In the late 1960s and early 1970s, a generation of artists and engineers began building their own video instruments; analog circuits modeled on the modular logic of audio synthesizers like the Moog, but for video. Unlike the closed, industrial tools of broadcast television, these devices were open systems that invited experimentation, happy accidents, and entirely new ways of seeing the electronic image. Out of this excitement around a new frontier, organizations emerged that focused on building community, developing artist-built tools, and providing access to facilities and equipment that would otherwise be out of reach. The Experimental Television Center in Owego, New York, the National Center for Experiments in Television in San Francisco, and the Electronic Visualization Laboratory in Chicago all became vital hubs for this work, helping not only to launch the careers of pioneers like Nam June Paik, Woody and Steina Vasulka, and Gary Hill, but also creating rich environments where artists and engineers collaborated to build new instruments and processes that worked modularly, giving artists the flexibility to find hybrid forms and push the boundaries of the moving image.

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The instruments at the center of this research cannot truly be replicated. Their phenomena emerged from discrete analog circuits that produced phenomena unique to CRT televisions, NTSC signals, and vector-based displays, systems that are irreducibly physical and historical. Rather than imitation, this project looks closely at historical signal flows and uses contemporary software to develop new visual vocabularies that honor that lineage while pushing into new territories.

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