Gary Hill

Electronic Linguistics

1977

Werk - Electronic Linguistics
Artist / Artist group
Gary Hill
Title
Electronic Linguistics
Year
1977
Category
video, Analog video
Material / Technique
U-Matic, b/w, mono
Dimensions / Duration
00:03:38
Collection
ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien
Description

In 1977 Gary Hill founded the Open Studio Video Project Barrytown, NY, and in the following years created numerous experimental videos that analyze sound and image as abstract variables of the medium.

The video »Electronic Linguistics« ocuses on the electronic visualization of sounds in the form of small geometric formations that move across the screen in different rhythms, underpinned by soundscapes. The intensely pulsating structures fill the screen. As soon as a bright still image fills the screen, high-frequency sounds change to lower ones. Finally, black and white formations flash stroboscopically, culminating in a still image without sound and accompanied by an increasingly rapid rhythmic sound.

This video work is an important example of Gary Hill’s early body of work in which he worked with video synthesizers and explored artistically the technical possibilities of the tool.

Author: Jenny Starick

About the artist/s