industrialization of dream ejaculating ecstacy of mind (1982)
The influence for my video loop work:
Eno's audio loop diagram (re-created by siys)
I began working with 1/2-inch reel-to-reel b+w video in 1973 at age 15, in high school. In 1978, while I was in college, I was staring at the diagram of an audio loop system on the back cover of “Discreet Music” by Brian Eno, and Eukeka!—I could apply this system to video, I thought!!! I immediately began experimenting with various video loop system setups . My first obstacle was realizing video had sync to contend with, making it a much more difficult medium to loop with than audio.
There were many variations and configurations of video looping systems which I devised, but I will explain the simplest system, which I used for many years (mostly using b&w equipment, and, often, employing video synthesis for creating color. others were done in color). Here's how it's done...
(refer to diagram)
Place two 1/2" reel-to-reel video machines as far apart as you want the delay to be and thread the videotape between the two. The first machine is recording, the second is playing back. A camera is feeding the recording deck and a video monitor is displaying the playback deck. Aim the camera at the video moniter and let the games begin.
Now, depending on what type of piece I wished to create, I could either have the camera stay zoomed in within the confines of the video monitor screen, or have it zoomed out showing the video monitor screen at varying ratios within the camera's frame. I created ‘ambient’, ‘wallpaper’ or ‘abstract’ (whatever you want to call them) pieces keeping the camera zoomed in within the frame of the video monitor. I would zoom out beyond the frame of the video monitor to create ‘performance’ oriented pieces.
The looping systems are difficult to get good results with, even when using perfectly functioning equipment. In many case I spent more than 20 times the amount of time setting up the looping system, in relation to the time I spent recording the piece!
journey through the center of yr set (1982)
night emerges day (1982)
in search of divine attributes (1982)
hand man loop (1983)
synoid (1983)
