Beyond direct personal relationships, electronic images and sound contribute mostsubstantially to our experience of the world . Yet, we are nearly blind to the real,human implications of television in its many forms . Television which serves theworst in us has come rather easily . Hopefully, there is a new television which awaitsus-one that maturely expresses our complex sense of things . Because imagesinfluence personal reality and social structure, the task of evolving this new tele-vision is an urgent and very practical matter .

the national center forexperiments in televisionThe Center is a group of artists, technicians and scholars engaged in developingtools and practices for creative television and studying the image-based experi-ences in man's individual and social life . Its formal activities-research, training,and the making of videotaped works-are inter-related in this ongoing search .

research training

Working with the television monitor as the primesurface of aesthetic occurrence rather than as the con-ventional displayof photographed reality, Centerartistsseek to understand and formalize principles of compos-ition with electronic image and sound . Here broadcasttelevision, and the theatrical, motion picture and jour-nalistic histories which have comprised it, are set aside,and the medium's unique characteristics-electricalenergy, two dimensionality in a fixed aspect ratio,time-dependence-are applied in studies of shape,movement, tension, volume, plasticity, texture, andduration .

To facilitate artists' dexterity with the new electronicimplements, Center researchers design and constructoriginal tools and equipment configurations . The BeckDirect Video Synthesizer, completed in 1971, generatesshapes, colors and textures-many never before dis-played on a television monitor-without the use ofcameras or other optical devices . It is in use not onlyas a highly personal creative instrument, but also asa precise mechanism for psychological testing. The for-mations of video equipment at the Center are continu-ally refined to provide optimum manageability for theartist ; new versions of conventional broadcast studiogear are adapted and built to meet the demands ofthis work .

The Center has initiated a new area of study intoelectronic images and their relationship to man'sindividual and social life . Scientific aspects of this workare carried on jointly with professionals at other institu-tions. Unlike traditional broadcast research interestedin measurements of audiences, the Center's concernis with the deeper meaning of the image-based experi-ence . Monographs by Center staff members includereflections on art and politics, art and technology, andthe philosophical and ethical aspects of public broad-casting. Current pilot studies are designed to betterunderstand the psychological and cultural impact ofimages . The goal of this research is to explore visualand aural symbols as means of focusing political con-sciousness, the potential cross-cultural applications ofvisual symbols, thepsychological experience of viewingtelevision as it pertains to fundamental interpretationsof reality, and aspects of the visual experience whichaffect public standards of objectivity and truth.

This fall the Center initiated a new public televisiontraining project based upon "across the board" servicerelationships with public television stations . The prog-ram's aim is to assist stations in those areas where theCenter has particular expertise-experimental programdesign, graphics, specialized engineering techniques,and innovative relationships between the station, localartists, scholars and other resource persons.

KCTS, Seattle, and KPBS, San Diego, are the firsttwo stations to participate in the new program . At KCTSthe Center has helped launch an Artists TelevisionWorkshop with the support of the Seattle Arts Commis-sion . Through exchanges of personnel, the Center willassist the station to produce a series of television prog-

rams utilizing the talents of local composers, dancersand visual artists. In San Diego, the Center is exploringnew directions for local programming with the KPBSstation staff. Additional training projects with otherpublic television stations are being developed for 1973.

As television becomes increasingly available togroups and individuals not connected with establishedbroadcasting institutions, the Center seeks to share itsresearch beyond the public television community .Within the last several years the proliferation of lowcost non-broadcast video gear, the emergence of UHFand cableoutlets, and the possibilities inherent in homeplayback technology have drawn numbers of youngpeople to videotape expression . A special three-yearprogram begun in the fall of 1971 is establishing formalworking and training relationships with students andfaculty at several American universities to further theuse of television as an artistic and educational tool .Through exchanges of personnel and videotapes, theCenter will help initiate campus video workshops andassist students in moving systematically from basicaesthetic and attitudinal questions to the productionof finished works .

Two such facilities are in operation at SouthernMethodist University and The Rhode Island School ofDesign . In addition, The State University of New Yorkat Buffalo has invited the Center to work with its ownexperimental video project.

VIDEO VOYAGE

We are warp minus ninety seconds and counting,89, 88, 87, 86, 85, this is control we are go . . . this issystems we are go . . . this is audio and we are go

. . .64 . . .63 . . .62 . . we are go on

all channels . . .oneminute and counting . . . stand by to warp . . . checklist? . . .go . . .48 . . .47 . . .crew check . . answer go. . .35 . . .34 . . .33 . . . Howard? . . Howard is go . . .Beck?. . .Beck is go . . .Jepson? . . .Jepson is go . . .Roarty? . . .Roarty is go . . .24 . . .23 . . .22 . . .Hallock? . . .Hallock is go . . .Turner? . . .17 . . .16 . . . Turner? . . .15 . . . answer Turner . . .14 . . .13 . . .12 . . .Turner isgo . . minus nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three,two, ONE . . .warp . . . . . .

Innerspace warp has launched a probe into theunknown . . . into videospace, to explore the vastuncharted reaches of electric dimensionality wherefewhave ever traveled . The crew is part of the group ofartists from the National Center for Experiments inTelevision who have been brought to San Franciscoto explore the space behind the tube.

Stephen Beck, Aquarian (1950), is engineer and hisdirect video synthesizer like those of Eric Seigal andNam June Paik is the control room for the voyage intovideo space. Beck's electronic karma began to manifestitself in the same way that Farnsworth's karma beganto manifest itself . . . with a crystal radio . Tinkering with

old radios and television sets, with amateur radio andvarious electronic hobbies, cultivated his electronicgenius while his study of piano and french horndeveloped his musical understanding . . and so on . . . .

While attending the Electrical Engineering Collegeof the University of Illinois in 1967/1970 he worked asa design assistant in the Electronic Music Studio at theUniversity . During this time he also began to work withlight as an expressive medium . Of particular signifi-cance were cathode ray tube graphics generated byexciting an oscilloscope with electronic sound signals,and volume color lighting .

During 1969-1970, in search of precise, electronicmethods for controlling light expressively, he beganto develop the first simple video synthesizer (#0), aperforming instrument which appeared in several con-texts, including concerts with composer Salvatore Mar-tirano and his computer sound synthesizer, and a per-formance composition, Prextyphia

During this year work commenced on Direct VideoSynthesizer Number 1 . Now a staff member of theNational Center for Experiments in Television, Beck

continues to develop the video synthesizer, as well asto evolve designs for multiples of the synthesizer . Healso utilizes this tool to realize compositions both forvideo tape recording (called videograms) and live videoperformance . His tape compositions have been shownmany places in this country as well as in Montreal,Paris, Germany and Tokyo, and some of these worksare on permanent collection at the Whitney Museumin New York.

VIDEOGRAM REPERTOIRE

Point of Inflection 1970Cosmic Portal 1971Conception 1972Electronic Notebook

Videosynthesis 1972Illuminated Music I 1972Live performance broadcastover KQED San Francisco 1972

In explaining his work in a white paper entitled

Direct Video: Electronic Artform for Color Television

(available from the National Center), Beck has made

the following remarks.

Within many of mankind's tools are latent prop-erties unobserved even by those whose intuition hasled to the design of the tool . Television is no excep-tion . As an electronic system its range and complexityare astonishing; unfortunately, far more so than itsusual content indicates . Let us go one step furtherthan television might seem to permit and removethe TV camera, replacing it with electronic circuitswhich can be manipulated to effect the formationof an image on a video monitor. This is direct videosynthesis. It presents the artist, or videographer, witha new potential for using television as a mediumof personal expression .

I was led to color television in the search for aprecise means of expressively controlling light . Con-ventional computer graphics displays seemed costlyand neglected a common piece of hardware-thecolor television set-as a display terminal ; hence,the notion of a visual synthesizer as intermediarybetween control and display of an image .

It remained, however, to assess and understandthe aesthetic properties of the television medium,and to formulate an aesthetic model upon which tobase the construction of electronic image-formingmodules which would constitute a synthesizer . Witha voltage-controlled parameter approach the compu-ter could be used to direct the image-producing mod-ules . But more important, the videographer wouldhave intimate control of the image through variousphysical-and also possibly biologically control-led-transducers which would develop control vol-tages.

Sense impressions of both my inner and outerworld and their subsequent intellectualization led tothe formation of an aesthetic model comprised .ofelements of form, motion, texture and color. (Amathematical development of form as points, lines,planes and perspective illusions serves as a precon-ditioner for electronically realizing these elements .)The temporal changing of geometrical relationshipsbetween elements of form gives rise to motion . Tex-ture arises as brightness gradients over the elementsof form, or a macroscopic aggregate of microforms,while the spectral distribution of reflected andradiant energy of forms evokes color from oursenses .

As remarkable as it seems the incredible pretentiousFirst National Video Tape Festival held at the Min-neapolis College of Art during the fall selected onlyoneSan Francisco submission as worthy of recognition .The New York conceptual art oriented judges (Stoney,Youngblood, Rose) failed to award anyWest Coast artistmore than passing notice . Whether it was by accidentor by design, however, the judges elected to give hon-orable mention to one of the really significant worksdone in video during the last few years. Artists Don

Paul Kaufman, executive director/Brice Howard, direc-tor / Marvin Duckler, associate director/Kurt Machein,

technical supervisor/Don Hallock, artist in residence-

/ WillardRosenquist, designer of light as a

medium/Wil-liam Roarty, artist in residence/Stephen Beck, circuitengineer and electronic videographer / Warner Jepson,composer/Rick Davis, circuit engineer/Ann Turner,reports editor/Mimi Scott, secretary.

Hallock and William Roarty joined together at theNational Center to create Untitled which is undoubt-edly a work of great historical magnitude and intensepersonal experience . This time painting takes place inthe multidimensional videosphere where there are asyet no charts for navigation or stars to steer by. Hallockcame to the National Center in 1971 from a long listof credits which include work as a director and pro-ducer, a carpenter, and a freelance film and tapecameraman. His experience as a freelance director inNew York City brought him to the attention of CenterDirector Brice Howard who later brought Hallock tothe Center as a production supervisor .

William Roarty, the Center's graphic artist and Hal-lock's partner in creating Untitled was graduated witha BA in Fine Art and taught in the East before joiningthe National Center . He did a stint at WVIA-TV in Scran-ton where he came to the attention of Howard whobrought him to SanFrancisco as an intern in the NationalCenter program. In addition to the work which Roartyand Hallock have done together, Hallock has createda number of othervideo time paintings-which embracethecomponents of art skillfully transformed by the elec-tron into flowing rhythmic movement, not just at thesurface of the cathode ray tube, but within . His workis an astronomer's vision of the heavens, the tube ishis telescope and through it one is able to leave thereality of spaceship earth and journey behind the look-ing glass to a land of gas clouds and exploding nebulaewhere the forces of electronic creation are held in bal-ance by the artist's extensions of his mind.

Beck, Roartyand Hallock were joined at the NationalCenter in their search for stellarvisions by William Gwin(Capricorn), 1/1/47 . Gwin's resume reads, "1950 (agethree) decided I was a writer . . .1966-7 decided I didn'twant to write and became a sculptor . Met my wife .1968-9 married my wife . . . painted . . . sold three paint-ings . B.A . in English Litfrom Dartmouth." In 1969 Gwinbecame a general assistant at the National Center andin 1971 he became an artist in residence. He is nowin NYC where he is said to be painting . Gwin duringhis residence at the Center wrote a definitive treatiseon his work and experimentation entitled Video Feed-back: How To Make It: An Artist's Comments On ItsUse: A Systems Approach . Excerpts of his paper cannotconvey the depth of the work entirely but are of greatinterest . To quote :

Video feedback is produced by aiming a cameraat a monitor; the camera actually takes a picture ofitself . The patterns thus engendered can be alteredin several ways, by exerting various controls overthe electronics, and by affecting the optical path ofthe picture/monitor loop .

Every slight movement affects the pattern . If thecamera is moved haphazardly, it will flash by thingsthat haven't had time to appear . Miniscule, gradualmovements are absolutely necessary in order tobegin to attain some kind of control overthe pattern.

Changing the relationship between the cameraand the monitor will alter the feedback . A camerastanding upright will give a spiral pattern; when thecamera is tilted slightly, a circle occurs ; a cameraplaced at a 90° angle produces a rectangular shape.Work at the Center is done with small Sony cameras;broadcast studio cameras are obviously too heavyto juggle in this way, so under these circumstancestilt the monitor. After the camera/monitor relation-ship is set, the optical variables to manipulate arethe f stop, zoom and focus of the camera's lens .

Combiningelements-any kind of material-withfeedbacks means introducing other images into thelight pattern of the feedback loop, thereby changingthe original feedback pattern. Using two cameras,this can be done with any sort of object, a person,or with reflective surfaces such as pieces of mirrormylar. In the latter case, feedback becomes the fixedelement, with the camera set and unattended, andthe changes are produced by moving lights on themylar pieces and by moving the camera which ispicking up the mylar reflections .

Use of feedback becomes more sophisticated aselectronic variables are introduced into theloop-additional cameras, level control from aswitching device, reversed polarity, color, "specialeffects" (particularly keying), and time delays .

Negative polarity allows the same possible varietyof patterns that occur with positive feedback .

Feedback's primary drawback for the artist is that,because of the ease with which one can producelovely patterns, it is tempting to get caught up inthe process of discovering it to the exclusion of any-thing else . Several years ago, a poet visiting theCenter observed : "feedback is a whore." Its pretti-ness can be so enticing that time and energy aredestroyed without leading to any serious expressionor work . In this situation, it's been fun, but maybe almost counter-productive to art.

Making with feedback is just like making withany other artistic tool : it takes patience to learn theuse and control of it . This is time consuming, sincethere are so many variables involved in each feed-back pattern . Often it is difficult-or impossible-toreturn to a form once produced . It's advisable, there-fore, to videotape an intricate kind of feedback ; youmay never find it again . These tapes can form an"image bank" of material to be used later by them-selves, or to be fed into another combination ofimages .

People often deal with feedback as an interesting"effect."As an effect, it's not very interesting . What'simportant is what's done with it . In my own experi-ence, I prefer carefully using the same feedback asa different element in many tapes to concentratingon finding a new feedback form for each new work.They young state of video art tends to emphasizethe new. So often with feedback it's just new, butcompositionally rather uninteresting .

Is feedback a whore? I'd ask, "Are you an artist?"And, "is feedback something you can use to makeart?" It can be anything you make it .

Videospace travel logs are available under the titleElectronic Notebooks. The Center has completed thefirst two videotapes in a series of Electronic Notebooks :Videosynthesis, a descriptive portrait of the Center'sDirect Video Synthesizer, and Irving Bridge, an originalvideo composition by artist William Gwin.

This series of tapes will provide a continuing recordof the artistic work, research, technical invention andgeneral explorations into the making and experiencingof electronic images conducted at the Center . It willinclude a range of materials, from original video worksto reports on research activities . Some of the tapeswill deal with one subject matter, such as videosynthesisor color, while others will consist solely of a new workmade by a member of the Center staff . As the seriescontinues, the Center will broaden the service withreports on research being done elsewhere and videoworks by artists outside the Center .

The Videosynthesis tape reflects the artistic con-sciousness and technological reasoning of the DirectVideo Synthesizer's creator, Stephen Beck. It includesan explanation of the device's operating principles asset forth in form (developed as points, lines, planesand perspective illusions), color, texture, and motion,as well as a new work by Beck entitled Conception.Music for Videosynthesis was composed by WarnerJepson, the Center's composer-in-residence .

Irving Bridge is a forty-minute video compositionby painter William Gwin with sound score by WarnerJepson . Seattle public television station KCTS plans togive the premiere broadcast of the work this winter .

In addition to the Notebooks a log of videospacetravels by individual artists contains the following vi-sions of innerspace :

By Stephen Beck : Conception; Videosynthesis (music,W. Jepson) ; Morphogenesis (music, W. Jepson) ;Illuminated Music.

By Stephen Beck and Warner Jepson : CometsBy William Gwin : Irving BridgeBy Don Hallock : Control Points; Winter Wisdom; Eggs?

33; Ball, Kiss With No Up; Blind Shaman .By William Roarty : Earth Poem; Passage .By William Roarty and Don Hallock : Untitled; Chinese

Wolf.By Willard Rosenquist : Lightforms For An Electric Con-

cert .

RECENT RESEARCH TAPES

Test Tape: Synthesized graphics using scan converterand data tablet .

Test Tape: Synthesized sound generating video imageswith scan converter .

Conversation With Rudolf Arnheim andAnalysis Of CBSEvening News.

Information about the National Center for Experi-ments in Television which appears in this article hasbeen supplied by Ann Turner, who is information director for the Center. For further information on the Cen-ter's activities, contact Ms . Turner. In addition to thewhite paper reports, the National Center publishes anewsletter. Write for the newsletter at the_ newaddress:

National Center for Experiments in Television288 Seventh Street

San Francisco, California 94103

Bill Roarty and Don Hallock in the Experimental Studio.