Generative Art Timeline · Chapter 5: Artist-Programmer Era (1970s)

1974

Noisefields by Steina and Woody Vasulka

Artwork · Women Artists

A black circle is surrounded by dense red, yellow and green electronic video noise.
Steina and Woody Vasulka, Noisefields, 1974. Video still. Steina and Woody Vasulka. Still supplied by Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York. Image source.

This audiovisual work of “video noise” was created by the electronic art pioneers Steina and Woody Vasulka who co-founded The Kitchen in 1971 where they helped non-technical artists incorporate technology into their practice. Noisefileds is the result of experimentation with modulators and video synthesizers in an attempt to build a visual vocabulary for their electronic images. This pioneering work explored the creative potential of analog video synthesis, manipulating electronic signals to generate abstract and dynamic visual compositions. Noisefields showcased the possibilities of real-time signal manipulation and the emergence of electronic aesthetics. The Vasulkas' experimentation with video and electronic systems laid the foundation for subsequent artists to explore generative processes, interactivity and the fusion of technology and art.

Text by Peter Bauman. Generative Art Timeline, Le Random.

Sources

People

Steina Vasulka, Woody Vasulka

Movements

computer art, video art, Video Synthesis

Filed under

Ideas
abstraction, video art
Technologies
computer art, synthesizers, video noise, video synthesizer
People
Steina Vasulka, Woody Vasulka
Works
Electronic Art, Noisefields
Organisations
The Kitchen
Other subjects
Vasulka

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