Telechrome Special Effects Generator

This is an interesting video effects system from 59, to put it into context quad video was only developed in the mid 50s, colour quad became available in 58, Telerecording/Kinescope film recording systems were still in use by the broadcast networks and the earliest machines to be discussed as "video synthesizers" were still a few years off.

Whats interesting about this system is it's relatively open modular nature, something that became less common as the technology became more advanced. The Telechrome system (not to be confused with Baird's early colour tube experiments) contains a waveform generator, a switching amplifier and a control unit for selecting effects. The waveform generator would be used to generate electronic mattes analogous to film mattes and the switching amplifier would place two distinct video sources either side of the geometric form.

Here is the control panel

 you can see each of the systems modules here

And here is the advertisement in full.

I also dug up a later system with a similarly modular aproach.

Sources here:
http://www.americanradiohistory.com/Archive-BC/BC-1959/1959-10-05-BC.pdf
http://saltofamerica.com/contents/displayArticle.aspx?19_393

Tele Visions Project

http://televisionsproject.org

great line-up! 

"Commemorate the end of TV with Tele Visions, a series of live and broadcast events interrogating the medium of television on its death bed.

Devised, curated and produced to mark the occasion of the analog switch off around Australia, Tele Visions introduces audiences to the works of more than 100 artists working in the televisual space.

You can tune in live via the Tele Visions website or catch it on the analog broadcast if you live nearby. Box Set will be running 24hrs a day until midnight this Wednesday the 27th, from then on the Tele Visions channel begins a five day long continuous broadcast of artworks made for TV. Box Set is one of five live works commissioned by Tele Visions. Other artists include Lara Thoms, WRONG SOLO, Joel Stern and Pia van Gelder.

The entire broadcast program is now online with more than 120 works from 100 artists scheduled up to the minute each day. You can peruse the program from the Tele Visions website or download the TV Guide which also features short critical essays from Doug Anderson (SMH TV reviewer for 40 years), Sherry Miller Hocking (Experimental Televison Centre) and John Gillies (Video Artist and academic COFA). Pick up a limited edition printed (in glorious pink!) TV Guide at live events at both Carriageworks and Verge Gallery.
Tele Visions (28 November – 3 December 2013) is a project devised, directed and produced by Alex White and Emma Ramsay. Presented by Performance Space as part of the YOU’RE HISTORY, a program celebrating 30 years of Performance Space."

Iconicamera

The Ionic  company was an EMS American distributor for a time until it cloned the VCS3 and keyboard in to a single unit of it's own "design", it had some relatively interesting ideas about marketing, one of it's other products looks to have been a modified TV that acted like a simple oscilloscope a project common on the web these days and a technique utilized from the late 60s in to the early 70s by Paik amongst others.

Jaap drupsteen

Thanks to Lars of LZX for turning me on to Jaap Drupsteen's work
there are some really well structured effects, animations and some interesting video effects related projects.
http://cargocollective.com/jaapdrupsteen
   

Swindon Viewpoint

I have often been jealous of the fact that in America (and many other countries) public access television exists and produces weird and interesting content while Britain has a very closed network

However I recently discovered this was not always the case by stumbling on to Swindon Viewpoint's Vimeo they were one of the first and longest running local services and still produce content to this day

New Lucky PDF TV

new Lucky PDF type thing coming soon I'm doing interstitial bits and titles for some episodes as well as some live stuff first live broadcast is on Saturday 16 October at 5pm link

Home-Made: Contemporary Russian Folk Artifacts

This book documents some amazing DIY things from Russia including  a few TV aerials this one being my favorite for shear sci fi/modern looks.

Magnavox Television and Cool Bow Tie Arial

Here is a rather cool TV and arial from illtakeyourphoto on flickr

Katy Connor Snow, TV Snow

Here is an interesting idea putting a video of real snow next to TV 'snow' or static, more info at the artists website here 

John Robinson's DIY Televisions

John Robinson began building televisions while in school inspired by the excellent Philips Electronic Engineer kits that I hear are viewed with great respect and were responsible for many people choosing a career in electronics. 

Aram Bartholl's TV Filter

Here is a nice idea that turns a regular TV in to something much more ambient and unfamiliar. Aram Bartholl constructed a grid that stands off from the TV's surface and filter the light to give a large pixilation effect.

TV-Filter from aram bartholl on Vimeo.

Don Lancaster's TV Typewriter

Not only was the TV typewriter a low cost video text generator it was influential in the early computer hobby world here are some interesting links, bytecollector, classiccmp, swtpc. There were also later pre built commercial models available... the man with the plans Don's pages here

DIY Elektor VHF/UHF TV Modulator

Heres a cool VHF/UHF TV modulator from the January I985 issue of Elektor magazine useful for converting signals link here, now I just need to find a demodulator circuit.

have fun!

Dale Heatherington's DIY TV and Video Projects

here is a very cool website with a list of projects Dale Heatherington cooked up in his youth including a video recorder an image scanner and various TV transmitters

Ars electronica 92

curated by video art giants Steina and Woody Vasulka, 
Ars Electronica 92 featured many video synthesizers and effects all in one place

thanks to arshistory on Vimeo you can now check out what it was like!


Ars Electronica 1992 - Eigenwelt der Apparate-Welt 1 from ars history on Vimeo.

PM Pitch Analyzer by Voice Identification INC

found this super cool thing listed being sold via this auction a while back looks like some kind of lab/analytical equipment but it has a BNC video output!

"Up for auction is a very intriguing PM Pitch Analyzer from VII Voice Identification, Inc. We are not sure of everything it does, but our simple experiments with a monitor allow us to get a wide variety of readings from an external audio source. Great for a new circuit bending project! There are buttons for sample rate, smooth, shift, freq scale, amp ref., load program and more. Some of the input/outputs include Mic, Line, BNC Video, printer remote. There is also a sort of pen that looks like it can be used to change the video gain, height, right edge, horiz synch, gain/balance. Some of the chips inside include: AMD 8520DPP NEC D8085AHC, D8085AHC-2, -5 Intel 82716-1"

Atari 2600 Video Bending

Big round up of Atari 2600 bent for video 

POETRY IN CODE by 5yearcoma

Slavlee Experiment by  slavleeexperiment

Atari 2600 clone by failotron

Smash the system! by nordloef 

Atari 2600 Noise & Visuals Machine by castlegayskull

live 8bit chiptune and visuals by heavyw8bit

astroblast 02 by e1mer0

Scanimate Letter H

From the youtbe description by NantoVision


"1977, a neat little segment about the letter H, narrated by Luis (Emilio Delgado) and a little girl named Heather. With no new episodes of The Electric Company being made that year, I guess CTW had to think of something else to do with their trusty Scanimate machine. Personally, I wish they had used it more."





more on the scanimate here and here