VECTOR HACK 2018

I haven't updated in a while (there is still a write up of my amazing signal culture trip last year coming)

But this is too good not to leave a short post about. I am helping Ivan and Derek with their amazing Vector Hack Festival project. Vector Hack is a festival centred around experimental vector graphics using oscilloscopes and lasers. It's happening in over two sites starting in Zagreb on 01/10/18 and ending in Ljubljana on 07/10/18. I will be attending so if you decide to come see you there!

Ivan and Derek have worked tirelessly to make this happen and it's going to be amazing.

vectorhackfestival.com
instagram.com/vectorhackfestival
facebook.com/vectorhackfestival


Vector Hack festival 2018. trailer I from i.m. klif on Vimeo.

Christia Schubert

Christia Schubert has some nice complex vector work here from 1984/85
Produced using a computer system driving a Soltec/IBM flatbed plotter

Mandalamat

Here is the very cool Mandalamat an analogue computer specifically built by Christian Günther to create interesting patterns either using an XY plotter or an Oscilloscope, I have had an XY plotter for a while and made a few drawings using modular synthesizer and function generators but nothing this beautiful! 

GEARS / Northlight Video 1973

 Some amazing early video art from bobvidpix on youtube, thanks to Peter for the link

"GEARS - Computer Video Art - We made this ditty in 1973, you won't find much earlier combinations of online video mix of 3D computergraphics - especially as this was all done, effects etc. in one live pass. Ed Kammerer got a job at Adage, the first developer of realtime-controllable 3D CAD computers - each filling a midsized room. Like leaving kids in the candy store, they let us take over on weekends and nights to make computer/video art. We ran camera cables to two computer rooms, headset intercoms to each computer and camera operator in both of the rooms and then played with XYZ values and phases on the computers and target/beam on the camera and a mixer/keyer. The music was later custom created by Mark Styles. Credits/Tech - from memory, sorry for mental dropouts - Orville Dodson programmed and operated the AGT 130 Adage Graphic Terminal - Edwin Kammerer assisted and operated the other AGT. Charles Phillips and Andrika Donovan each ran camera and I mixed and tech'd. - We had two black & white Sony AVC 4600 cameras & CCU's and a Shintron SEG 366 switcher - recorded on a Sony EV 320 1" VTR.
The sales director for Adage, George White took this tape to show on a morning network TV show interview during the National Computer Graphic Assoc. tradeshow in NY - the host introduced the roll-in with, " Let's see how a computer works ... "

"The music was composed, performed & recorded by Mark Styles when he was at the Musician's Workshop on Clematis Ave., Waltham. I think it was created on the Arp 2600. After we recorded the multicam video of the computer graphics, Charles brought Mark a video player with this and another piece called 'Lisa' (from lisajous, the math that the computers used for the shapes) and he built the music around the flow of the visuals. I've always felt it was the perfect accompaniment."

"Adage Inc. created the first 3D graphic computer with realtime controls. These huge machines with a dozen racks of binary processors had knobs that controlled motion, dimension and other parameters of the 3D patterns programmed into it. Ed Kammerer worked there and brought us in to spend long sleepless weekends with a camera in each of the computer rooms and live mixing onto B&W reel to reel videotape. Cameras operated by Andrika Donovan and Charles Phillips, with Ed and Orville Dodson at the AGT Terminals, and me at the mix. This clip has the live intercom track, and it must have been made before the term 'crash' was coined - so 'watch out for imminent system collapse!'"

"the other difference, perhaps more significant than 16mm vs. video, is we approached these recordings as jam sessions. There was no set routine, such as a software demo, but instead computer and video operators played and improvised together for the visual mixes we made.

"thanks for your comment. Yes, cameras used for this lisajous and 'Gears' were 1" vidicon tube Sony AVC 4600's, live switched on a Shintron 360 & recorded on a 1" Sony EV 310 (pre-C-format). The computer screens we shot were (approx) 18" vector, oriented vertically, and we would position the cameras over the shoulder of the seated terminal operators, turn the room lights off and go. The cameras had CCU's with target and beam control, which enhanced the ghostly lagging typical of vidicon imagers."

Ron Pellegrino

Ron Pellegrino has been making and documenting his visual music work since 1967, He makes incredible work often utilizing lasers and sometimes video synthesis techniques and has written many books on the subjects of composition and working with sound and light. More info on his site. I have all his books :)

www.ronpellegrinoselectronicartsproductions.org

http://www.youtube.com/user/ronapell
http://www.nbma.com/cat/pell/pell.html

Oscillographic Colourisation Experiments and the Barbican

 So the performance at the Barbican went ok Lawrence's performance and the structure he designed were really great annoyingly my oscilloscope refused to work even after Stan very kindly lent me a screwdriver so I could trouble shoot, However I had plenty of equipment to perform with and Lawrence and my performance fed in to each other as we played so it went pretty well. Stan and Dan's performance was really amazing. Thanks to Andi who was also on hand to help capture some film of the performances.

here is a still of Stan performing with Dans visuals which sounded and looked crazy good!




















Here are some stills of Lawrence and my performance

And here's what it might have looked like had my scope been working >:(

Laser Shows

I have long been interested in laser shows since reading about them in various books like Expanded Cinema and Ron's great books and work, the visuals apparently float in space when performed in pitch black planetariums and other dome like structures. This frees the drawn video image from the tyranny of standard aspect ratios and hints at infinity. There seems to still be a few real laser shows left in the world and there are some amazing visuals on the web that almost capture how cool they might be live.
http://www.laserium.com
https://www.youtube.com/user/laserium1
http://www.starlasers.com/index.html (thanks to JJ for this one)

Here is an image from Laserium, designed by Ivan Dryer one of the pioneers of Laserium's techniques, Production Laser Images Inc.USA
and below are laser graphics for the Cosmic Laser Concert "Laserium" presented at the London Planetarium. Again Ivan Dryer and Laser Images Inc.

Here are some great videos from Laserium


and this one from from another user


Also worth a mention are all the Laser art projects and installations that have been produced, I have lost my brochure on Centerbeam which I believe featured laser projection

I really need to have a search through all my resources to find more examples because I am sure I have loads more

Finaly I will leave you with one of Ron's amazing videos, he will be getting his own post very soon

Images taken from Graphics in Motion By eminent British animator John Halas

Spiral 1, Interactive Electronic Visualization Event 1

This is a document of the performance of spiral 1 performed live at the Interactive Electronic Visualization Event 1 in 1975
Performance by:
Tom DeFanti, Digital computer
Dan Sandin, Analoge Image Processor
Bob Snyder , Fender Rhodes piano

Excerpts from video document "EVE Aura" by:
Raul Zaritsky & Jim Morrissette

The last performance of Spiral os Spiral aka Spiral PTL is on the Dan Sandin YouTube channel

3d image manipulator // vector monitor

synchrot/synchroton

LZX Visionary - Vector Rescanning Experiments

so LZX have been messing with ratser scan effects to great results

Really Beautiful DIY Scanimate

now heres a really cool project built by tom16mm using mostly modified commercially available hardware to create a scanimate workalike.

how to in the description