ELECTRONIC ARTS INTERMIX VIDEOTAPES - Vasulka.org

STEPHEN BECK
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Beck began working with light as a medium while attending the University of Illinois . For several years he was a technician in the University's
Experimental Music Studio. In 1971, while Artist-in-Residence at San Francisco's National Centerfor Experiments in Television, he developed
the Direct Video Synthesizer, an electronic device which generates images without the use of a camera . He is currently designing electronic
circuitry in which he uses "video games" of his own invention as well as his video tapes . He runs his own computer company, Beck-Tech .
Synthesis, 1972-74, 30 minutes .
A selection of three works which demonstrate the virtuosity of the Beck Direct Video Synthesizer and the artistic range of its designer .
Illuminated Music II and 111, 1973, 30 minutes, with Warner Jepson .
Beck, using his Direct Video Synthesizer, improvises on the TV screen while Warner Jepson improvises on the Buchla Audio synthesizer . The
result is a spontaneous performance in real time comparable to the improvizations of jazz musicians.
Video Weavings, 1976; Anima, 1974 ; Union, 1975, 28 minutes.
Using a visual computer of his own design, Beck performs functions appropriate to images rather than numerics, achieving startling beauty in
Video Weavings. In Anima Beck transforms dance by Katie McGuire into lights and colors, with music by Jordan Belson . Union reflects
processes of unification at material and spiritual levels .
*DARA BIRNBAUM
ELECTRONIC ARTS INTERMIX VIDEOTAPES
Stephen Beck
Dare Birnbaum
New York-based artist Dara Birnbaum came to video in 1978 with degrees in both architecture and painting . She has exhibited atThe Museum
of Modern Art, New York; the American Film Institute and the Kitchen, as well as the Van Abbe Museum, Holland; ICA, London ; Musee d'Art
Moderne, Paris ; Kunsthaus, Zurich and the Moderna Museet, Stockholm . She participated in MOMA's VideoViewpoint series in October, 1981
and will create new installation works for Documenta VII, Kassel, Germany . Two books on her videoworks will be published in 1982 .
Using the formal devices of repetition, dislocation and altered syntax, Birnbaum's videotapes dissect, invertand reconvert broadcast television .
The rapid-fire imagery and high energy pacing of her videotapes provide telling comments on our media-induced view of the world .
*Five Short Works by Dara Birnbaum, 1978-80,28 minutes :
Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman, 1978-9, 7 minutes .
Kiss the Girls : Make Them Cry, 1979, 7 minutes .
Pop-Pop-Video: General Hospital/ Olympic Women Speed Skaters, 1980, 6 minutes .
Pop-Pop-Video: Kojak Wang, 1980, 4 minutes .
Remy/Grand Central : Trains & Boats & Planes, 1980, 4 minutes .
"Birnbaum's extraordinary videotapes are constructed from the ridiculous but subliminally significant vocabulary ofjunky TVshows and disco
hits . They end up being better art than any artists' videotapes I've seen in some time." -Jeffrey Deitch, Art in America, 4/81
". . . these diverse, almost hypnotic bombardments on the psyche . . . are visually and aurally stimulating . . . definitely broadcast in-sync with the
disco generation ." -Shelley Rice, Deconstruction/ Reconstruction, The New Museum, 1980