Wipe Poem

new-ish vid

Alex White

De-Composite @ Time Machine 2012 from Alex White on Vimeo.


"Documentation of video installation at Time Machine, Sydney, July 2012.

De-Composite

De-Composite exploits analog video encoding systems including composite video to produce a video form. These systems were ubiquitous and central to television, video and gaming production and consumption for decades and are now rapidly approaching obsolescence. There is a fluidity and immediacy to directly engaging and interrupting these analog systems and also an opacity of function encouraging a reliance upon cause and effect, trial and error rather than conception and execution.

De-Composite utilises movement and configurations of person(s) within the space of the installation as modulation sources to synthesise a real time generated hybrid analog / digital video projection with stereo audio.

Alex White

Alex has an intense interest in synthesis as applied to audio and video. For more than 10 years he has created his own software based instruments and more recently has begun utilising a modular synthesiser for both audio and video performances and installations. Alex is a co-organiser of Moduluxxx – Modular Synthesis Festival which debuted in 2012, Alex has also co-directed Serial Space, Electrofringe Festival (when it was a festival), Liquid Architecture Sydney and is the founder and project consultant for the Lion Mountain Studio project. Alex currently works for the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia on the Digital Radio Project."

Bertoa and The VISUALIST!

Remember Bertoa's video from this post ? well he has just published full documentation for an audio reactive colouriser ! the Visualist

here is the PDF

https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/bertoa/VisualistKl.pdf

please respect the open source nature of the project credit where credit is due :)

thanks Bertoa! 

Radio 4 Visualized

I'm working on a circuit that converts audio in to a readable video signal

sound to video

some of my sound to video experiments more here

Some Chaotic Live Video

So here is some of my live visual disasters(I was a little worse for ware by the time it came to play) proper professional DJ Bradley Zero Philip provided the excellent audio I believe, also thanks to the lucky PDF guys for inviting me to play live


Chris King from J PDF on Vimeo.

Analog Video Distortion Effect

here is an interesting video I remember stumbling on to a while ago its unclear exactly what the device is doing because we cant see the original signal but it's interesting and glitchy all the same. Find more from Korntved here

ANSI MIDIo Programable USB Visualizer

Wil Lindsay has been busy! you may remember this post on his video synth based on Parallax chips, well since then he has released a pocket visualizer based on a pic, its called the VBLANK and comes in both NTSC and PAL versions. Now the second version (and a major leap forward) is the possibility of programing your own graphics and controlling it via midi! the project is known as the ANSI MIDIo and can be seen in action here

 

The Synchronator

So you want a pocket size audio visualizer/video synth that creates glitchy visual waveforms and disguises audio as video by adding sync signals? then you want a Synchronator by Bas van Koolwijk and Gert-Jan Prins (what awesome names).

video via Synchronator on vimeo 

video via Aussiemystic

Modified Atari Video Music

Heres a completely modified Atari Video Music by the fantastic Switched On Austin synth shop. If only I lived in an NTSC zone!

from flickr description

"This Video Music is the first to receive our custom set of modifications, including composite video output, 1/4" audio inputs and direct outputs, color control inputs, rectified audio outputs, and an 8 channel waveform mixer to control image output shape. Videos coming soon!"

Modified Crosspoint Production Switcher

Here's a fantastic video from tom16mm the goes to show older tech can still compete with software especially in a stable studio environment. The speed at witch the waveform reacts to the audio is still impressive. What you gain (in my opinion) by using hardware is organic interaction and more chance discoveries.

Analog Distortion - Audio to Video

analog distortion - audio to video from Indivisualists on Vimeo.

Video Oscilloscopes !

Some very expensive digital oscilloscopes have composite outputs, if like me you can't find one cheap there are a few other products on the market to fit the bill.

The very cool Critter and Guitari Video Scope produces colourful NTSC video for $99

For us Europeans the MFB VD-01 Videoscope synth module gives a more traditional black and white PAL scope image for €159.

Both units give a slightly blocky output unlike a real oscilloscope image but they could both find a home in a hardwarevideo set up. They also eliminate the need for rescanning a normal oscilloscope screen (which has its own charm but demands space and equipment). 

Here is an excellent video from DamagedMeat on youtube illustrating the MFB VD-01's potential

GDEIP THE DIY VIDEO SYNTH

This video synth built by youtuber antizarzutzki has 7 different CV inputs and is fairly compact at 4x10 inches (the same size as a sandin IP module) Cool!

Parallax chip video synth by Wil Lindsay

video from Wil Lindsay and his video synth based on Parallax chips see him at blip festival in NYC soon!

New Video by Bildheinzer

here is the latest of his RGB audio reactive effect units 

Circuit Bent Video Self Portrait

Here is an nice video from youtuber Psychenaturadatura check out more through the link

Atari Video Music

One of the most readily available (if still relatively rare) video synthesizers is the simple but effective Atari Video Music. It has appeared in many music videos and on many blogs. It is poplar with VJs, synthesists and hifi buffs.

It is however as far as I know only available in NTSC not PAL and only rarely do they turn up in Europe. Even if one did you would need a converter. Of course the UK has its own vintage music visualizer the Chromasope.

However both of these are expensive and hard to find. Help is at hand if your in the mood for some DIY with The Pixelmusic 3000 designed and built by Tarikh Korula based on the Parallax Propeller and detailed in Make issue 14! The code is for NTSC but I think it can be altered for PAL. Also see gadgetgangster for a kit based of the Pixelmusic project.

I may give it a go!

BATSOCKS TellyMate

Batsocks is a super cool little company making an arduino shield called the TellyMate


the TellyMate puts out black and white PAL or NTSC Composite Video and has an inbuilt character set or can be used for simple graphics 

I was thinking If you took one of these £15 and an arduino £10 you would have an interesting "Video Oscillator" as the basis for a simple video synth for £25 not bad


all you need to do is write an interesting program maybe even make it audio reactive by attaching a sensor to the arduino 


bildheinzer (scroll down his page) has already accomplished some audio reactive arduino action by using the arduino pong code by Alastair Parker found here  whitch I think inspired the idea for generating composite video from arduino found here 


and heres an interesting video by Batsocks

Introduction

I hope this blog will promote and encourage discourse amongst artists using hands on video techniques

I hope this blog will cover a wide range of related subjects including video art, video synthesis , audio reactive video, video circuit building, drawn sound, visual music, video feedback, VJing, experimental film, video effects and more.