Sinking Sample - Re:Struktr Processing

 

from the Sinking series

Phosphortron 4

A related post - here is the same 'ghost bark' footage (from previous post below) processed thru Touch Designer using a custom-built network I've named "Phosportron4" - after a MAX-based standalone app ("Phosphortron") build a few years ago by Eric Souther & Laura McGough. Like Eric, I tried to emulate the main visuals relating to old green phosphor CRTs - "blur" (decay), "burn-in", and "edge detection." Also, included the ability to mix between source footage and phosphor-induced footage.

Some Wobbulated Video Outtakes for River Styx Program

 In the 80's and 90's I had a number of artist residencies at The Experimental Television Center in Oswego, NY where I had the opportunity to utilize their custom built Paik-Abe Wobbulator unit. It's easier to watch a few video examples than to explain the analog processing FX in detail, but suffice to say that the Wobbulator allows distortion of a CRT's horizontal and vertical deflection raster, as well as adding a third special deflection coil (termed an "S" coil) which creates a sort of S rotational wobble to the raster. One thing to note is that with such signal distortion, the only means to record the Wobbulator's FX is via RESCAN of the CRT with another camera - a traditional analog video processing / recording technique.

Although many video artists have used the Wobbulator in more extreme raster distortion modes, my typical use of it has been to create slow waves, shifts, wobbles to the image. This is then keyed on top of the original footage to achieve the desired dream-like effect. Below you can view a "ghost walking up hill" segment originally processed at ETC (perhaps around 1986?) followed by a recent re-processing addition using the Phosphortron app (described in the previous post).

Some Video Outtakes for "River Styx" Video Program

 The following short video segments show processing of footage from my library of personal video tape (this one from a lake shot in 1982 using an early Betamax portable VCR). The source footage has been processed in various ways including use of a public domain App called Phosphortron (developed by Eric Souther) that layers on the green outlining FX.

Processing Experiments: Phosphortron

Yet another signal processing option to show sample output from: Phosphrotron by Eric Souther & Laura McGough

Phosphortron is a video instrument that emulates the phosphor trails found in analog cathode ray tube (CRT) oscilloscopes and television monitors. The instrument uses a computer vision technique called frame difference, which compares the current frame versus the previous frame and analyzes change based on a threshold pixel by pixel. The trail duration function controls how long previous information stays on screen before fading away the simulated phosphors. Edge detection is utilized in conjunction with frame difference, to isolate and accentuate the outlines to loosen the raster image towards the simulated aesthetics of vector drawing.

See more about the app: https://www.ericsouther.com/toolmaking-1

Eric is also one of a pair of developers, along with Jason Bernagozzi, for the powerful Signal Culture video processing apps: http://signalculture.org/appclub.html

Here is a sample of the source footage that I have been using for processing. It will be part of an upcoming video program tentatively entitled "River Styx"...