Vocabulary

In the video »Vocabulary«, Woody Vasulka explores the process of keying, timing, and electronic feedback to test new visual possibilities. Using a Multikeyer by George Brown, a Rutt/Etra Scan Processor, and a Dual Colorizer by Eric Siegel, the filmed objects – the artist’s hand and a sphere – dissolve in their original forms. This not only creates unusual visual effects, but also new spatial relationships.

The Dual Colorizer System is responsible for the feedback. It creates linear surfaces, as well as multiplied distortions of the displayed images. The filmed hand as well as the filmed sphere, thus become new visual objects subject to a different spatial behavior that is independent of their original physicality. They expand into space. This system feedback is based on an electronic process, on the feedback of the signal itself. The keyer, on the other hand, is used to take out the luminance of certain areas of the video and replace it with electronic noise. The surface of the sphere and the hand become permeable, the electronic surface visible. The Scan Processor, which normally only affects the brightness of the video, is used for raster manipulation, which moves the image forward. On the other hand, it is also used as a keyer whereby dark as well as light properties of the image can be manipulated. The filmed objects oscillate between realistic representation and artificiality. They merge and dissolve into each other, creating a completely new visual experience.