Introduction to Composite Video Signal Architecture

Saturday September 26 2:30-4:00 PM

In the new Whammy! Location 1200 N. Alvarado Street

Ever been enchanted by the dancing squiggles of a slightly distorted VHS tape? Or entranced by the color palette of a cathode-ray tube television? Want to know some of the science and electrical engineering behind humanity's greatest technological achievement save perhaps landing on the moon?

If so, "Introduction to Composite Video Signal Architecture" is for you! In this talk, I will cover:

the electro-mechanics of cathode-ray tube monitors
sync pulses and their timings
the correspondence between luminance and voltage
color and the art of phase modulation
the difference between various analog video standards (PAL vs. NTSC) and formats (composite, component, S-video, VGA, etc.)
why analog video still matters as an artistic medium (editorializing alert)

Note that while general concepts of analog video will be discussed at length, the focus of this talk will be specifically composite video, for reasons of ubiquity and aesthetic interest.

The presentation will be followed up by a question-and-answer session in which we can talk about everything you ever wanted to know about analog video signals but were afraid to ask!

Sean Russell Hallowell (@isorhythmics) is a composer and video artist based in Occidental, CA whose art synthesizes experimental techniques developed from hand-built circuitry with a cosmic perspective on music as a conduit for physical and metaphysical energy. Inspired by the affordances of outmoded media technologies, he explores the phenomenology of time in relation to the "arts of number" enumerated by the Medieval quadrivium - music, arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy.

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9/26 Introduction to Composite Video Signal Architecture w/ Sean Hallowell