent. It was for a Caior Television system. Since 1965 he 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 inside is the outside. Here the power of Video Tape Recorder (VTR) is used to take in our own outside. When you see yourself on tape, you see the image you ore 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 1 can't believe that's me!' 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, ft offers you one continuous (sur)face 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."
Poo/ Ryan
Paul Ryan was bom in N.Y.C. in 1943.
B.A. {English), N.Y.U., 1967. Sept. 1967-Sune 1968, Research Assistant to Marshall Atcluhan, fordham U., June 1968 to present;
Experimenting
Writing
Speaking
Collaborating in videotape
Producing
Consulting
Monitor* 2, A, 6 and 8? Programmed change cycle, Program No. 1 alternating every eight seconds with Program No. 2.
Monitors 1,3,7 and 9: Delay change cycle, Nos. 1 and 7 and 3 and 9 alternating (exchanging) every four seconds.
Monitors 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 and 9: Wipe cycle, grey "light" pulse, moving counterclockwise every two second*.
Monitor 5: Live cycle, four seconds of live feedback alternating with four seconds of b road ca st tel ev ision.
CYCLE (a} CYCLE {bj CYCLE (c) CYCLE (d)
WIPE CYCLE
by Frank Gillefte and Ira Schneider
"Wipe Cycle is a television mural designed to engage and integrate the viewer's television 'image' al three separate points in time and five exchanging point* in space. Synchronized cycle patterns consisting of live and delayed feedback, broadcast television, and taped programming are developed fhrougb four (a, b, c> d) programmed pulse-signals every two, four, eighl and sixteen seconds. Separately, each oflthe 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 like a play within a play within a play) is to escape the automatic 'information' experience of commercial television without totally divesting it of Its usual content. Thus, the information on the programmed tapes juggles and re-combines elements with in 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 overload' and to provide sequential unity to the work."
Frank Gillette
Frank Gillette, b. 1941, Jersey City, N. J.
Studied painting at Pratt Institute. Since 1965, experiments in communication, video-tape programing! co founder and director, Media Research Group, N.V.t, ond Son Francisco,
Ira Schneider, b. 1939, N.V.C.
B.A. (Psychology} Brawn U.; MA. U. of Wisconsin,- studied art history, Ludwig Maximitlian U„ Munich. Research in psychology, 1964-66/ film-maker, 1963 to present.
Gillette and Schneider recently conducted leaching and experiments in videotape at Anlioch College, follow 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. It is a relic 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 lis great creative act — the change of stare'1
John Seery
John Seery, b. Maspeth, N. Y., 1941.
Graduated from Ohio State University, mo/or in Zoology and minor in Chemistry. Cincinnati Art Academy. Travel, Mexico and Canada. Teaches at Cooper Union.
P5YCHEDELEVÍSION IN COLOR
by Eric Slegel
"Art is sometimes called the 'transmission ecstasy.* Because TV is transmission with ecstatic potentials, I have chosen this as 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 J have of the Electronics of television, J have tried to show some other directions broadcasting can take.
H'Why can't Hie vie we*, after a trying day, sir 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 tranquil iter and at the same time give your spi fit a wonderful lift,
+'TV is sometimes accused of causing some of our ills. But it could be a mass healing device if if 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 you* thoughts. It works through your audio-visual senses into your mind and soul. Someday it will be worthy of you."
Eric Siege/
Eric. Siege/, b, 1944, N.YjC.
At the age of 15, while o studení of Samuel Gampvfs VoeofpuU*f and Technical High School, Siegel won Second Prize of ihe I960 NT.C Science Fair for his home-made dosed circuit TV which he built from second-hand tubes, o microscope i+rtf end all torts of scrounged mrsce/faneou* parts. The next year he wen an Honorable Award in ihe tame competition tor "Color ihrough Bfadtr oné White TW Altmr graduation front high school, he was employed by several concern* engaged in thm field of Closed Circuit TY, mostly rebuilding and designing equipment In J 966 be was employed in the Educational TY Department of The University of Lan dort. Goldsmith College.
Returning to the Slates, he roi-jmod hit work wffh dosed circuit TY companies. One of bis assignment^ in J9ofl, wo* io repair same television equipment in Guam. In May, 1968, he produced "Psychedtlevlsion" a videotape program at Now York's closed circuit TV theatre, Channel One. tn May, 1968, ho designed and built the special effects TY components of Serge Boufo ur líne *i produc-iior, "TeJevani/io/' of the Martiniqve Theatre, "an improvisation a! theatre dance piece choreographed and seal
THE
by Thomas Tadiock
By means of a console with innumerable knobs, switches, diafs and oJher mysterious looking controls, three small TV monitors and a system of mirrors and color filters, Tadlock is 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. It is now possible for this artist (or any other using the Archetronj in effect to create simultaneously works of art on TV screens in countless homes, thus making Nam June Paik's "Silent TV Station" possible. All that is needed is for a broadcasting organization, a closed circuit TV company or a coble TV company to avail itself of this remarkable development. Thomas Carter Todlock, tit* was born in Wathington, Dr C, In 1941.
Studied Rhode htand School of Design, in the years 1963-66 worked with fanatic and luminal art, 1967-69 with ielekinetk 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 want more, 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 op pa rates/
........ ..TJ»*-: ARCH ET RON—shown in the exhibition was commissioned by Dorothea Weit*n*r;
Tadtock has been represented in most of the important "Hghf exhibitions, including "Kunst Ueht Kuttst" Stedlijk van Abbe Museum, frndoven, T°6o\ One of fix artists participating In me PS I "The Medium is the Medium" broadcast over the NET network, March 23, '969.
BLACK SPIRAL
by Aldo Tambellini
In collaboration with Tracy Kinsel and Hank Reindold of Bell labs. 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 J would like to do. Whatever one might dream of which somebody would not want if I had the possibility to do it. Let's break oil 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 like to start it from there, from a reality. So what one wants 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 charging 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 Tamb&Uini
Aldo TambeSiini, b. 1930, Syracuse, N. Y".
B.F.A. Painting, Syracuse U.; M.F.A. Sculpture, Notre Dame U. Founder of the "Black Gate" Electro-media Theater of environmental performances encompassing all areas of fight, sound and motion. Involved in film, TV programming, comrnumcaf/orii ond their impact on education. Wort 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 Weintraub
Translates music into a complex 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, I woke up in the middle of a dream with the intense desire 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, ! realized that the red, blue and green guns in the CRT were ideally suited for audio control by the low, middle and high frequencies of music.
'*! 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 turn off the endless stream of garbage and use his Color TV in a personal aesthetically satisfying way."
Joe Weintraub
Joe Weintraub, b. 1943, N.Y.C.
B.A. m Psychology, C.C.N.¥. Edits The Electronic Art Review.
HOWARD WISE GALLERY 50 W. 57 ST. NYC 10019
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