Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Pantomation (1977-1979)
YouTube via VintageCG | March 02, 2010
"Pantomation was a very early tracking chromakey system from the 1970s. Originally intended for music scoring, the system was adapted to other styles of performance art. While crude by modern standards, the concept was decades ahead of its time; it can reasonably be considered an early forebear of systems like Microsoft's Project Natal."
via Retro Thing, via Jimmersound
Update via Richard Lainhart in the comments:
"Coincidently enough, I was involved in this project - I hard-wired most of the computer interface for the Pantomation system, later called the Electric Pantograph. There's a history of the project here, some of which is used in the narration of the film"
http://www.experimentaltvcenter.org/history/groups/gtext.php3?id=32
I was working as a musician/technician with EBA then, and knew Tom Dewitt, the main designer of the system, from the SUNY Albany Electronic Music Studio, where I studied with Joel Chadabe. You can see a brief shot of the mighty Moog CEMS system in that studio at about 3:35 in the video."
2 comments:
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MATRIXSYNTH - EVERYTHING SYNTH
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Coincidently enough, I was involved in this project - I hard-wired most of the computer interface for the Pantomation system, later called the Electric Pantograph. There's a history of the project here, some of which is used in the narration of the film"
ReplyDeletehttp://www.experimentaltvcenter.org/history/groups/gtext.php3?id=32
I was working as a musician/technician with EBA then, and knew Tom Dewitt, the main designer of the system, from the SUNY Albany Electronic Music Studio, where I studied with Joel Chadabe. You can see a brief shot of the mighty Moog CEMS system in that studio at about 3:35 in the video.
It's true. Lainhart had amazing powers of concentration as he wirewrapped cards designed by the late George Kindler out of RPI that ran under software written by Phil Edelstein (now Chairman of the Board at Harvestworks, NYC) and Roger Meyers. All under the roof of the EMS which had the world's largest Moog synthesizer of its day. Thanks to Kyle McDonald for Tweeting this.
ReplyDeleteTom (DeWitt) Ditto