VJ-U has posted a wonderful livecast on Operator 11 featuring the restoration of 3 Rutt-Etra raster analog video synthesizers. I was fortunate enough to be invited to check the machines out in person and have some time to try and help out. Mathew Schlanger and Benton C Bainbridge help explain the history and unique capability of the Rutt-Etra. Certainly worth a watch for those interested in the art form and unique hardware.

For those unaware of what a Rutt-Etra is, be sure and check out Audio Visualizers page on the subject. There is a lot of history with these machines, and they are still quite competent tools with a very unique look and feel.

Data Is Nature brings to our attention the Valsuka Archive, an incredible trove of early video art history, exhibitions, work, designs and circuit diagrams. Paul describes it better than I:

The Vasulka Archive is massive repository of documents from the pioneering days of electronic, computer and video art. Containing a staggering 27000 pages of scanned documents, replete with hand typed texts, circuit diagrams and skuzzy ink marks, I could spend the rest of the week perusing this stuff, believe me. The big names are here, Crutchfield, Conrad, Paik, Van der Beek, Youngblood etc - hand written correspondences to the Vasulka’s as well as reviews and even obituaries of each artist/scientist - but history is selective and remembers according to its own algorithm. Encouragingly, not only do we find artifacts from the so called key movers of the time but also an exhaustive list of lesser, and relatively unknown practitioners waiting to be (re)discovered.

Check out the The Vasulka Archive and see what has inspired every generation of video artist. From TV to film to Music Video and club style VJing, it all started with these pioneers.

Via Data is Nature.

Mashups. Sampling a President named Bush. Bah. In the early 90s, life was better. Multimedia collective Emergency Broadcast Network was sampling found footage in truly clever ways — using VHS, artifacts and all. And driving around in massive projection assault vehicles with rotating satellite dishes. And building rockets into golf bags. Really. Now that’s my kind of visualist. Robokid hooks us up with this “documercial” explaining their work (contrats on having a Wikipedia page, Josh!):

If you enjoyed the DJ/VJ grand piano, from EBN’s Gardner Post, you’ve only just seen the beginning. EBN were legendary in their time, but since there was no YouTube in 1992, it was tricky getting hold of their videos. Now, no such problem. Here’s one example of their work, which wins extra points for featuring a piano-playing pigeon: