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How TV works with Dan and Phil

Phil Morton Memorial Research Archive

1975 00:29:11 United StatesEnglishColorStereo4:33/4" U-matic video

Description

“Hey, how’s that TV work?” 

Beginning his presentation at the University of Illinois Circle Campus on a sunny day, Dan Sandin gives a detailed, technical description of how an analog video image is captured through a Vidicon camera and displayed on a cathode ray tube monitor. Incorporating computer graphics provided by Tom Defanti, Sandin discusses how the electron beam in the camera scans the surface of the camera lens to read the image and then how the electron beam inside of the monitor activates the phosphorus surface to recreate the image out of light. 

Phil Morton provides voice-over commentary throughout the video as well as sound effects (“blip!”) for the computer graphics. 

The date for this title is approximate.

The Phil Morton Memorial Research Archive (PMMRA) is an archive of early video and media art created and collected by artist and School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) instructor Phil Morton and his students and collaborators. The collection includes nearly 800 videos, a large portion of which documents the emergence of experimental video and media art education in Chicago during the 1970s. During his time at SAIC, Morton developed an anti-copyright approach called COPY-IT-RIGHT, which advocated that media art should be shared widely and be freely available. In honor of this ethos, all PMMRA titles on Video Data Bank’s website are available to watch for free. Visit a title's artwork page to view the video in full. 

For more information and to access the full list of available titles related to PMMRA, visit the Phil Morton Memorial Research Archive Collection page

The titles listed on this page are videos collected and produced by Morton's collaborators and students, titles for which Morton may have had an ancillary role. Visit Phil Morton's artist page for a list of titles produced by Morton.