Guru Show a Breakthrough On February 24 at 6 PM, the Public Broadcasting Service broadcast positive proof that 1/2" tape could be the wave of the future and that broadcast journalism as we know it now is due for a face-lift. The Lord of the Universe docu- mented the Maharaj Ji phenomenon at the Houston Astrodome in November entirely on low-cost portable videotape equipment. The show was the child of a unique marriage between The Television Laboratory at WNET/13 and TVTV, a video group well versed in the potential of 1/2' systems. In an article written by TVTV for the October issue of Vision News, the group stated that "our low-cost portable video equipment has allowed us to explore what television can do uniquely . We have been able to work open-endedly and take risks which have often paid off in spontaneous, unusual television ." In the same issue, Lab engineer John Godfrey wrote of Studio 46's new CVS-500 time-base corrector, " . . .with time-base correc- tion having advanced this far, tele- vision as we know it now may be due for some changes." The Lord of the Universe was the first known program taped entirely on low-cost portable equipment to be broadcast over a national net- work. John O'Connor, TV critic for , stated "TV came away with a terrific docu- mentary. . .videotape's advantages of portability and flexibility can now promise a thoroughly professional picture quality." Other members of the press also had good things to say.-"The WNET/Channel 13 special The 16-year-old Guru via the magic of television. (Continued on Page 7) Emshwiller Completes New Work

Pilobolus and Joan, Ed Emsh- ful movements of dance with the willer's newest video venture since bold precision of acrobatics . Great- ScapeMates, unwinds the rather ly impressed by their skill, Ed asked unusual tale of a girl (Joan) and her Carol to write a scenario which cockroach (Pilobolus) - hence, the would make full use of their tal- title. ents. Carol turned out "Metamor- Emshwiller now has three works phosed" a story of a common to his credit as an artist-in-residence cockroach which wakes up to find at the Television Laboratory. The itself transformed into a man - first, Tbermogenesis was a short struggling for survival in a man's predecessor of ScapeMates, a contemporary world. The man- choreographed free-form journey insect is portrayed by the four through electronic environments. members of The Pilobolus Dance However, not liking to repeat him- Theatre (Robby Barnett, Jonathan self, Ed tackled the dramatic narra- Wolken, Moses Pendleton, and Lee tive form and created Pilobolus and Harris) who move in carefully Joan, a full-length work which re- choreographed unison throughout fuses to be pigeonholed . The 60 the program, doing everything minute program defies almost every together from reading the paper, to convention. Says Lab director visiting art galleries, to playing a David Loxton, "Pilobolus and Joan furious game of frisbee with Joan. will probably infuriate as many Joan is Joan McDermott, a singer- people as it pleases. Just when you composer-actress whom Ed has think you've nailed it as a drama...it worked with before. isn't. And then, when it's so ob- "As an underground filmmaker" around New York City and parts of viously a dance piece. . . it isn't that says Ed, "my experience is to work New England . He contrasts the either - and so on and so forth, with friends, as opposed to a tradi- reality of the backgrounds with the until the end, when it's really a tional producer, say, who screens unusual nature of the narrative line little bit of all those things." all available talent." and makes full use of his visual The idea for the piece, actually a It is difficult not to draw paral- wizardry with the medium. There's reverse of the Kafka classic, came lels between Pilobolus and Scape- an original music score (composed some months ago when Ed and his Mates. Although both are very by Joan McDermott) - quite a wife Carol, a writer, were invited to Emshwiller-like in approach and difference from the pulsating a performance of The Pilobolus style, gone are the electronic land- synthetic sounds of his previous Dance Theatre . The dance theatre is scapes of ScapeMates. Instead, video pieces. composed of four extraordinary Emshwiller chose to shoot much of So far, most people who have young men who combine the grace- the program on location in and screened Pilobolus and Joan before it airs over WNET/13 in the near future, agree that it ranks highly among the most complex and crea- tive uses of video technology. In some cases, Ed used up to nine layers of chroma-key on a single effect. The Paik-Abe synthesizer, the Rutt/Etra synthesizer, and the Grass Valley switcher were used extensively, plus a PCP-90 mobile 2" camera used for location work. Although Ed Emshwiller has been a painter, a filmmaker, an illustrator, and now a video artist, he finds video to be both versatile and frustrating. "That's the damn- dest thing about video".. .he said after a recent screening of Pilobolus and Joan..."as a painter, you have control over the final product ; as a filmmaker you start to lose it, and with video. . .well, there are so many variables. Every home receiver is Emshwiller directs a scene from Pilobolus and Joan. different, you know?"A1 Stan Vanderbeek at Studio 46 . Stan Vanderbeek puts audiences to From 1969 to 1970 he was an Dreams " first took place at The deep . And for croodb reason. He's artist-in-residence atWGBH, :Post,-)n, Strasenburgh Planetarium in interested in their dreams . As a as well as a fellow at the renter for Rochester, New York, 1972 . Sell- painter, photographer, filmmaker, Advanced Visual Studies at M.I .T. out crowds from all over western and video artist of considerable It was during this period that Stan's New York, with pillows and blan- note, Vanderbeek has spent several fascination for multi-media projects kets in hand, were invited to sleep months of the past year at The blossomed fully. "On a single on the planetarium floor beneath a Television Laboratory's Studio 46, screen" he says, "you can make a cascading sky of images and sounds composing the newest edition to his fairly complicated story, but it projected from 11 PM to 7 AM. tape library of surrealistic, dream- essentially deals with one idea at a The purpose of the experiment was Eke images -- Ile Newsreel of time, coning at you from one to interrelate the dreams of the Dreams. place. But now things are happen- audience with the images on the cultural says Stan. One reviewer Under a grant from the National ing to us in our milieu, in screen," I Endowment for the Arts, Vander- our daily lives, that are not one stated, , There were (lancers, beek has completed the major thing at a time, and we find we are dream-inducing animations, and onion of his intended two-hour dealing with a multiplicity of live-action works . I remember at ron tapeof. The tape involves hun- events. It's very much more com- one point, nodding awake to a huge dreds suggestive images and plicated than the simple idea of ball of white sinking oppressively sequences which Stan hopes will things happening to you logically, down upon the audience and think- make an impression on the viewing one after another." ing calmly that I'd better return to audience as they drop off to sleep Stan experimented with every my own images." - maybe then to share a common conceivable bit of technology avail- Now Stan Vanderbeek istobringing experience . able to the artist - and some not multiplicity televi- dream City his of events Stan was barn in New York yet available : movie murals, infor- sion. However, a small television (because of his productive output, mation concerts, computer window" I a big change from friends say he's "3,000 going on - aphics, even murals by telephone domed projection theatres. "But 400 and attended cooper Union and then the Movie-Drome, a television" Stan says, "is a new Art School. As a filmmaker he's domed multi-media projection theatre for dreams . It's like the won worldwide recognition and theatre which bf- built beside his brain itself - a whole network of many prizes -- The Oberhausen home in Stony Point, N.Y . nervous systems." Film Festival, The Mannheim Film The Movie-Drome gave birth to As an artist, Stan is interested Festival, Bergaamo Film Festival, Cine-Dreams perhaps one of Stan's not only in the content and texture Man and His World - and others. most well-known projects . "Cine- (Continued on page 7) Recently, the Lab has begun to in- Several years ago, Dr. John induce, among other physiological vestigate important perceptual and Knowles, President of The Rocke- responses, seizures in those who are feller Foundation watched a physiological characteristics of the man epileptically sensitive. Perhaps even experience an epileptic seizure more important than this, Dr. medium. which appeared to be induced Hochberg and Ions . Brooks also directly from the "roll" of a tele- found reports claiming that epilep- vision set . Subsequently, Dr. tic sensitivity to flicker-induced Knowles encouraged the Lab to seizures can be extinguished or extend its research toward percep- greatly reduced by "teaching" tion and physiology in an effort to those affected to "unlearn" their shed new light on the medium as a sensitivity. unique mode of visual stimulation . The authors also propose that bout The PerceDtion In 1973, the Lab commissioned certain measures of brain function Televisi isplays. Dr. Julian Hochberg, Chairman of such as alpha-rhythms may be em- the Psychology Department at ployed effectively as indicators of to begin major attention to video images. research in that area. The result, Of particular interest to video "The Perception of Television Dis- artists may be the information plays" written by Dr. Hochberg and relating to the physiological and his associate, Virginia Brooks, is the psychological effects of different first known attempt to survey the cutting rates (editing rates) and mass of individual related research techniques and their relationship to conducted throughout the years, the limited display size and detail and to analyze that research. o£ the television receiver; the text The paper, as Dr. Hochberg also covers points regarding the states, is "as a first attempt, un- acuity factors that affect visibility doubtedly incomplete and may of details in the display, and the contain errors of detail or emphasis ; effects of moire patterns produced but it should provide a foundation by the interaction of the scan raster that can be filled in further, ex- with certain other patterns. panded, and revised with relative The authors have, throughout ease." the work, indicated the great need Without minimizing the impor- for more research in specific areas, tance of all the information in- and have also outlined procedures cluded in "The Perception of for research in many instances. For Television Displays" there are example, little is known about the several points covered which seers possible undesirable responses of to be particularly noteworthy : normal viewers to pictures which Video displays (pictures) have induce repetitive eye movements ; particular characteristics which specific effects on the visuomotor make them different from cinema system when viewing the world and other forms of visual displays . through such a small "window" as a Video displays "flicker" 60 times TV screen normally provides; view- per second with each "frame" com- ing distances as related to age posed of 525 scan lines (in the groups and socioeconomic strata ; American. system). The size of and, the effects of the synthetic home television receivers and the visual surfaces, volumes and edges, distance at which we sit from them that can now be electronically results in the stimulation of the created by computers and other retina over a smaller area as com- related equipment. pared with stimulation! from The need for more research is movies, for instance. These charac- undeniably apparent if more is to teristics have interesting conse- be learned about the effects the quences (both favorable and medium can have on generations of unfavorable) when also considering people . Hopefully, "The Perception the structure and functions of the of 'television Displays" will serve as human visual system from eye to a foundation upon which further brain. investigations can be built. One of these consequences is the For information on bow to obtain a complete apparent ability of ` flicker" (i.e. copy of "The Perception of Television Dis- lightness changes in the display) to plays," write to The Television Laboratory . By Dr. Peter Crown ness, as well as a baby-sitting/child- watching device ("I parked the kids Susie McMeans is a friend of mine in front of the TV and they're in Santa Fe who watches a lot of glued to the tube .") TV at night. When her set was in A great deal of work has been the repair shop last spring she had devoted to audience program the same dream two nights in a row preferences such as the Neilson until the set was returned . In the Ratings, but there is something dream she is feeling very anxious innately fascinating about TV because there is no TV in the images, largely independent of con- house. Finally she discovers an old tent. In addition to being a form of set in the back of a closet and background stimulation, television Television chin suddenly her anxieties disappear as is also a unique form of visual ro ® an image comes on to the screen. stimulation, as cited by Dr. Julian Another example of a not uncom- Hochberg in his paper "The Percep- mon attitude toward television tion of Television Displays." The comes from a woman I met recent- unique stimulus quality of TV ly at a party who informed me that images may be related to the in- while alone at home she must keep triguing concept of the TV Addict the TV set on - "I don't necessar- mentioned previously. ily watch it, but the voices keep me The term TV Addict is medically company while I'm doing the incorrect because there is no known housework. Radio doesn't seem to physical dependence on TV as there work as well, I guess because there is on heroin, for instance. However, are no visual images .. .." it is tempting to draw parallels People have different styles and between TV addiction and the ex- patterns for watching TV, and the cessive use of drugs of pleasure same person watches in different (both addictive and non-addictive) . ways at different times. There are One may, for example, consider the people who watch with the specific TV Addict as a. compulsive abuser intent of being entertained or in- of the tube as a form of passive formed, and those who watch only stimulation . to alleviate boredom or loneliness . In a study entitled Drug Abuse Some people appear to be TV and Television Viewing Patterns Addicts and some don't watch at (Psychology, 1972), Prodlie report- Dr. Peter Crown all. One area of research which is of ed that adolescent abusers of interest to myself and the Lab is hashish and marijuana watched the study of "TV-watching be- almost twice as much TV during haviors" in general. childhood than a non-drug using One premise behind the study of control group. This does not mean TV-watching is that people use TV that TV watching leads to drug for a variety of purposes other than abuse. It may, however, point to for entertainment and information. some possible similarities between In a study done by Robinson, the passive stimulation of certain published in 1969 in Public forms of drug use, and the general Opinion Quarterly, it was shown passivity of compulsive TV watch- that people in the United States ing. spend one third of their television- Scientific research in these areas watching time while doing some- is expensive and difficult, but thin else (like housework or definitely worthwhile. TV is so reading) . Newton Minnow recently commonplace to us, we accept it as admitted on a local talk show that a commodity like electricity. We he keeps his TV on only when spend so many hours watching it reading. Under these circumstances (or at least having its flickering one might interpret the function of presence reflected on the wall) that the TV as a source of background we should areally know a bit more stimulation, in addition to a source about it. ® of information and entertainment. It appears that people also use TV Peter Crown received his Ph.D. in Physiological Psychology. He is presently an artist-in- for relaxation, sleep induction, residence at the Lab studying the relation alleviation of boredom and listless- ofhuman physiology to video. Recent funds from the Ne°u, York State Council on the Arts have been directed toward new equipment, studio systems development, and the interface of a PDP-8 computer with all studio systems . The remaining portion of funds will provide support for the residencies of several New York State artists, among them : Tom DeWitt, Hermine Freed, Ian Hugo, and Peter Campus.

SCAPE-MATES by Ed Emshwiller recently received an Emmy nomination from the New York Chapter of The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

Nam June Paik's Global Groove caused quite a stir after its original WHET airing January 30th. It was reviewed favorably in the television and art sections of The A'ew York Times. Subsequently, both Pair and Lab director David I,oxton were invited to discuss the program on The Today Show, February 15th.

Phil Falcone, a graduate of Yale's School of Engineering has joined the Lab staff as assistant engineer at Studio 46. He is also a computer dilettante .

The Lab recently played host to visitors from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, and Swedish Television. Both groups were interested in forming their own similar laboratories.

avid Loxton, John Godfreay, Mil Albaum (head of engineering at NET), and of TVTV were invited to speak to the engineering department of public television station WGBH in Boston about the making of THE LORD F THE UNIVERSE . The group shared information regarding the unique technical aspects of the program. (See page 8)

Ed Emshwiller has returned from a visit to the University of California at San Diego where he met with the Extended Vocal Techniques Group at the Center firr Music Experiment. Ed hopes to incorporate'his work with the group in a future video project.

The Lab is the subject of part o¬ a documentary about experimental television being produced by Jose Montes-Baquer for WDR-German Television. While on location in the United States, Mr. Montes-Baquer interviewed Napa June Paik and David Loxton at Studio 46. Excerpts from works by Ed Emshwiller and Paik will be featured.

The Lab has completed successful negotiations with Howard Wise of The Electronic Arts Intermix, for that group to become distributors of artists' works produced at the Lab . For information, write to : The Electronic Arts Intermix, 2 West Lath Street. New York, New York.

Sweet Verticality, a video art piece by William Gwin which illustrates an original poem by Joe Ribar, was broadcast over NET/13 on March 23rd. The forty-minute piece combines and composes film and tape formats to create a unique blend of words and pictures.

The Lab held its annual report and presentation for funders and guests April 18th. David hoxton, WHET President Jay Iselin. Howard Klein of The Rockefeller Foundation, and Peter Bradley of the New York State Council on the Arts, spoke briefly before the 150 people invited to Studio 4(. A special 313-minute tape highlighting the Lab's activities preceeded a tour of Studio 46 .

(Continued from Page 1) (Continued from Page 3) The Lord of the Universe, which of dreams, but also in their func- concentrated on the three-day hap- tion. He believes that dreams are pening staged by the guru in the perhaps "a rehearsal for the future . May, 1974 Vol . 1 No. 3 Houston Astrodome last November, Cronkite, instead of reporting the managed to capture the hysteria of weather, may one day report that the event and to closely examine 3,000 people dreamed of earth- The Television Laboratory News ~s the effect the guru has on his quakes last night." published by The Television Labora- followers." Kay Gardella, The Daily Nevertheless, dreams do release tory at WNET/13, a division of The News tension, and most people partici- Educational Broadcasting Corporation, at the corporate address, 304 West "The occasion itself, billed as pating in Stan's dream theatre 58th Street, New York, New York `the most significant event in the experiments quickly relax and fall 10019 . Telephone 212-262-4248 . history of humanity' was recorded asleep . Those who are able to stay in color. The rest - interviews, awake throughout The Newsreel of EditorlWriter reactions, stock footage, candid- Dreams will view some intriguing Mane English camera routines - was mostly in material. Said one interviewer, black-and-white. The visual results "Vanderbeek's problem is not one Design created a devilishly appropriate of finding raw material, but one of Joel Shukovsky Wizard-of-Oz context." John selection. Advertising, big business The Television Laboratory at WNET/ O'Connor, NY Times 13 is supported by grants from The "The production group managed Rockefeller Foundation and the New to, gather a shockingly accurate York State Council on the ..Arts, with account of the `blissing out' of post special protect support from The flowerchildren . The show overflows National Endowment for the Arts. with ecstatic, entranced faces ." The Christian Science Monitor Director "The Lord of the Universe is David Loxton impressive because, with the ex- ception of an informative quov- Administrative Assistant from the New York Review of Carol Brandenburg Books, there is no narration in the The Movie-Drome . Unit Manager conventional sense. In a few cases Darlene Mastro the production group questions and government supply the images: followers and ex-followers of the pulp magazines, slogans, gadgets, Supervising Engineer Guru, but for the most part, the fashion, television, fast cars, mis- John Godfrey events speak for themselves ." siles that make it and missiles that Howard Kissel, Women's Wear fizz out. He is probably the collec- Assistant Engineer Daily tor of anything his restless hands Phil Falcone "You may have seen TVTV's can manipulate, cut out, combine, Artists-in-Residence videotaped reports from the 1972 transform and recombine ." He also Peter Crown Republican and Democratic Nation- will combine his own films and Ed Emshwiller al Conventions in Florida . But its photography such as Snapshots of Louise Etra latest effort is its best." Ron the City, a recording of a happening William Etra Powers, Chicago Sun-limes he staged with Claus Oldenburg 14 William Gwin "The group of youthful tele- years ago. Oldenburg appears in one Nam June Paik vision journalists are experimenting of the several new segments pro- Joseph Rvbar with and adding to TV's resources duced at the Lab recently, reading David Silver in much the same way the young several of his own dreams . John independent filmmakers of the Cage appears also, reading his C) 1974 The `television Laboratory at, early '60's added to the vocabulary 66-word dream. But because Stan WNET/13 . of the movies." Norman Mark, would eventually like to expose Chicago Daily News peoples of different societies to The "It's a show which proves, Newsreel of Dreams he has made among other things, that it doesn't the tape essentially non-verbal . take a million dollars to make a "I'm interested in feedback . I fascinating hour of video documen- want to know how people feel, tary . And in the process, it also react. I want feedback from mil- Send comments and information to : delivers a potent picture of a mass lions - can't television be used for Editor, The Television Laboratory ." other?" News. 304 West 58th Street, New spiritual awakening gone awrya us to talk to each And York, New York 10019. Dick Adler, The L.A. Time dream with each other? bySupervisingJohn Godfrey, engineer barely are the technical aspects of a documentary as interesting as the content. However, The Lord of the Universe is one such show. The hour program, which was recorded on half-inch black-and-white tape and one-inch color tape and then time-base corrected to two-inch tape, was a learning experience for On October 25th, TVTV sent its crews to cover Soul Rush '73 the national caravan of Maharaj Ji's followers travelling from Boston to Houston. While on location, they shot sample reels with the seven ports-pales they carried and sent those reels back to the Lab for time-base correction and quality evaluation. The Lab is equipped turned to the studio for transfer- process of rough cut editing from with a CVS-500 time-base corrector ring., One problem was "beam fold- half-inch to one-inch took about 6 capable of correcting error up to over" which led to a false flag weeks. At this point, I from the ±95 microseconds . Of the seven waving which was not correctable original 80-plus of material ports-pales tested, four proved ac- by the time-base corrector. This were selected and transferred to ceptable, two were marginal, and occurs as a white area near the top two-inch tape. The color segments one was removed from the project. of the picture. In the circuitry of were included in this transfer, but Since time-base error is a result of the ports-pale, there is insufficient they needed the additional process mechanical instabilities -within the vertical blanking to cover this error. of color correction with a CBS equipment, we found that the By using the Dynascience 6000-2 Color Corrector, ports-pales with the "most miles" pros amp for the transfer, we were Final editing took place at on them, so to speak, were the ones able to correct most of the errors ; WNET's post production facilities which, due to wear and tear, con- however some still showed. Anoth- using two AVRTs, a VR-2000 with tained the most instabilities - thus er problem was the auto ain and editec, an HS-200 video disc, a making them less desirable. To in- level circuits, which would come (has Valley switcher, a CBS sure the best possible alltime-base heavy video bounce when shooting Vidifont, a graphics camera, a correction conditions, equip- under widely varying light levels videotape editor and 90 hours of ment used in The Lord of the such as sunset, or evening with machine time . Universe was pronounced mechan- streetlights and signs. The best that The program was fully complet- ically solid before it was put into could ge done with the tape as it ed by the first week of January and use . The color camera in use was an stood was to closely ride these cost roughly X33,636363 froze start to Asaca - a relatively inexpensive levels with the pros amp . it is finish . 'The Lord of the Universe Am le broadcast camera with advised to eliminate this circuitry hopefully . illustrated the potential ChaEcon tubes. The recorder used or at least subdue its effects. All of of super lghtweight equipment in was an IVC 870 one-inch deck. the transfers were made using a the use of documentation of events. On November 6th, Lab director Panasonic NV-3130 deck. At the NAB convention in March avid Loxton and myself flew to shooting, we '74 four to five small portable color who At the end of the Houston where we met TVTN7 had accumulated 7480 hours of cameras in the $30,000 range were had already rented a house which half-inch black-and-white tape and introduced, and at least seven more would serve as diving quarters and 13 hours of one-inch color tape . time-base correctors in the production space. Five black-and- The basic process of sorting ouc $10-15,000 area, One company in- white crews had been assembled to this much material was the original troduced, but has not yet delivered, cover the events occurring on the responsibility of the shooting, crews a package including a modified while a Sanyo half-inch periphery of Milleniutn '73 who logged the tape while theythe Akai camera and a color crew was assigned to cover were shooting, then screenedAll cassette deck in a back-pack that the pagentry inside the Astrodome. tapes back at the house. tapes weighs about 33 pounds. This During taping, we encountered were shipped to New York where trend toward the fuller use and several fairly severe problems which they were again screened and development of portable equipment were not discovered until we re- thoroughly logged. The tedious is encouraging and exciting.