VGA Synth - Documentation 2008 - Phillip Stearns (Pixel Form)

YouTube via pixelform
"http://www.art-rash.com/pixelform

Statement:
Within all media technology, signal and noise are held apart as polar opposites. The vary nature of digital encoding and transmission technologies eliminates the possibility of noise from corrupting the fidelity of a signal. This feature is necessarily political in nature and brings with it myriad issues of content creation, control, and dissemination. There are political ideologies embedded within the very systems we use to create art and express ourselves from the manufacturing and distribution supply chain arising from post-industrial systems of capital to the capturing devices of media technology, all the way down to the software we use to cut, splice, effect, process, and manipulate streams of data. Apeiron | Peras is not overtly political in nature, but starts with the notion of blurring the boundaries between analogue and digital signals video as well as audio - as a metaphor for dissolving hierarchies and exploring interrelatedness. The resulting audio visual work is the end of a process seeking to exert some measure of expressive control over an otherwise raw electronic signal stripped of its usual conventions of format or data type.

Design Concept:
The concept behind the VGA Synth begins in the design of a finite, circularly organized circuit which produces complex and unpredictable behavior in response to minute external changes. The system stands as a representation of binary relationships codified in the design of the core electronics. On one hand is the continuity and fluidity ascribed to analog circuits and on the other is the abstract, quantified discrete and discontinuous nature of digital electronics. However, the electron indifferent to human intent - cares not for digital or analog. Audio signals are converted into a video outputs which is then fed right back into the instruments audio inputs, closing a loop that is constantly churning out electronic signals shaped by the slightest change in the system. There is an intricately tangled relationship between what is heard and what is seen as the sound and image cycle through, taking turns leading and following the other."

TI99 - Modifications Documentation - Phillip Stearns (Pixel Form)
"http://www.art-rash.com/pixelform
Documentation Clip of my Texas Instrument TI99/4a computer modifications. I started outwith a circuit bending approach and moved gradually to more advanced modifications and hacks. 5 Different versions exist. The prototype and v1 Pixel Maelstroms, as I've named them, are both raw circuit bent machines. Version 2 introduces some rudementary audio ractivity circuitry for functions resembling a glitched music visualizer. Version 3 integrates an onboard oscillator bank in addition to the audio reactivity circuitry, creating the possibility for mixer fascilitated feedback. Version 4 integrates light sensors in addition to the onboard oscillator bank and audio reactivity circuitry."

NES - Circuit Bent Mod - Phillip Stearns (Pixel Form) 2008-2009

"I have been commissioned to modify another NES console. This audio reactivity mod will feature 3 x 12 position rotary selector switches to combine up to 3 different bend points at once. Audio reactivity will also be selectable from one of 4 filter outputs. There are some special features in there too. This clip shows the prototype circuit in action, which I'm currently tranferring to a final perf board layout.

http://www.art-rash.com/pixelform"