The Analog Color Field Computer (ACFC) is an
installation of participant-controlled sculptural computers that
produce articulated washes of uniform colors and pure tones. Exhibitions
of the work present multiple ACFC units in the same physical space
where their simple pulsations combine to form an emergent composition
of light and sound. The piece embodies a purposeful austerity
in several aspects of its design including the clarity of its
visual and sonic output, the immediacy of its user-interface,
the spareness of its physical form and its anachronistic electronic
workings. These elements serve to counter the preponderance of
information-based stimuli in technological society.
overview
The Analog Color Field Computer
(ACFC) is an interactive video and sound installation that makes
both minimal and maximal use of computer monitors. Exhibitions
of the piece employ a suite of sculptural computers whose custom
electronics drive standard video displays and loudspeakers. Instead
of presenting complex images (like computer graphics or photographs)
each ACFC unit repurposes its monitor such that at any one time
a solid field of color is spread across its entire display surface.
Likewise with sound, instead of producing complex timbres each
unit produces a pure sine tone. The sculptures' colors and tones
surge in steady pulses, conveying sonic textures and luminescent
patterns into the sparsely lit exhibition space.
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The ACFC endeavors to revisit the computer
as a standardized multi-function instrument. By reducing the
content of its audiovisual renderings to solid colors and
pure tones, the device offers relief from the myriad of visual,
sonic and operational conventions traditionally associated
with computer displays. Each unit provides controls for users
to adjust its hues, pitches and rhythms. The audience is offered
a renewed ability to determine what they see and hear. This
experience represents a novel mode of interaction with everyday
computer hardware and affords participants a fresh perspective
on a ubiquitous technology. |
An installation of the ACFC demonstrates
the complexity encountered when multiple sources of steady, asynchronous
pulses are combined. When a number of units are exhibited together,
their individual surges of light and sound merge to form emergent
textures of hue and melody. Simple pulsations give rise to intricate
musical passages with compelling rhythmic structures and shifting
multi-part harmony. The walls, objects and visitors in the sparely
lit exhibition space become illuminated by stray light from the
computer screens. Their surfaces serve as palettes where colors
are blended in manifold and changing proportions. The ACFC's continuous
audiovisual renderings along with its controls for color, pitch
and volume, allow its exposition of light and sound to satisfy
both contemplative experience and purposeful composition. The
piece can accommodate a wide range of audiences, from a small
group of passive listeners to a crowd of active participants.
functional details
The brightness of the Analog Color Field Computer's
solid color and the amplitude of its pure tone are rhythmically
articulated by a sinusoidal control signal that is generated by
its internal circuitry. When the screen climbs to its brightest
level, the tone is increased to its loudest and when the screen
fades to black, the tone diminishes to silence. As the control
signal throbs between minimum and maximum, the device produces
a repeating pulse of light and sound.
| The ACFC's user interface elements are
ergonomically comfortable and supple to the touch. Three control
knobs in the center of each unit's instrumentation panel allow
the participant to individually adjust the brilliance of the
monitor's red, green and blue color channels. By combining
different relative quantities of red, green, and blue (RGB),
the screen can reproduce any desired color. Composing hues
in this way is similar to mixing colored theater lights. A
large dial on the left of the device's front panel is the
throb control which allows its pulsations to be made faster
or slower. This affords users an influence over the rhythm
of the sound-and-light composition that is being created.
A precision control knob on the upper right hand side of the
front panel sets the frequency of the pure tone. It allows
for the fine-tuning of a wide range of musical pitches. A
smaller knob beneath it adjusts the overall volume of the
tone. With these controls, the audience contributes to the
audiovisual environment that is being rendered all around
them in the exhibition space. |
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The ACFC is motivated by the obsolescence of
Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) based computer monitors. The advent of
flat panel displays has resulted in a massive purging of the bulky
older systems. CRT screens can be found on the street awaiting
trash collection in surprising quantities. The ACFC reclaims video
screens by giving them new life as pieces of art. It serves as
an homage to the CRT - an exquisite, century-old analog technology
that was the basic element of video screens throughout the twentieth
century. As a tribute to this scientific heritage, the ACFC uses
custom engineered analog electronics almost exclusively. The analog
paradigm of electronic design spawned the CRT and has been used
in concert with video display systems for decades.
intentions
The Analog Color Field Computer
inhabits the nexus of several conceptual and practical objectives
centered around the theme of Reclaiming the Video Screen. Its
function, form and underlying theory exist in harmony, supporting
a sculptural endeavor with multivalent emotive consonance. The
fundamental aesthetic inspiration for the piece is the ghostly
illumination that can be witnessed as emanations from lonely urban
windows in the dead of night. This is the signature flickering
glow of video screens in unlit rooms. The installation seeks to
capture and optimize this lovely and spooky vision. It serves
to elicit the churning moods and sentiments that emerge from simple,
solitary moments of wonderment in our modern lives.
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| (left) The ACFC exhibition
at Piksel, Bergen, Norway. November 2007. Photo: Olle Cornéer.
(right) The ACFC exhibition at BAPLab
New York City. July 2006. Photo: Brendan Fitzgerald |
The ACFC embodies an assertion that
televisions and computers are more beautiful when viewed in this
way: as washes of undulating colors. The bulk of the information
having been removed from their signals, what remains are prototypes
of visual communication – luminousness modulated over time.
As participants in a technological society, individuals bear an
increasing burden of communication ubiquity. Diverse channels
of programmed information impinge upon them from all directions.
The origins, intentions and meanings of this deluge of “content”
is essentially impossible to know or rationally absorb. By treating
computer monitors as if they were one large pixel - in spite of
the fact that they actually can display upwards of a million pixels
- the ACFC offers users a reprieve from the pervasive pressure
weighed on them by modern information capacities. This dissolution
affords participants a sort of quiet in which their own thoughts
and feelings can be heard over the storm of external complexities.
While the Analog Color Field Computer
shares certain physical and operational features with common desktop
systems, it deviates from the accepted notion of the computer
by devoting itself to a single, straightforward artistic function.
In order to reinforce its transparency of purpose, the front and
real panels of the ACFC are made of perforated aluminum. The many
openings allow visitors to peer inside and all the way through
the machine. Its unlabeled aluminum control knobs present an austere
instrumentation surface that emphasizes the materials and forms
of conventional user-interface elements. These aesthetic reductions
are not intended to deemphasize the device's physical presence
as a sculptural object. Conversely, the ACFC is meant to have
a pleasing appearance that explores the emotive dimensions of
computer-human interaction. The resulting affects can be nostalgic,
intellectual or sensory. There is an undeniable satisfaction in
the simple act of turning a control dial and experiencing the
ability to regulate the workings of a machine. The ACFC with its
clear functionality and the immediacy of its controls, offers
users an opportunity to reclaim the enterprise of interacting
with computer systems. Instead of operating within the predetermined
information structures of unknown parties (i.e.: computer programs),
participants become the direct and sole arbitrators of the fundamental
RGB color signals that drive the video screen.
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