Video Weavings (Excerpt)

Stephen Beck

1976 | 00:28:00 | United States | None | Color | Mono | 4:3 | Video

Collection: Single Titles

Tags: Image Processing

Inspired by the analogy between weaving (vertical warp threads traversed by horizontal weft threads) and the construction of the television image (vertical and horizontal scans of an electron gun), Stephen Beck built the Video Weaver in 1974, and produced Video Weavings in 1976. The patterns in this tape are based on sequences of colors in dynamic mathematical progressions, inspired by non-representational Islamic art. Beck was also intrigued with the problem of synthesizing aspects of human perception. Arriving at video through music, Beck had moved from jazz to electronic music and then to electronic instrument building. For many of the early video tool designers, audio synthesizers served as important models. Beck developed his first video instrument, the Direct Video Synthesizer, in 1970 during his residency with the National Center for Experiments in Television (NCET) in San Francisco.

The original total running time for this piece is 28:00. An excerpt of this title (4:06) is only available on Surveying the First Decade: Volume 2.