multimedia art

Halloween Head
created 28-30 August 2009
Multimedia video version

Stevo's Psychedelic Woodstock Experience
Mind-Altering Music Woodstock 40th Anniversary Special 15 August 2009
Woodstock 40th Anniversary Tribute Art created 16 August 2009
Jimi Hendrix Voodoo Child (Slight Return)
Multimedia Version

Apollo 11 Man On The Moon 40th Anniversary 20 July 1969-2009
Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin
(20-21 July 2009)
Multimedia Version

featured videos

Dangerous Stranger - Why Can't I Touch It?
Special 30th Anniversary Internet Edition
Pup Production 1979-2009
Music by The Buzzcocks

Inspired by Bruce Conner.
This piece was created with the concept of combining an unedited sequence of found film footage with an unedited pop song. The end result was very satisfying, as there are numerous occurences where the visual and audio are in harmony.
Additionally, this work speaks to the mental illness and delusion of child molesters. As it turned out, this was a favorite video of my eldest daughter, when she was very young, who found it extremely entertaining and educational.

Synoid - 1983 - 5:00
New digital remastered audio.

Pure video feedback with no special effects or processing of any kind, although the completed video has a few edits. The patterns were changed by slightly adjusting the camera aperture and focus.
The audio was created with various analog synthesizers configured to produce oscillating sequences and were not modified or altered during recording.
Both video and audio were created at The School Of The Art Institute Of Chicago and are examples of self-generating systems. This work explores the nature of the media and allows me to become audience to my own work.

The following image is from the session when Synoid was recorded.

48 hour marathon recording session @ SAIC Electronic Sound Studio
23-24 April 1983

The following five videos are courtesy of:

TVOD (edit) - 1979 - 0:40
Music by The Normal

Shot one-frame-at-a-time over a 17 hour period, TVOD depicts stereotypical television imagery and our ability to comprehend and identify split second exposure to rapidfire pop culture iconology.
This version is edited as shown on The 90's, PBS, WTTW, Chicago, 1990.

Dangerous Stranger/why can't i touch it? - 1979 - 6:41
Music by The Buzzcocks

Ronald Ray Gun - 1980 - 3:12
Music by Memluks

Created for the Rock Against Reagan concert to benefit United Farm Workers Association at Zeros New Wave Lounge in Fort Worth, Texas, January 1980.
From Image Union, 27 January 1987, PBS, WTTW, Chicago.

Back To Normal - 1980 - 3:40
Music: "Home" by Van Steeden, Clarkson & Clarkson
Performed by Henry Hall & The Gleneagles Hotel Band
Created by Mr. Nuclear & Stevo In Yr Studio

Inspired by Bruce Conner.
Culled from found footage of educational films from the 1940s and 1950s of subjects ranging from Amputee Veterans to Atomic Attacks to Juvenile Delinquency to Dangerous Strangers and Woodshop Safety!
From Image Union, 6 June 1983, PBS, WTTW, Chicago.
Note: Image Union announces two tapes, however, I have them presented separately. "Ronald Ray Gun" is the second one.

Industrialization Of Dream Ejaculating Ecstacy Of Mind - 1982 - 3:53
Music by Pupaum

Experimental video art piece created at The School Of The Art Institute Of Chicago. Video synthesis using the Sandin Image Processor. Audio created using an EMU modular synthesizer.
This work explored images of the mind's eye via dreams, reveries and phosphenes (pressing the eyelids to create light hallucinations).
From Image Union, 27 January 1987, PBS, WTTW, Chicago.
Note: This piece was edited by Image Union, removing two lovemaking scenes.

feedback & loops

industrialization of dream ejaculating ecstacy of mind (1982)

The influence for my video loop work:

Eno's audio loop diagram (re-created by siys)

I began working with 1/2-inch reel-to-reel b+w video in 1973 at age 15, in high school. In 1978, while I was in college, I was staring at the diagram of an audio loop system on the back cover of "Discreet Music" by Brian Eno, and Eureka! -- I could apply this system to video, I thought!!! I immediately began experimenting with various video loop system setups . My first obstacle was realizing video had sync to contend with, making it a much more difficult medium to loop with than audio.
There were many variations and configurations of video looping systems which I devised, but I will explain the simplest system, which I used for many years (mostly using b&w equipment, and, often, employing video synthesis for creating color. others were done in color). Here's how it's done...

(refer to diagram)

Place two 1/2" reel-to-reel video machines as far apart as you want the delay to be and thread the videotape between the two. The first machine is recording, the second is playing back. A camera is feeding the recording deck and a video monitor is displaying the playback deck. Aim the camera at the video moniter and let the games begin.
Now, depending on what type of piece I wished to create, I could either have the camera stay zoomed in within the confines of the video monitor screen, or have it zoomed out showing the video monitor screen at varying ratios within the camera's frame. I created 'ambient', 'wallpaper' or 'abstract' (whatever you want to call them) pieces keeping the camera zoomed in within the frame of the video monitor. I would zoom out beyond the frame of the video monitor to create 'performance' oriented pieces.
The looping systems are difficult to get good results with, even when using perfectly functioning equipment. In many case I spent more than 20 times the amount of time setting up the looping system, in relation to the time I spent recording the piece!