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Steina &WoodyVasulkaVideo Works

Acknowledgement

In holding this exhibition we would like to express oursincerest thanks to the following individuals and institutionsfor their kind cooperation .

Steina VASULKAWoody VASULKA:Melissa DUBBIN

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The illustrations accompanying the discussion of artworks were provided by Electronic Arts lntermia .Xindicates video images which were reproduced as data at [CC with the permission of Sterna and WoodyVASULKA. Unless otherwise designated, all texts are by Steina and Woody VASULK.A and arereprinted from Electronic Arts Intermix : Video (Edited by Lori 7_1PPAY, 1992) with slight modifications.

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Steina VASULKA (born 1940, Iceland) andWoody VASULKA (born 1937,Czechoslovakia),have been experimenting with images and soundssince the early 1970s. and are considered amongthe pioneers of media art . Working withengineers, these two artists have researched andexperimented with computer graphics and theDVE (Digital Video Effecter), an articulatortechnique crucial to television programming today .In the process of developing electronic imagingtools themselves, the VASULKAs have created anexpressive language of electronic image-making . Itis not uncommon for media artists to collaboratewith engineers when creating a work ordeveloping tools, as did Nam June PAIK with ABEShuya on «Paik / Abe Video Synthesizer* . TheVASULKAs have worked with engineers such asSteve BUTT and Bill ETRa to develop the ScanProcessor and many other electronic imageprocessing devices . Following upon such efforts,they organized EIGE\WELT DER APPARATE-WELT (PIONEERS OF ELECTRONIC ART, ArsElectronica, 1992) introducing the developers ofaudio and visual devices for media art .

The success of video is due iii part to the factthat it is a convenient way to record images . Butbecause it does so electronically, it has also madepossible a new form of expression_ TheVASULKAs have utilized this potential inproducing their videoworks, in the process ofacquiring the vocabulary of electronic imaging . Inhis current installation «The Brotherhood*,Woody VASULKA has reworked and pushed tonew levels the language of electronic imaging fromhis t<Art of Memory» (1987), which thematizestwentieth-century war as "memory"= "m}Ih."

This exhibition includes 32 of the VASULKAsvideoworks, from Steina VASULKA's record of her1970's performance repertoire «Violin Power»(1970-78) to Woody VASULKA's KArt ofMemory*, and represents a retrospective of theirnumerous experiments .

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The VASULKAs : Digital Art's Agenda-Setters

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Speeding across networks and suffusingdisplays with true colors like haiku composed ofbytes of digital technology, recent developments inmedia art herald the birth of a new art form that

should be celebrated in its own right . Yet the

digital snobs in Japan, it seems, are either feigningamnesia or have chosen to remain ignorant of

digital image pioneers such as Ed EMSCHWILLER,

John WHITNEY, and Steina and WoodyVASULKA. This is unfortunate .

During the late sixties and early seventies -

the era of video art represented by PAIK'singenious TV sculptures - the VASULKAs engageda completely new sphere of issues by constructing

a narrative of digital space . Nearly a quarter of a

century later, the ultimate goal of their numerousexperiments-installation works that span (,HybridAutomatic Theaters (1990) to HThe Brotherhood))series (1994 - ) - cannot be reduced to the notionof "an interactive experience ." After all, how manyinteractive installations are as self-sufficient andindifferent to the enthusiastic visitor as those bythe VASULKAs?

The numerous video artworks assembled

here reveal that what the VASULKAs call digital

space is founded on a world model which differs

from current cultural codes of cyberspace andvirtual reality, and originates from a unique

technical experience . Their early tapes do not seek

to be appreciated for their "content (videogram)"

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as do films ; they are documents that have realizedthe therapeutic force of physical action (forinstance, <+Violin Power)) 1970 - 78) ; or are self-created test reels for analog or digital videoprocessors, which they made in rapid successionafter 1973 (for instance, «The Matter. and «C-Trend, both 1994) . According to WoodyVASUI.KA, their experimental videography, whichconsists of abstract modulations added to concretevideo images, produces a "lexicon" for describingdigital space . He states: "We believed at that time,and we still believe, that the circuits contain thelanguage."

In 1980, the VASULKAs moved from the eastcoast of the United States to Santa Fe, New Mexicowhere they live today . Since then, their work hasbegun to change . Those changes can be seen inworks like «The Commission» (1984), which isbased on a PAGANINI tale . This work highlights anarrative dimension, noticeably absent during theirNew York and Buffalo period . «Art of Memory.(1987), which premiered at the 1987 ArsElectronica, is a masterpiece and a complete videoartwork . It thematizes the anguish of RobertOPPENHEIMER, head of the Manhattan Project .A fluid and lyrical layering, «Art of Memory»consists of a recording of OPPENHEIMER'sexpressions of remorse, clips from a wardocumentaries, and an angel prompter thatappears to represent OPPENHEIMER's conscience .

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For Woody VASULKA, the Central Europeanlandscape of Czechoslovakia where lie lived

through his late twenties, represents a stratifiedmemory in which nature and history are givenequal significance . The new world, in turn, servesas a vast landscape that vigilantly remembers andsubmits only to the laws of nature . One wonderswhether these two landscapes have been integrated

in VASUL.KA's work, or whether the gap between

them remains . . . These newer works, however, arenot confined to the developments of one artist .

They should be seen as significant moments in the

history of video art, which commemorate its

transformation from a collection of superficialelectronic images to the search for a structural law .

Although rather evident, «Art of Memory»

thematizes the powerful or paternal male's rapportto technology and serves, for the most part, as thesource for «The Brotherhood-, which is

constructed from discarded military paraphenalia .

The VASULKAs are among those who haveset the agenda for digital art . Over the course of

their twenty-year-career, they have systematicallyconsidered the body, memory, and the pathologiesof power and fear, subjects which much ofcontemporary media art has marginalized .

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Steina Vasulka's Works

Violin Power1970-78, 10 :04 min ., b/w, sound.Phase Shifter: Harald BODE,Scan Processor: Steve RUTTIBill ETRA

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Steina terms this procedural work "a demotape on how to play video on the violin ." Herbackground as a violinist and her evolution frommusician to visual artist is referenced through ananalogy of video camera to musical instrument .Steina is first seen in footage from the early 1970s,playing the violin and singing to The Beatles' "LetIt Be ." As succeeding segments trace achronological progression, Steina layers imageryand time . The violin itself ultimately becomes animage-generating tool, as she connects it toimaging devices, creating abstract Visualtranspositions of sounds and vibrations . Thisunconventional self-portrait is a study of therelationship of music to electronic image .

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Flux1977, 8:10 min., b/w, sound.Field Flip/Flop Switcher : George BROWN,Scan Processor : Steve RUTTIBill ETRA

A two character material,water now, and video noise are the basic sourcesof mttlti-directional moveinent Within switched framesor slow scanned noise ficlds .Woody VASL;LKA

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Selected WorksTotal program: 1979-82, 29:52 min., color, sound .

Bad1979, 2:14 min .The Image Articulator : Jeffrey SCHIER .

Summer Salt1982, 18:48 min.(Sky High 2:42 min. ; Low Ride 2 :59 min. : Somersault 5 :14 min. ;Rest 2:16 min. ; Photographic Memory 5:10 min .)

Urban Episodes1980, 8:54 min.Optical Instrumentation: Josef KRAMES. Produced by KTCA-TV, Minneapolis.

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Steina's works from the late 1970s and early1980s are exercises in the phenomenology ofvision and the redefinition of space and landscape,as articulated through mechanized, optical, andelectronic devices . «Bade is a technicalexploration of several commands in theVASULKA's Buffer Oriented Digital Device, whichcontrols digital imaging functions such as up/downand right/left movement, as well as the stretchingand squeezing of the image . Steina uses her ownface as visual material, rhythmically dismantlingand reconstructing her self-image . «UrbanEpisodes)) is a striking phenomenological study inan urban landscape, an exhilarating restructuringof physical space that defies expected modes ofseeing and the laws of gravity and reflection . In apublic plaza in Minneapolis, Steina set up amotorized, rotating Machine Vision Device, whichincludes mirrors and two cameras that pan, tilt andzoom. «Summer Saltv is a dramatic exploration ofthe phenomenology of space and vision, as Steinauses mechanical and electronic deNrices tophysically investigate the southwestern landscape .This artificial vision allows the %fewer laht'rcdperceptions and spatial perspectives . The fivesegments include dynamic exercises with Steina'smirrored lens attachment, the physicality ofunexpected camera placement, and electronicmanipulation of the textures and colors of thelandscape .

Selected Treecuts1980, 8:11 min., color, sound.The Image Articulator: Jeffrey SCHIER .

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«Selected Treecuts» is a formal examinationof the distinction between camera-generated anddigital images, and a layered juxtaposition ofcontrasting representations of reality . Themethodology of the tape is simple : a zoom lensmoves slowly in and out on a group of trees,alternating between digitized and camera-generated, "real" images . The movement in thetape is produced by the automated zoom lens androtating prism ; the images switch rhythmicallybetween camera images and digital images heldbriefly in computer memory . The contrastbetween the "real" camera images of trees and thefrozen, digital computer images forms an essay inmotion and stillness, the organic and the synthetic,tracing a trajectory from the photographic to theelectronic .

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«Cantaloup» is aninformal documentary onthe VASULKA's Digitalimage Articulator, asophisticated imagingdevice they designed withJeffrey SCHIER . Usingimage material such as acantaloup and the threeanist/designers as imagematerial, Steina explainsthe capabilities of the

machine, including its real-time imaging abilityand the artiCUIation of images in a form of a digitalcode . She describes the varying sizes of pixels(picture elements), the layers (or slices) of colorand tone that can be derived from one image, andtechniques such as "grabbing" the image andmultiplying it . This document offers a highlyinformative, spontaneous demonstration of acomplex imaging device .

Voice Windows`In collaboration with Joan LA BARBARA .Music : Joan LA BARBARA.Scan Processor : Steve RUTT/Bill ETRA, The Hearn Video Lab .1986, 8:10 min ., color, stereo sound.

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Sound, as visually ti-mifcsted throughelectronic imagin, , becomes a spatial componentin this exquisitely rendered confluence oflandscape, music and digital manipulation .Singer/composer Joan U~ BARBARA performs aseries of voice chants and intonations, creatingenergized patterns on a grid of horizontal lines thatrecalls a musical scale . This aliimateil line pattcrz1,vibrating and dancing to the energy generated byLA BARBARA's voice, is inscribed onto movingimagery of the southwest landscape . Throughelectronic imaging, the energized patternsthemselves act as "windo-,vs" that reveal yetanother layer of landscape imagery, creatingintricate fields of illusotny spatial iransforinations .

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UflitK!In collaboration with Doris CROSS.

The Hearn Video Lab.1987, 9:12 min., color, stereo sound .

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In <{Lilith» - a name that evokes biblical andmystical references - Steina alters and manipulatesthe face of a woman (painter Doris CROSS)so that it is submerged within a natural andtechnological landscape .Employing the imaging techniques of focal planeshift (altering the depth of field) and frame"grabbing" (a succession of frozen images),she creates a constantl}o shifting visual field inwhich an image appears to exist in a constant fluxof temporal and spatial planes .The woman's electronically distorted speechadds a further haunting dimension tothis almost sculptural fusion of human figureand landscape .

24

A So Desu Ka" -

Dancers: Saburo TESHIGAWARA and his ensembleCo-editor: Hope ATTERBURYFunding: Hirofumi MORA of the Hitachi CorporationTheJapan/United States Friendship CommissionThe Rockefeller FoundationThe American Film Institute in collaboration withThe National Endowment for the Arts1993, 10 min ., color, sound.

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PyroglyphsIn close collaboration with Tom JOYCE1995, 27 min ., color, sound.

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In 1994 1 spent long hours with blacksmithTom] OYCE Nrideo taping the process of buildingan iron gate .

I found iron ga ¬e$ a little tooconcrete, so 1 closed in on the intense and violentnature of materials being manipulated by torches,files, and anvils - the rapid flicker of flames . Theinitial inspiration for «Pyroglyphs» was the ancientart of blacksmithing, but soon became a musicaltreatise of hammering and welding, blowtorchesand metal saws . Those images and the soundsthey made in turn inspired Tom to torch wood,paper, metal, and liquids specifically for thecamera . The processed sounds, became a guidefor arranging the work into a composition . Theimages are often slowed down, backwards orupside down . - Steina VASLLKA

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My background is in music . For me, it is thesound that leads me into the image . Every imagehas its own sound and in it I attempt to capturesomething flowing and living . I apply the sameprinciple to art as to playing the violin : with thesame attitude of continuous practice, the sameconcept of composition .

Since my art schooling was in music, 1 do notthink of images as stills, but always as motion . Myvideo images primarily hinge upon an undefinedsense of time ,~N-ith no earth grabiity .

It is like aduty to sho-~~~- what can not be seen except with theeye of media : water flowing uphill or sideways,upside clown rolling seas or a weather beaten dropof a glacier melt .

The idea is that perhaps the audience couldfeel a part of this creative trance, living for amoment in a mental world where they have neverbeen .

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HomeDual Colorizer: Eric SIEGEL .Video SequencerNideo Keyer : George BROWN .Line-locked Strobe : Steve RUTT.1973, 16:47 min ., color, sound .

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<<Home» is an early experiment in which theVASULKAS transform ordinary household objectsthrough analog imaging devices . With humor anda sense of spontaneous discovery, they animateeveryday objects through the application ofelectronic effects which serve as a primer of earlyimaging techniques : horizontal drift of layeredimage planes, colorizing, keying. Apples, shoes,bottles, teapots come to life in surreal tableaux thatsuggest psychedelic MAGRITTE paintings, as theVASULKAS transform still lifes through the innerdynamic of electronic image processing .

Golden Voyage6 Input Keyer-Mixer/Gen-Lock System : George BROWN.Dual Colorizer : Eric SIEGEL .1973, 27:36 min ., color, sound .

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In this early work, an electronic homage toMAGRITTE, the VASULKAS demonstratefundamental imaging techniques . Inspired byMAGRITTE's painting «La Legende Doree», thisexercise employs a three-camera set-up, withimages layered through a multikeyer, to create theillusion of objects MOVing through spatial planes.Loaves of French bread embark on a surreal videojourney through electronic landscapes, finallyarriving in an absiract space . The spectacle of theanimated loaves acids a playful spontaneity to thisearl, articulation of illusory space and three-dimensionality in video .

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This program presents the VASULKAS' earlyformal experimentations with analog imageprocessing and their investigations of multiplecamera set-ups and keyers to articulate spatial,temporal, and sound/image manipulation . «SoloFor 3» is a didactic yet playful exercise in whichthree cameras were trained on three differentimages of the number three . Image planes arelayered, arranged and sequenced-, the result is amultifaceted choreography of numbers .

<<Reminiscence» is an otherworldly record ofa Portapak walk through a farmhouse in Moravia,the Site of Woody VASULKA's youth, as seenthrough the transformative effects of the Rutt/EtraScan Processor . Images become eerily sculptural,fading in and out of abstraction, as if in evocationof memory . «Soundgated Images* is an earlyexample of the VASULKAS' ongoing explorationsof interfacing modes of simultaneously generatedsound and image, in which abstract, processedimages are transposed as electronic sounds .«Noisefields» is an important example of theseearly experiments, a visualization of the materialityof the electronic signal and its energy . Colorizedvideo noise (or snow) is keyed through a circle,producing a rich static sound that is modulates! bythe energy content of the video .

Selected Works IITotal program : 1974, 21 :57 min, color,

Heraldic View4:21 min .Multikeyer-, George BROWN .Waveform Generators : Steve RUTT.Dual Colorizer : Eric SIEGEL .

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Here the VASULKAS continue to develop theimaging potential of artist-designed electronicdevices, as the}? formally analyze and deconstructthe inherent materiality of %ideo . In «HeraldicView)), an oscillator-generated pattern drifts over acamera image of bricks and stone, the patternsmodulated by sharp bursts of voltage generated byan audio synthesizer . H 1-2-3-4» is an exercise inanimating numbers, using four cameras and amultikeyer to re-order and layer the image planes .«Soundsize» continues the VASULKAS'investigation into the relationship of sound andimage . Here a pattern of dots is modulated bysounds generated from a synthesizer, changing sizeand shape in a visual manifestation of electronicsound . In cTelc>>, a Rutt/Etra Scan Processor isused to transform portapak images from a trip to atown in southern Bohemia . Like faded memories,images of the landscape and people are sculptedand abstracted, as the energy of the image is

transl~ilcd into oh~flonlc scan lines .

Progeny andIn Search of the CastleProgeny18:28 min . In collaboration with Bradford SMITH .

In Search of the Castle9:29 min .The Image Articulator : Jeffrey SCHIER .Total program : 1981, 27:57 min ., color, sound .

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In these two works, the VASULKAS employimaging tools to transform physical space and alterperception . «Progeny>r is a collaboration withsculptor Bradford SMITH. SMITH's organic andsensual sculptural forms are transformed by themerging of one of Steina's Machine Vision Devices- a rotating, mirrored sphere with pre-programmed camera movements and opticaltranspositions - with Woody's digital processing .In Search of the Castle)> is a journey of personal,

perceptual, and technical transformations . Drivingin the industrial wastelands of Buffalo, New York,and taping through Steina's mirrored globe, theVASULKAS develop the central metaphor of asearch . This work traces their odyssey fromnaturalistic to increasingly complex, image-processed landscapes, until they arrive at anabstract electronic environment, a synthetic spacetransformed by technology .

In Search of the Castle

Steina and Wood- Vasulka

37

Assistance. Hirofumi MORA,Japan-United States Friendship Commission .

Produced by IMATCOIATANOR for Television Espanola S.A, E I Arte del Video.

1989,4 min., color, stereo sound.

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uses theelevator as a metaphorical vehicle to reveal anoutsiders gaze into contemporaryJapaneseculture . The continual opening and closing ofelevator doors serves a a succinct formal device,as the viewer is offered brief glimpses of a series oflandscapes - natural, urban, cultural, anddomestic . Doors open onto doors to reveal layersof public and.

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Selected WorksTotal program: 1973-74, 29:01 min., color, mono, and stereo sound.

Vocabulary1973, 4:17 min., stereo sound.Multikeyer: George BROWN.Scan Processor: Steve RUTTIBill ETRA .Dual Colorizer: Eric SIEGEL .

The Matter

1974, 3 :56 min., sound.Scan Processor: Steve RUTTIBill ETRA .Multikeyer : George BROWN.

C-Trend

1974, 9:03 min., stereo sound .Multikeyer/H.D.Variable Clock: George BROWN.Scan Processor: Steve RUTTIBill ETRA.Dual Colorizer: Eric SIEGEL .

Explanation1974, 11 :45 min., sound.Multikeyer : George BROWN.Dual Colorizer: Eric SIEGEL .Scan Processor: Steve RUTTIBill ETRA .

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This program of early works includesdidactic explanations of VASULKA's image-makingtools, and also charts his search for a new"grammes" of the development of these imagingtechniques . «Vocabulary» is "designed to conveyin a didactic form the basic energy laws inelectronic imaging." Here, a hand, as a metaphorfor expression and gesture, and a sphere thatsymbolizes form are processed with a keyer,colonizer, and scan processor . «The Matter*,«C-Trend», and «Explanation>, are methodical,didactic works that deconstruct the essentialelements of electronic imaging and then attempt toconstruct a syntax from those elements . In «TheJ

Matter», a generated dot pattern is re-sculpted intomyriad three-dimensional forms and shapes bysimultaneous sound and image generatingwaveforms . In «C-Trend» , a view of traffic shotfrom a window is transformed and sculpted intopermutations of abstract, three-dimensional forms .«Explanation» is a computer-generated cross-hatchof lines that becomes three-dimensional, definingshapes in a synthetic landscape of graduallyshifting image position and size .

Woody Vasulka

43

Artifacts1980, 21 :20 min ., b/w and color, sound .The Image Articulator: Jeffrey SCHIER.

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«Artifacts» is a didactic demonstration of thesyntax and vocabulary of the digital image, via theelectronic capabilities of the Digital ImageArticulator . Woody's intent is to create a dialogue,a symbiotic relationship between artist andmachine . "By «Artifacts»," he states, "I mean that Ihave to share the creative process with themachine . It is responsible for too many elementsin this work . These images come to you as theycame to me - in a spirit of exploration ." Initiatedby basic algorithmical procedures, the imagescoalesce to forte an overall conception of theelectronic vocabulary made possible by thistechnology . Woody works with a spherical shapeand, in an ironic reference to the "hand of theartist," studies his hand as transformed by theImager.

9

The CommissionCamera : Steina VASULKA .With : Robert ASHLEY, Ernest GUSELLA, Cosimo CORSANO,Ben HARRIS, Andrea HARRIS, David OSSMAN.Set Design : Bradford SMITH. Editor: Peter KIRBY .Audio Mix : Baird BANNER. Vocoder : Harald BODE.Scan Processor : Steve RUTTIBill ETRA.Digital Image Articulator: Jeffrey SCHIER .1983, 40 :00 min ., color, stereo sound .

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Applying his electronic imaging codes tonarrative in «The Commission>>, Woody VASULKAdevelops a metaphorical image language toenvision an epic electronic opera . The text, whichis based on the relationship of violinist NiccoloPAGANINI (played by video artist ErnestGUSELLA) and composer Hector BERLIOZ(composerlperformer Robert ASHLEY), confrontsmyths of Romanticism, history, and art-making .Constructing a fantastic video theater, Woodystages a narrative of transformation . an intricatelycrafted blend of figuration and abstraction, inwhich imaging techniques serve as expressivevisual syntax . Specific video effects are assignedinterpretive meaning, reframed images proliferatewithin images in re-compositions that propel thenarrative progression . «The Commission)) is apivotal work in the articulation of narrativestrategies through all electronic image language .

Wood- Vasulka

47

Art of MemoryWith: Daniel NAGRIN, KLEIN-Voices : Doris CROSS.The Image Articulator: Jeffrey SCHIER .The Rutt/Etra Scan ProcessorCollaboration: Bradford SMITH,Penelope PLACE, Steina VASULKA, David AUBREY.1987, 36 min., color, mono sound.

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«Art of Memory>y is one of the major worksin video, an astonishingly original and maturearticulation of Woody's inquiry into the meaningOf recorded images . Constructing a hauntedtheater of memory from a spectacle of filmic andelectronic images, Woody collapses and transformscollective memory and history in an enigmaticspace and time . The monumental landscape of theAmerican Southwest is the mythic site onto whichhe inscribes newsreel footage of war - ghostlyimages that become malleable, sculptural formsthrough constant electronic transmutations . Inthis metaphorical ~-ision, the recorded imagebecomes a monument to the past ; history becomescultural memory through photography andcinema . Woody locates the trauma of twentieth-century history in filmic images of violent events,including the Spanish Civil War, the RussianRevolution, World War 11, and the advent of thenuclear bomb. Presided over by a winged creatureof conscience, history and memory are seen to bemanipulated by the history, and memory ofimages . In a breathtaking conjoinment of theapparatuses of war, history and the media, Woodyachieves a poignant, ultimately tragic memorytheater .

Works

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Ourwork has developed through design and useof special videotools, which have progressivelycontributed to the formal and conceptual complexity ofour imagery. In this process, we have worked in a closecollaboration with several tool designers and builders,notably Eric SIEGEL, George BROWN, Bill ETRA, SteveRUTT, Don h1cARTHUR and Jeffrey SCHIER .

RutUEtra Scan ProcessorProduced in 1974 by Steve RUTT and Biil ETRA .An analog device using a programmable deflectionsystem of the cathode ray tube to reshape standardtelevision frames .

Dual Colorizer"roduced it , P 972 by Eric SIEGEL.A device that assigns color to black and white imagesaccording to the grey scale differences . "Dual" indicatesthat there are two separate colorizing channels

MultikeyerProduced i : L 97? by George BROWNA device that assigns up to six layers of discrete cameraimages, allowing manipulation of these images as if theywere in real foreground/background relationships .Additionally, in this real time process, the re-assignmentof the plane-location can be made . Another operationalmode quantizes the grey scale of a single input into sixdiscrete grey levels.

ProgrammerProduced in 1974 by George BROWN.The complexity of the multikeyer operation necessitatedautomation of its processes . We thereforecommissioned George BROWN to constuct aprogrammable control device able to store a sequence ofoperations and perform them automatically . BROWN'sapproach was to construct a fully digital instrument .

H. D. Variable ClockProduced in 1572 ,,y George BROWN.A pulse generator operating in the regions of thehorizontal sync (15,750Hz) capable of finely controlleddeviation from the standard horizontal frequency. Itenabled us to introduce the dynamic element ofcontrolled horizontal drift to the video image.

Field Flip/Flop Switcher?r-oouced in 1971 by George BROWN.A variable speed programmable vertical intervalswitcher, selecting between two sources at specifiedfield multiples.

Whenever a tool is specified in the tape description, thecredit goes to those individuals.

Selected Videography

Steina & Woody VASULKA

VIDEOTAPES1969-71

Participation, 60 min ., b/w

1970

Adagio, 10 min., colorCalligrams, 12 min., b/wDecay #1, 7 min., colorDecay #2, 7 min., b/wDon Cherry, 12 min., b/w(in collaboration with Elaine MILOSH)Evolution, 16 min., b/wInterface, 4 min ., b/wJackie Curtis' First Television Special,45 min., bAvSexmachine, 6 min., b/wSketches, 27 min., b/wTissues, 6 min., b/w

1971

Black Sunrise, 21 min., colorContrapoint, 3 min., b/wDiscs, 6 min., b/wElements, 9 min., colorKeysnow, 12 min., colorShapes, 13 min., b/wSwan Lake, 7 min., b/w

1972

Distant Activities, 6 min ., colorSoundprims, endless loops, colorSpaces 1, 15 min., b/wSpaces 2, 15 min., b/w

1973

11ome, 16 min ., colorGolden Voyage, 15 min., color

1974

Solo For 3, 5 min., colorSoundgated Images, 10 min., colorNoisefields, 13 min ., color1-2-3-4, 8 min., color *Soundsize, 5 min., colorTelc, 5 min., color

1976

Six Programs For Television, Matrix, Vocabulary,Transformations, Objects, Steina, Digital Images,174 min. total (29 min each), color

1981

Progeny, 19 min., color(in collaboration with Bradford SMITH)In Search of the Castle, 12 min., colorIn the Land of the Elevator Girls, 4 min., color

Steina VASULKAVIDEOTAPES1970

Let 1 ; Bc . 4 min � h/%~

1970-78Violin Power. 10 min . . h/w

1975

From Cheektowaga to Tonawanda,36 min ., colorSignifying Nothing, 15 min ., b/w

Sound and Fur)!, 15 min ., b/w

1970-77Orbital Obsessions, revised 1988, 25 min ., b/w

1976

Switch! Monitor! Drift!, 50 min ., b/w

1977

Flux, 9 min., b/wSnowed Tapes, 15 min., b/wLand of Timoteus, 15 min., color

1979

Bad, 2 min., colorStasto, 6 min., b/w

1980

Cantaloup, 25 min., colorExor . 4 min ., colorSelected Treecuts, 8 min., color "Urban Episodes, 9 min., color

1982

-Summer Salt, 18 min ., color

1986

Voice Windows, 8 min., color

1987

Lilith, 9 min., color

1988

Vocalization One, 12 min., color

1993

A So Desu Ka, 10 min., color

1995

Pyroglyphs, 27 min., color

1997

Orka, 15 min., color *

Woody VASULKA

VIDEOTAPES1973

Vocabulary, 5 min., color

1974

Explanation, 12 min ., colorReminiscence, 5 min., colorC-Trend, 10 min., color *The Matter, 4 min., color

1980 Artifacts, 22 min., color

1983

The Commission, 40 min., color

1987

Art of Memory, 36 min., color

YlJri-laI-I-.W'V p, W-g110UNz-tAn asterik* indicates videoworks in this screeningsenes . Indicated times are approximate .

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54

Steina VASULKAtitiln<i Wa_ IxAr11 Steinunn Briem BJARNADOTTIR

in Reykjavik, Iceland, in 1940 . She studied violin andmusic theory, and in 1959 received a scholarship fromthe Czechoslovak Ministry of Culture to attend the StateMusic Conservatory in Prague .

Woody and Steina married in Prague in 1964,and shortly thereafter she joined the IcelandicSymphony Orchestra. After moving to the UnitedStates in 1965 she worked in New York City as afreelance musician . The VASULKAS began workingwith video in 1969, and in 1971, with Andres MANNIK,they founded The Kitchen, an electronic media theater .Since 1980 they have lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico .

Steina has been an artist-in-residence at theNational Center for Experiments in Television, at KQEDin San Francisco, and at W-NET/Thirteen in NewYork .In 1988 she was an artist-in-residence in Tokyo on aU.S ./Japan Friendship Committee grant. In 1996 sheserved as the artistic co-director and softwarecollaborator at the STEIM Institute for ElectronicInstrumental Music in Holland.

She has received funding from the New York StateCouncil on the Arts, the National Endowment for theArts, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, theGuggenheim Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation,the American Film Institute, and the New Mexico ArtsDivision . She received the American Film InstituteMaya Deren Award in 1992 and the Siemens Media ArtPrize in 1995 . Under the auspices of Montevideo inAmsterdam her various installations have been shownin and outside Holland, and with other majorexhibitions in recent years in Austria, Iceland, and Italy .In 1993 she co-curated with Woody the exhibition andcatalogue, Eigenwelt der Apparate Welt: Pioneers ofElectronic Art produced by Peter 1VEIBEL for ArsElectronica in Linz, Austria. In 1996 Steina and Woodyexhibited eight new media installations under the title"Machine Media" at the San Francisco Museum ofModern Art, an exhibition repeated in Santa Fe a fewmonths later. In 1997, her latest installation KOrka»was featured in the Icelandic Pavilion of the VeniceBiennale .

Woody VASULKAW011dy VASULKA was bom Bohuslav Peter

VASL:LKA in Brno, Czechoslovakia in 1937 . Aftergraduating from a technical school, he was placed in anearby factory . Dissatisfied with his lot, he applied tothe Academy° of Performing Arts in Prague to study film .Several documentary, films later, he graduated and

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moved to New York in 1965 with his wife Steina . For afew years Woody freelanced as an editor for variouslarge-Format, muhi-screen projects . Encountering thehalf-inch video "portapack" in 1969, he quit film todedicate himself to working with electronic media.

In collaboration with Steina and AndresMANNIK, he founded The Kitchen in 1971, anelectronic media theater in NYC. The same year . underElectronic Art Intermix's umbrella he formed withSteina and Eric SIEGEL the group Perception . Aftersome pioneering work in video, he moved to Buffalo in1973 to become a professor at the Center for MediaStudy. In 1976 he bought a DEC LSI-11 computer,which inspired hire and Jeffrey SCHIER to build a rareand original imaging device, "The Digital ImageArticulator." He left his teaching position in 1980, andmoved to New Mexico where he continues hisinvestigation into what he calls the New EpistemicSpace. Since 1993, he has been a visiting professor atthe Faculty of Arts of the Polytechnic Institute in hishome town, Brno, Czech Republic .

Under a commission from Peter M"IBEL, the>>ASULKAs curated Etgenivelt der Apparaic 1~'elt : Pioneersof Electronic Art, an exhibition of early electronic arttools for Ars Electronica (Linz, Austria) along with avideodisk interactive catalogue, in 1992 . With Steina,Woody has been an artist in residence at the NationalCenter for Experiments in Television (NCET) at KQEDin San Francisco, and at WNET/Thirteen in New York .He has received funding from the New York StateCouncil on the Arts (NYSCA), Creative Artists PublicService (CAPS), the National Endowment for the Arts(NEA), the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPS),the Guggenheim Foundation, and the New Alexico ArtsDivision . He also won the American Film Institute'sMaya Deren Award in 1995, and the Siemenss Media Art

Prize a year later . Woody and Steina were awardedhonorary doctorates from the San Francisco ArtInstitute in 1998.

Woodyhas participated in major video festivalsworldwide, lectured, published articles, composedmusic, and made numerous video tapes. After movingto Santa Fe he composed two major video tapes, «TheCommission» and «Art of Memory)), and in the ninetiesbuilt three large scale installations,

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Steina &Woody Vasulka Video WorksJulv' 16, 1QC?S I,1 irSt

Planning N hT InterCommunication Center (ICC)

Edited by HA1ANAKA Minoru, KOIZUIAl Keiko, and~EKIGUCHI Masaki

English Proofreader MIYASAKA Erisa

English Translation MIYASAKA EnsaJapanese Translation SHIILAI Masato

Designed by SHIMIZU Nobuhiro

Publisher YOSHIDA Hajimu

Published by NTT Publishing Co ., Ltd.1-8-1 Shimorneguro, Arco Tower

Meguro-ku, Tokyo 153-8928, JapanTel : +81-3-5434-1010Fax: +81-3-5434-1008

URL littp://,,VwaV.nitpub.co.jpPrinting/Binding

I oppan Printing Co . . Ltd.

OSteina and Woody Vasulka, 1998

ONTT Publishing Co ., Ltd., 1998Printer] in Japan

NTT InterCommunication Center (]CC)3-20-2 Nishishinjuku, Tokyo Opera City Tower4F

Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 163-1404, JapanTel: +81-3-5353-0800Fax:+81-3-5353-0900

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