This talk was delivered to Jefferson Pinder's Research Studio class at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago on March 4, 2014.
Cracked Ray Tube in "Discarded: The Afterlife of Everyday Electronics"
Cracked Ray Tube 2014 Installation
An installation of 17 modified cathode ray tube televisions and computer monitors, interfaced with a custom programmed network computer system, algorithmically generating audio and video content in realtime. Max/MSP and Jitter, "a family of interactive graphical dataflow programming environments for audio, video, and graphical processing" acts as the brains behind the system.
An arrangement of object at the Roger Brown Study Collection, a space that displays a wide range of things "freed from the drudgery of being useful" (Benjamin, the Arcades Projects) to be evaluated aesthetically on an even playing field.
REAPPROPRIATING, CRITIQUING, AND INTERRUPTING PUBLIC SPACE
↑ CALL POLICE, screenprint, 2008
This screenpring was wheatpasted inpublic spaces of my hometown of Saginaw, MI. The monument depicted can by found on Ojibway Island, the man-made island that divides the east and west sides of the incredibly segregated city of Saginaw.
EXPLORING LATENT MATERIALITIES OF ANALOG AND DIGITAL CONSUMER DEVICES
PLANNED OBSOLESCENCE; E-WASTE AS A GROWING PART OF OUR MATERIAL PRESENT
Late 2007: the sale of LCD screens surpasses that of CRT, via engadget.com
↑ Taken from: Hertz, Garnet and Jussi Parikka. “Zombie Media: Circuit Bending Media Archaeology Into an Art Method.” Leonardo, Vo. 45, No. 5, 2012.
TRACKING ABANDONDED CATHODES
An ongoing series of photographs
E-WASTE AS A RESOURCE FOR ARTISTIC REAPPROPRIATION AND INVESTIGATION
The Salvation Army at Fullerton and Ashland on November 6, 2010
Bringing VGA CRTs back from Chicago Laser & Computer Services in Lansing, IL, June 2013
A view of my studio/living room, September 2013
VGA pinout
VGA d-sub connectors with soldering terminals, image taken from my hardware hacking tutorial
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CRT Video Synthesizer Experiment 03 from James Connolly on Vimeo.
THE SANDIN IMAGE PROCESSOR
CRACKED RAY TUBE
Kyle Evans at the Salvation Army on Ashland & Fullerton, September 2010
Kyle's DIY analog video transmitter
Nam June Paik
Nam June Paik, Magnet TV, 1965, Modified black-and-white television set and magnet, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
The Paik/Abe Synthesizer, also known as the Wobbulator at the Experimental Television Center.
The Wobbulator demo from Blair Neal on Vimeo.
DIY Electromagnets
Placing electromagnets
Exploiting materialities through digitally synthesized electromagnetic waveforms: 60 Hz wobbulating visuals generated by high-frequency audio
Cracked Ray Tube Studio Recording from 2011
Cracked Ray Tube Shows
The nature of Cracked Ray Tube and the use of extensive customized hardware means that shows require road trips.
SXSW in Austin TX, March 2011
Guthman Musical Instrument Competition in Atlanta, GA and the Pilot Light in Knoxville, TN, February 2012
Vancouver New Music Festival, Vancouver 2012
HARDWARE HACKING TUTORIALS
HYBRIDIZING ANALOG AND DIGITAL SYSTEMS: EXPLORING OBSOLETE ANALOG HARDWARE WITH DIGITAL TOOLS TO CREATE MEDIA EXPERIENCES THAT ARE GENUINELY NEW
Installation system schematic
Cracked Ray Tube 2014 installation detail: VGA video driven by high-frequency audio
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INTERRUPTING ASSUMPTIONS AND UNDERMINING AESTHETICS OF "NEW" MEDIA
I am a Chicago-based artist, educator, museum worker, and archivist. My videos, open-source tools, and real-time audio/video performances undermine the interfaces and break through the algorithms of digital and analog systems, examining hidden power structures and liberating latent aesthetic materialities in cathartic and captivating compositions.
September 10, 2022, 8:30 pmCRT Flux Phaser/RGB.VGA.VOLT performance at The Latent Space for the "Control Signals" exhibition performance series, Chicago, IL
August 13, 2022, 8:30 pmCRT Flux Phaser/RGB.VGA.VOLT and Cracked Ray Tube performance at The Latent Space for the "Control Signals" exhibition performance series, Chicago, IL
August 6, 2022, 7:00 pm opening for "Control Signals" solo exhibition at The Latent Space, Chicago, IL
August 6 - September 10, 2022 "Control Signals" solo exhibition at The Latent Space, Chicago, IL
October 13, 2020Phasing the electromagnetic flux of another shit moment, February 4, 2020 screened at BIDEODROMO International Experimental Film and Video Festival, Bilbao, Spain
August 15 - September 26, 2020 installation at "New Media 10101" at the Peninsula School of Art
April 2017Universal Codec Error Aborting Video and Ball Skills/Waveforms/White Bro Riots screened at "VIGOROUS—a series of shorts" at Mini Microcinema, Cincinnati, OH.
1.23.2014-3.7.2014: Cracked Ray Tube performance for Discarded: The Afterlife of Everyday Electronics at Columbia College's Arcade Gallery, Chicago, IL.
11.23.2013: VGA Audio/Video Synthesizer performance for DINCA VISION QUEST at Mana Contemporary, Chicago, IL
9.30.2013: Jon Cates and James Connolly at Elastic Arts, Chicago, IL.
6.21.2013: VGA Audio/Video Synthesizer performance for mACREs & brACREs at Landscape, Chicago, IL.
5.30.2013: Articular Facet collaborative performance at the Empty Bottle, Chicago, IL.
4.30.2013: VGA Audio/Video Synthesizer performance with Dither Doom at the Empty Bottle, Chicago.
4.28.2013: VGA Audio/Video Synthesizer performance for Expanded Cinematic at Tritriangle, Chicago, IL
2.15.2013: Universal Codec Error Aborting Video screened for the Floating World Animation Festival at the Synchronicity Space, Los Angeles, CA.
1.12.2013: Collaborative John Cage-influenced performance with Julia Miller and Enid Smith at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL.
12.8.2012: Cracked Ray Tube performance at the GLI.TC/H DeFunct/ReFunct thread, Chicago, IL.
12.7.2012: VGA Audio/Video Synthesizer performance at GLI.TC/H Open Robin at Tritriangle, Chicago, IL
12.5.2012: VGA Audio/Video Synthesizer performance of John Cage's Variations VI, organized by Julia Miller at the Leroy Neiman Center of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
10.19.2012: Cracked Ray Tube performance at the Vancouver New Music Festival, Vancouver, British Columbia.
9.14.2012: Essay on Spectralina published, the catalog for the exhibition Afterimage at the DePaul Art Museum, Chicago, IL.
10.14.2012: Cracked Ray Tube performance at Bernadette's, Austin, TX.
4.14.2012: Cracked Ray Tube performance of Jon Cage's Variations V score organized by Julia Miller at Room 300, Chicago, IL.
3.6.2012: VGA Audio/Video Synthesizer performance at the Burlington bar, Chicago, IL.
2.19.2012: Cracked Ray Tube performance at the Pilot Light, Knoxville, TN.
2.16.2012: Cracked Ray Tube wins 2nd place at the Guthman Musical Instrument Competition at Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA.
2.16.2012: Cracked Ray Tube performance at the Guthman Musical Instrument Competition at Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA.
