Experimentation with sound by Dancing' Baby!

In this video essay I am concerned with how my microbiome helps me process the onslaught of popular culture, transforming it into simple organic information packets that can be reassembled in more meaningful ways...

It is one continuous take of experimentation, as I tested a new video feedback diorama I had just finished building. No editing or aftereffects are used, except for the titling. There is one layer of video synthesis and three layers of camera-to-screen feedback that interact with each other in semi-random, generative ways. Figurines placed in the feedback loops become the actors in an abstract narrative, spinning in their inverted hierarchy...

This video essay took shape during a time when I was talking with friends about the state of mind necessary for one be able to hold grief and ecstasy simultaneously, while taking out the trash, doing the dishes, preparing for the anthropocene... It's a life long project of mine, keeping a foot in either realm as consistently as possible...

This piece contains little editing and no aftereffects because I mean it to be as representative of my live performance as possible. The piece is a direct capture of my improvisation with the video systems I have built. The colorful striped motif is generated by an LZX Industries video synthesis system, while the fine textured pattern behind is generated by a lumia setup. Cameras are pointing at a piece of glass art made by the artist Allison Holt, Oilly Oowen Studios. It is a cube filled with perfectly ordered rows of tiny air bubbles, it's sides polished to transparency. It sits on a rotating turntable, in a video feedback diorama I made.

This experimental short was taken by direct capture from a studio session that took place in January 2019. It is all one clip, mostly analog, and contains no editing or after effects, except for the titling. As I created this I very much enjoyed it's slow, meditative pace, and its moving Rorschach effect, (why I love studio time). The texture that flows down screen is derived from a video loop I shot of a log covered with orange fungus. The clip was sent through a video synthesis system that electrified it, hence the title.

The video utilizes a video synthesis system that I have tuned to be interactive with sound. The sound is also synthesized, using two random pattern generators to vary frequency and rhythm. So I was improvising in both the audio and visual elements simultaneously. Because of the random interactions between sound and video, many unpredictable images unfolded.

This video was produced during my residency at Signal Culture in Oswego N.Y. Signal Culture has an amazing video studio containing many classic video art tools. This video features the Paik-Abe Wobbulator! Such fun!

This video was filmed in a video feedback environment I built. Its core element is a video loop of a spiritual site in Southern India called 1000 steps. Over and under this I have keyed in video synthesis and feedback. It is mostly one continuous clip, with little editing and no after-effects applied. I mean it to be as performative as possible, because working live, in an expanded cinema format is my goal. 
The sound is a collage of field recordings that came from several sights in India, and includes sounds of my friends the cicadas, and groups of kids demonstrating to save the local forests.

To quote Brian Pedersen, "so, an old friend gave me a trumpet some years back, I tried but couldn't get any satisfying sounds out of it. So.....I plunked an alto sax mouthpiece on it, ran it through 8 guitar pedals and into a little SUNN O)) practice amp turned way up. Doesn't really sound like a trumpet at all anymore. One take, no dubs, my neighbors love me. Peace.
The video is also one continuous take with no aftereffects. Three layers of feedback seeded by a video loop of the Cali. coastline with some video synthesis.

This video short is a Neo-Brutalist essay on contemporary life in the USA.

I reserve my creators prerogative to say as little as I like about this piece, save that it reflects the most current events in the USA in a personal and emotional way.

As to the technical process, it was filmed in a video feedback environment I built. Its core element is a sculpture of a cage that I made, which measures about 9 inches square. Over this I have keyed in synthesized video clips of graffiti and a trip across the Bay Bridge. It is mostly one continuous clip, with little editing and no after-effects applied. I mean it to be as performative as possible, because working live, in an expanded cinema format is my goal.

This video is an edit of video clips from an installation I did at The Exploratoriun, San Francisco, for their yearly Extended Cinema event. The installation was titled Selfless Analog Selfie Station. I invited museum workers and guests to sit for a portrait. I recorded short clips of them then modified the clip with my video art system.

Exploring the pattern generating possibilities of feedback with this one. The left side is 100% camera rotator feedback, with the camera pointed partially at the right side. The right side is LZX generated pattern and euro rack mounted camera feedback. Both channels are mirrored in the V4 mixers. The sound is a FCPX composition of horses and loons....

This video is an excerpt of a studio session I did using clips and techniques from our show at Grey Area Art and Technology, San Francisco, in May 2016. It is one uninterrupted clip captured with a Canon DSLR, (sorry about the grid artifact! But I don't mine it too much). The DSLR was capturing a Samsung digital signage screen that was displaying the two channels coming from my video feedback and synth system. The Samsung screen can show the two channels at once using it's Picture By Picture capability. Sound is from a two armed turntable I built that is playing a record twice, and in reverse, at a slow RMP. The turntable is variable speed from 0 to 100 RPM and is reversible... The two tonearms give it a very variable echo effect.

This video is a reprise of part of the performance I gave at The Center For New Music in San Francisco, May 3rd, 2015. It is one continuous take with no post effects and minimal editing. It is shot using two video loops in the new video feedback environment I built for the show. A Tachyons+ video synthesizer warps the middle screen while a rotating cc camera feeds back through the two outer screens. Our Sisyphean journey towards racial equality was in my mind as I put it together.

This experimental video short is dedicated to my friend Michael B. and is resonant with our conversations about racism in America.
The video was shot in my latest Video Feedback Environment, (VFE), which I built in May, 2015. The VFE animates sculpture through the use of robotics, and creates spontaneous visual occurrences in the form of fractals, patterns, strobing, and color generation. No after effects were used in this video. It is all live generation and synthesis. The face on the rotating head was cast live from my friend, Mike B.’s face, with classical techniques of mask-making, using plaster, latex and moulage. The final form is a fiberglass re-enforced epoxy material that has powdered pigments added for coloration. It is hung on an armature of aluminum robotics parts, toys, and electronics. The third eye was carved into the mask after the final resin form was cast. The actual third eye behind the face consists of a high resolution, color, closed circuit camera that delivers a continuous signal to the video screens behind it, creating one of three video feedback loops in the VFE. The other two feedback loops are derived from two cameras mounted in front of the VFE. They can rotate along their lens axis, which add layers of pattern and movement. In between the signal path from the cameras to the screens is a video synthesis array that can enhance and distort the signals in many ways. The VFE is designed to perform live, in an expanded cinema capacity.

This video is a progress report for the new video feedback environment I am building. It tests two of six possible video signal inputs. It also tests all the motion control robotics and mechanical systems. I designed this latest system to be portable enough to do live performances with.

This video is one unedited clip of a demo shoot I did using 2 video mixers, feedback, a Tachyons+ video synthesizer, 2 cameras, and 2 video loops played on media players. The sound was added in FCP and is a collage of field recordings and found sounds. 

This vid was shot in a video feedback environment I built. I constructed a miniature stage that has 7 rotating platforms in its floor which animate the props and sculptures I place on them. Three LCD screens form the backdrop behind the stage. They are looped to two robotic cameras that spin along their lens axis. The cameras capture the HD images which then go to FCPX where some layering takes place. This video is part of my "Our Favorite Shows" series which began as a response to 'normal' TV content.

This video will be built into my sculpture entitled My Happy Place. Though it was designed for the sculpture, this video is free to stand on its own three feet. It was shot using a video feedback environment and kinetic sculpture I've been tinkering with. The kinetic sculpture animates the Talking Head and other props, tulips and veggies in this case. The feedback environment recycles and refracts video signals from three sources; a Canon XH-A1 HD camera, a closed circuit camera rotator devise that I built, and a media player, combining them in various ways...

This piece of video art is filmed in a video feedback environment I made using three LED screens and a Canon XHA1 camera. All other materials are from thrift stores and yard sales. No animals were harmed in its creation...I cast the talking head of bees wax and spare change from a plaster sculpture I made. Political/ media satire plays heavy in the concept. But where else can a prom queen who's hair is falling out, (from chemo?), and a dude with an alligator head feel free to be themselves? A couple audio clips by the performance group, National Disgrace make the sound track. National Disgrace is; Fred Rinne, Andy DeGiovanni and myself.

This video was shot in a video feedback environment I built that uses 2 LED monitors to sample the images being shot, (in real time...). The mechanism that animates the movement is one of the kinetic sculptures I built for the "Our Favorite Shows" series. It is a turntable powered by a record player which also provides the sound track. Thanks to the Center For Creative Reuse in Oakland for carrying a huge selection of vinyl: Motown's Disco Hits, The Tiajuana Brass and something else who's label was eaten off by mold and fungus....are featured. This video is part of the sculpture A Better World, where it runs as a continuous loop, or this video can stand alone as its own video art piece. 2012; 3:36 loop.