Calling Nam Jun Paik a video art pioneer would be too narrow to describe his impact. In exploding the idea of what television and television processing could be in his art, he helped create a conceptual revolution that cleared the path for today’s ubiquitous and always-dynamic screens. But to really understand that work, you might want to delve into the theory of cybernetics, for the same reasons that can help understand early, radical electronic music and the path we’re on today.

Rhizome has a lovely essay by Carolyn Kane, framed by a new gallery show in New York. That show should be a pilgrimage for ardent Paikists. With animal-machine hybrids and screens everywhere, this is the cybernetic thought process made manifest, just at a time when we’re finding new insight into our relationship with technology as it becomes mobile.

As a Buddha gazes into a screen, visualists can contemplate being the screens on which they project. As Kane writes:

Paik is well known for transforming the architectural function of the television set from a mere box to an element distributed in space. However, these interventions must also be contextualized with his ongoing interest in cybernetics, a theory of animals and machines in their environment. In 1971 Paik asserted that today, the “nature of [the] environment is much more on TV than on film or painting. In fact, TV (its random movement of tiny electrons) is the environment.”

Maybe it’s time for some new visualist manifestos.

The Cybernetic Pioneer of Video Art: Nam June Paik [Rhizome]

Bad news from comments: while the white MacBook has the same mini-DVI output as its predecessor, it doesn’t work with adapters that support TV out. That means, basically, forget what I said earlier.

This adapter is not compatible with the 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo white MacBook introduced in January 2009.

Oddly, as far as I know the card itself should support TV out. So anyone who thinks this is all some DRM conspiracy, more fodder – though the same machines still do support VGA analog out, which is not a protected path and could itself allow piracy. I’m stumped. I think maybe computer makers think we don’t want TV out any more. Open to theories.

Thanks, janeoblivion. And no thanks to you, Apple / NVIDIA / shadowy forces who have aligned against our TV out, darnit.

This isn’t your average oscilloscope. This is that buttoned-down lab equipment with the tie off, gone psychedelic. The Derraindrop is the latest strange hardware creation from the wizards at Critter and Guitari, the folks who brought us the brilliant DIY Video Critter custom video synth and other wonderful video creations. In an age when hardware has waned as video input, they’re keeping the dream alive.

The Derraindrop is simple but brilliant: plug in an audio input, get oscilloscope output, but repainted into sweet, groovy color. Knobs adjust mode (both lines and filled areas are available), color, and gain. And the box is ridiculously pretty.

I hope this is just the beginning of a wonderful age of DIY video hardware. Even if you’re not inspired to go buy one (I’ve personally hid my credit card in a 100-foot-deep hole), this may inspire your own creations – or at least a new paint job for your V4.

Derraindrop Scope on the C&G Store

Dearraindrop Video Scope from Critter and Guitari on Vimeo.

DRM on displays and projectors? Believe it. Apple, like many computer vendors, has added DRM to its new laptops in the form of HDCP (which, bizarrely, stands for “High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection”). This is doubly odd, because Apple cited technical restrictions of Blu-Ray as a reason for not including those drives on their machines – only to turn around and add restrictions to their own content on the iTunes store.

It might not be worth mentioning at all, but it serves to demonstrate yet another disconnect between vendors and the way people actually use video output features on laptops. You might think that you could connect a flat-panel computer display or projector to your new, pricey MacBook, and watch a show or movie you bought from iTunes, right? No can do. But that’s the reality: a lot of people aren’t hooking up video out to an HD TV. Heck, some of us still have old, tube TVs – only to discover a lot of laptops (not just Apple’s) no longer include a dedicated TV out.

So, you’ve got a shiny new MacBook / MacBook Pro — or any number of newer PC notebooks — and suddenly you realize you have no analog video output. Sure, you might be happy to output to VGA/DVI or even HDMI when you can, but for those Special Moments when that isn’t possible and you need to go a bit oldschool, you need a solution. Short of a pricey scan converter (see extended discussion on our last post on this topic), what to do?

There’s been plenty of discussion about these questions over on the Apple support forums:

Mini DisplayPort to Composite/ S-Video??

One possible solution on Amazon with some nice reviews behind it that some folks there are trying:
VideoSecu PC to TV Presentation Converter VGA2TV 1L7

Apple forum poster Lougle has posted an extensive hands-on review of the PC to Video EZ product here. Lougle gave us permission to republish here. (Warning: if you’re offended by graphic imagery of various dongles, adapters, and additional cables protruding from the pristine aluminum industrial design of Apple’s stylish new laptop, you may want to shield your eyes.)

I, and many others, have been looking for a way to output video (composite and s-video) from the NEW Macbooks and MacBook Pro’s sporting the Mini DisplayPort since Apple as yet to release such adapter. I use my computer to output video (s-video) for digital slide shows and presentations. If our new aluminum MacBook could not meet this requirement back to the store it would go.

While searching the web for a adapter, converter or whatever could help get video out of the new MacBook I quickly learned ($10 later) that a simple VGA to s-video cable would not work.

NO GOOD!

I soon came across the PC to Video EZ. It is sold at several online retailers but I finaly decided to buy it from NewEgg.com (links at bottom of post). NewEgg is retailer I knew I could trust and get fast shipping from. I ordered the converter box on Friday and it arrived today (Monday) with standard shipping!

Bottom line, the PC to Video EZ from GrandTec outputs video (both composite and s-video) at equal quality to Apple’s own video adapters used on previous (pre-DisplayPort) computers. I, owning a MacBook Pro with DVI to video adapter, could not tell the difference.

The device itself is small. It is nothing you would complain about carrying around and it gets the job done.

PC to Video EZ from GrandTec