Donald F. McLean: Restoring Baird’s Image (2000)
Filed under book | Tags: · electricity, engineering, history of technology, image, phonograph, sound, technology, television, video, vision
Betty Bolton recorded in c1932 by engineer John Logie Baird in an early television experiment (GIF via Continuo Docs)
John Logie Baird, Britain’s foremost television pioneer, experimented with video recording onto gramophone discs in the late 1920s. Though unsuccessful at the time, his experiments resulted in several videodiscs, some 25 years before the videotape recorder became practical. These videodiscs – called Phonovision – remained neglected over the decades, considered by experts as unplayable.
In the early 1980s, the author sought out and restored the surviving Phonovision discs. Using computer-based techniques in an investigation reminiscent of an archaeological dig, the author has not only revealed the images on the discs but also uncovered details of how the recordings were made. The Phonovision discs have now become recognised as one of Baird’s most important legacies.
In 1996 and 1998, amateur ‘off-air’ recordings of the BBC’s 30-line Television Service (1932–35) were found, giving us our first view of what viewers were then watching. The author’s restoration overturns established views on mechanically scanned television, providing us today with a true measure of Britain’s heritage of television programme-making before electronic television.
As well as helping to explain a poorly understood and complex period in television’s history, this unique book, heavily illustrated with previously unpublished or rarely-seen historic photographs restored by the author, sheds light on the achievements of Baird, the development of video recording and the definition and invention of television itself.
Publisher Institution of Electrical Engineers, 2000
Volume 27 of History of Technology series
ISBN 0852967950, 9780852967959
295 pages
eContact! 14(3): Turntablism (2013) [English, French]
Filed under journal | Tags: · experimental music, music, music history, phonograph, sound, turntablism
“In this issue of eContact!, interviews with contemporary turntablists show the many performative approaches possible with the turntable (accompanied by audio and video examples). Historical journeys back to the invention of the first devices to record and play back sound present the precursors of turntablism and offer a reflection on cultural and technical changes and similarities throughout the last century. Readers will even be encouraged to experiment with turntablism themselves, with instructions how to create their own personal record player out of cardboard. The many perspectives on sound creation with the turntable featured in this edition give an idea of the richness of the genre and the fascinating possibilities of the turntable.” (from the Editorial)
With contributions by Karin Weissenbrunner, Michael Heumann, Christopher DeLaurenti, Wolfgang Fuchs, Institut für Feinmotorik, Ian Andrews, Michael Hansen, Ignaz Schick, Daniel Neumann, Sylvain Fortier, and Andreas Engström. The issue also contains audiovisual galleries of the works by Alexandre Bellenger, Maria Chavez, Billy Roisz and Vinyl Terror & Horror, as well as wiki entries, columns, reviews and electroacoustic jukebox.
Editor jef chippewa
Publisher Canadian Electroacoustic Community, Montreal, January 2013
Turntable wiki (CEC’s open resource)
View online (English, HTML articles)
View online (French, HTML articles)
Pop Politics: Activisms at 33 Revolutions, catalogue (2012) [English/Spanish]
Filed under catalogue | Tags: · activism, art, music, politics, popular culture, sound
The catalogue for an exhibition held at Madrid’s CA2M Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo from November 2012 to April 2013, curated by Iván López Munuera.
“The point of departure for Pop Politics is that the political agenda of the visual arts has in many occasions inherited and expanded the experiences of music. The exhibition shows how many artists and art theorists have from their own personal practice visited music, whether as makers, consumers, or critical agents. The exhibition is situated on the margins of the formal consideration of politics, that which refers to forms of government and processes of representation, the taking of decisions and their administration.” (from the Introduction)
With texts by Amparo Lasén, Ferrán Barenblit, Greil Marcus, Ivan López Munuera, José Manuel Costa, Kim Gordon, Lucy O’Brien, Peio Aguirre, and Simon Reynolds.
Publisher CA2M Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo, Madrid, 2012
ISBN 9788445134481
304 pages