Jim
Wiseman
Jim has been kind enough to forward me extensive info about his
illustrious career, & rather than change the details from 1st
person, I present his email to me verbatim, which follows below:
Hi, I'm Jim Wiseman. I've been working with video synthesizers
since 1970, where I was a student of Nam June Paik and Shuya Abe
at CalArts. I noticed your info on the Paik/Abe on your tools
page. I am one of the artists who built one, and just finished a
2 year, (part time) restoration on the mixer/colorizer, the heart
of the system. After CalArts, where I got my BFA in video art in
1972, I went to the Art Institute of Chicago and worked with Dan
Sandin, who still teaches at U of I Chicago Circle. I built one
of his Image Processors, and combined it with my Paik/Abe, using
the Sandin for pre-processing. It produced stunning video
feedback and abstracts using oscillators for input, as well as of
course videotape and camera input. For my masters degree project
I did a setup that showed how artists would in the future gather
their input from anywhere in space or time using high tech
communications, satellites, tape from men on the moon, live
cameras, other artists, etc.
I have a restored Paik/Abe Synthesizer here in Hawaii, recently
back to mint condition by the able hand of Bill Howell. It is
combined with my Sandin Image Processor and Tannenbaum
Chromachron in my studio. I originally constructed it under the
guidance of video master Shuya Abe at Cal Arts in 1971-72. It is
capable of imagery that is extraordinarily complex and
responsive, belying its plain exterior and simple controls. Each
of the seven inputs is smoothly subcarrier phase shifted from the
previous one, producing a different color, reflecting Nam June's
desire that each input would represent one of the seven colors of
the rainbow. As Abe often said in his few but well applied words
of English "phase is very important". This is the
secret of the Paik/Abe, along with the the video amplifiers that
rolled off high frequency response at high amplitudes. This phase
shifting, combined with the soft edge of the video amps, resulted
in luscious colors, and extraordinary video feedback, often
combinined with electric patterns from mixed oscillators.
The Paik/Abe imagery is especially compelling when the video is
pre-processed in the Sandin system, using the modules of that
device to modify the modalities of the video feedback,
oscillator, and real-world camera or tape input. I have always
been interested in what occurs when different designers' devices
are combined. As in nature (genetics, etc.) the combinations
result in imagery that none of the designers might have imagined
individually.
In 1974 I produced the first two video art programs shown on
broadcast TV in Chicago at WTTW-TV, where I became an intern
during the last year at the Art Institute. One show was called
"TV Song", which had two pieces, Tai Chi Alpha Tala,
where a person performing Tai Chi movement with a miniature alpha
sensor and FM transmitter was hooked to an audio synthesizer. The
five note scale (pentatonic) played by the synthesizer was
triggered by her alpha waves. This was accompanied by an Indian
drummer who followed the rhythm. The video synthesizer was also
pulsed by the amplified alpha waves. The concept of that piece
was by a respected electronic composer, Richard Teitelbaum, who
performs and teaches in the NYC area. The second piece
"Reflections" was about the real-time synchronous
nature of everything as I was saying earlier , and involved video
of men on the moon mixed real time with Tibetan Dance video and
abstract video synthesis accompanied by processed a processed
shortwave radio and electronic music score composed by
NikWilliams.
After that (1976-84)I worked in San Francisco and LA doing real
time video synthesizer performance, with and without biofeedback.
I was a partner with a designer, Ed Tannenbaum, who developed one
of the first digital video synthesizers, the
"Chromachron". It produces time delayed video patterns,
colorized, that are quite stunning. The biofeedback work was done
primarily with Richard Lowenberg at this time, and included
dancer and plant sensor monitors controlling my video
synthesizers and digital audio synthesizer based on a Altair
computer controlled by software written by Jon Lifton. this was
for the feature film "The Secret Life of Plants".
I also did the first live video synthesizer via satellite in
1978, combining images of dancers on the east and west coast in
real time. KitGalloway and Sheri Rabinowitz (Electronic Cafe)
organized the whole thing and were the creative force behind the
project. I was able to work video synthetic versions into the
dancers score.
Currently, I am putting all of this stuff together with a Play,
Inc. "Trinity" as central mixer in my own studio, and
am looking to get much more active again in live performance and
studio work. I moved to Hawaii in 1984, and the last few years
have had to concentrate on house and studio building, and getting
established here.
I feel the time is finally right for live visual performance.
People were excited to see it before, but there was really no
venue other than museums and galleries. I always felt it was more
(or at least as much) like music as, painting or film making, and
with cheap video projection and computers, it's becoming a
popular art form. Lately I've been checking out the programs for
the Mac and Windows. Hope to find something that gets me as
excited as the dedicated hardware synthesizers, but haven't found
it yet, although some of the stuff is extremely good. The more
real time it feels, the better.
Jim Wiseman
jwise@aloha.net
JW's VidSynth collection includes:
-A Chromachron
-A Paik/Abe
-A Sandin Image Processor.
Images to follow in the near future.
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