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talk at Synthetics, Powerhouse
Museum, Sunday July 26, 1998
I started using the Fairlight Computer Video
Instrument (CVI) it was released in 1984; Mr Orwell's portentious year was also the
year Apple introduced the Macintosh. The Fairlight was the first device geared specifically
at video production which enabled video to be combined with painting at a price affordable
by individuals. Painting and video had been my two major artistic pursuits to that
time and the chance to combine them seemed irresistable. For similar reasons the
CVI became the instrument of choice in art schools all over the world. Moreover it
was an Australian invention (designed by Kea Silverbrook) and the firm was friendly
and amenable. The fact that the CVI was also a "computer" was transparent
to its use: it did not use a conventional ASCII keyboard (though in later models
one could be attached), but rather a set of sliders and a small graphics pad about
the size of the palm of your hand. Menu selections were made with a stylus rather
than a mouse. The CVI allowed you to paint directly over the top of video footage
as well as "with" video footage via an extensive series of effects. I/O
was a real time analogue composite or RGB video signal. It didn't require a special
monitor - any video monitor could display its menu system.
In a sense the Fairlight's wide range of effects were a red herring. The machine
had a series of preset effects which were used so excessively in all kinds of productions
(anything from live videoin music venues, band clips, commercials, to a number of
video art productions) that the "signature" of the machine became too readily
recognisable. This recognisability was much more accentuated than today when there
is a plethora of software on a variety of platforms which converge towards similar
graphical solutions. Aside from a few effects which could be duplicated in an Amiga,
the CVI's effects were unique.
My strategy after using the Fairlight for a little while was to abandon the effects
(aside from one or two which I utilised extensively) almost entirely and to concentrate
on the CVI's ability to create moving stencil planes of still images over video footage,
and then later over banks of Fairlight footage in a simulation, at least, of a purely
digital domain. This strategy also led me towards a kind of emblematic approach to
the use of imagery and further away from narrative structures. It also permitted
me to work almost entirely without scripts - so that the CVI became for me a kind
of electronic collage device which encouraged and even amplified the serendipity
of random association. Another bonus was that it was compact and robust and therefore
very portable. I used to ride around Tokyo with it strapped to the back of a bicycle.
It was carry on luggage on an airplane.
One of the CVI's greatest flaws was that it was a closed system without the capacity
to be enhanced via 3rd party software development. The CVI ceased production in the
mid 90s before the much-heralded (and long in development) "Diva" broadcast
version became available. In the late 90s another Australian developer, Eyeon (now
relocated to Canada), has taken over with its Digital Fusion software where Fairlight
left off. However except for in the electronic games industry the day of the specialised
purpose-designed "instrument" seems to have passed.
© 1998 Peter Callas
Synthetics was curated by Stephen Jones
& commissioned and produced by dLux media arts |
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