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Leonardo

ISSN: 
1071-4391
Title: 

Leonardo, Volume 58, Issue 1

February 2025

leon 57.6 - As Freely as Picasso: Nam June Paik, WGBH-TV, and the Video Synthesizer

Abstract
During an artist’s residency at WGBH-TV, Nam June Paik invented a new method of image production that created complex feedback, brilliant color, and nonstop mixing from multiple sources. The Paik-Abe Video Synthesizer allowed him to distort images and produce electronic disturbances that transformed the language, content, and geopolitics of television. This article highlights Paik’s transnationalism and the centrality of collaboration in his video projects.

leon 57.6 - Archaeologies and Organologies: Toward an Alternative History of Early Synthetic Video and Image Processing Practices, 1939–1969

Abstract
This article focuses on the early history of two related techniques used within artistic contexts: distorting preexisting television raster images and generating synthetic images through the application of external signals to cathode-ray tube deflection systems. Organology and media archaeological techniques are used to begin to trace an additional technical history of these complex visual instruments.