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To Videopolis

Phil Morton

1972 00:32:59 United StatesEnglishB&WMono4:31/2" open reel video
Tags:
Chicago Art, Film or Videomaking, The Phil Morton Memorial Research Archive

Description

Beginning with Phil Morton narrating in a Southern twang, he demonstrates how to flip a video with low cost—72 cents—on modification on the camera.

Phil comments that new media is emerging out of a print culture into video culture and we are currently living in a video space, this media turn from print to electronic age echoes Marshall McLuhan’s theory. After adjusting the camera and image processing setting, Phil creates a feedback pattern that resembles a trap formed inside of his own head. Besides inviting viewers to take a closer look at his own mind, he also exemplifies how the media expands consciousness and extends our perception and mind.

Phil mentions being underpayed as a professional video artist. As Phil puts, “75 dollars is all I ever made in my whole life, [as] a professional video work man.” This economic marginalization on media works, unfortunately, still lingers today. The non-monetizable nature of time-based work, however, does not deter artists who are passionate about it. To counteract this economic injustice in the art world, he jokes–or perhaps he’s serious–about asking viewers to call him to commission a new cross-eye video, resembling advertisement techniques on electronic media. 

A later scene shows Phil driving a van. The rear-view mirror reflects Phil single-handedly shooting action with video camera while driving, showing the adaptability of camcorder operations. The section briefly shows the interior of the mobile video van where he travels with a woman. The road trip footage features alternating shots of a tractor, a stop sign among the cliff, horses on the road, freeway, etc. The pacing gets quicker and eventually cuts back to the feedback swirl.

The final section brings viewers back to the real world, where Phil is shown waiting for Cindy, a representative from Videopolis, to pick up this real-time edited and produced tape. Upon Cindy’s arrival, Phil invites her to interact with the processed image. Cindy, expressing excitement, is amused by the home-base video set up. The interactivity, real-time capture, and image processing technique demonstrates how video invites a whole new level of embodiment and engagement.

–Gordon Dic-Lun Fung

For more information, visit the Phil Morton Memorial Research Archive page. 

About Phil Morton

Phil Morton (1945-2003) received degrees in art education and fine arts from Penn State and Purdue. He began teaching at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1969. Within a year, he had established the first video department in the country to offer both BA and MFA degrees in video production. In subsequent years Morton continued to expand the media resources and educational opportunities at the School of the Art Institute, establishing the Video Data Bank as a collection of videotaped presentations and interviews with artists in 1972.

In collaboration with Dan Sandin, Morton distributed plans for the Image Processor (IP), a modular video synthesizer based on the Moog audio synthesizer. In 1974, he established "P-Pi's" or the Pied Piper Interactioning System, a cable TV station in South Haven, Michigan. He was the sole proprietor of his own independent video production company, Greater Yellowstone News, which published, among other things, video news tapes of the wildlife and people of the Greater Yellowstone area, many of which were shown on Tom Weinberg's PBS program The '90s.

Many of the titles listed here are also part of the Phil Morton Memorial Research Archive (PMMRA), which was established in 2007 by artist and scholar jonCates to coordinate and freely distribute Morton’s Media Art work and associated research under Morton’s COPY-IT-RIGHT license. In 2023, jonCates donated the PMMRA to Video Data Bank. In honor of Morton's COPY-IT-RIGHT philosophy, all titles on VDB's website are available to watch for free. Visit a title’s artwork page to view. 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 produced by Morton. To view the list of titles only created and collected by Morton's students and collaborators, visit the Phil Morton Memorial Research Archive artist page.