Vašulka Mediascape

Woody Vašulka, Artifacts, 1980, 22:50

Woody explains as he narrates the tape: “By artifacts I mean that I have to share the creative process with the machine … these images come to you as they have come to me, in a spirit of exploration … I encourage you to blink your eyes, move your head, and if you’re close to a tape recorder, freeze and unfreeze the tape a few times.” Woody: “… I am just interested in bringing it together because I am challenged by the possibility of writing a language now … The feedback loops in the programs are always the most interesting processes because they give you the least predictable and most effective expression – their own independent machine expression. And that’s why it’s so surprising, because it’s not like anything you would be able to plot. The machine actually plots it, which could become the source of a purely machine contributing new artifact. In fact, I made a tape called Artifacts. I was just sitting and staring at it and just not believing. So once the architecture of the machine is rich enough you can explore it endlessly. It becomes like corridors into other rooms, forgotten rooms, where, suddenly, you find a piano or tuba in the corner.”

Gene Youngblood, “Interview with the Vašulkas” (1980), in Buffalo Heads, Woody Vašulka & Peter Weibel, eds, ZKM, Karlsruhe (2008).