by Allen Riley
Produced by Death By Audio Arcade
Play it at Wonderville
VIDEOFREAK is a video art arcade game.
It combines the gameplay of a traditional arcade space shooter with the physical analog electronics of a video synthesizer.
Playing VIDEOFREAK involves manipulating live analog video feedback and audio effects that are built into the cabinet.
Because of this unique hardware implementation, VIDEOFREAK can only be played in the form of a physical arcade cabinet or installation.
The concept for VIDEOFREAK was developed during my residency at the Lower East Side Ecology Center in July-August 2016.
During my residency, I repaired and repurposed video equipment to create visual art with electronic feedback. I also experimented with connecting videogame consoles to my video art systems and invited the public to play scrambled videogames in a series of workshops.
The game features analog electronic music I recorded at Signal Culture in Owego, NY in January 2016.
Additional sounds were recorded using an electric organ during my residency at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts in Nebraska City, NE in November 2015.
- HISTORICAL BACKGROUND -
The technical design of VIDEOFREAK is inspired by the artist Nam June Paik's concept of Participation TV, which Paik implemented in various prepared televisions and interactive video sculptures starting in 1963. The idea of Participation TV takes into account the synchronized raw materiality of electronic waveforms and the brain and sets up joyful two-way communication between people and electronic systems. VIDEOFREAK combines the DNA of this cybernetic video art perspective with the fun (and vaguely militaristic) perspective of video games as expressed in Ralph Baer's 1969 patent for the Television Gaming and Training Apparatus.
The title "VIDEOFREAK" is inspired by the video art collective VIDEOFREEX, who were essential to the development of video as a medium of expression and helped to create a movement in participatory media in the 1960's and 1970's that continues to resonate today. You can learn more about VIDEOFREEX and watch their videos at their website, www.videofreex.com, and in the 2015 documentary Here Come the Videofreex.
By the way, a great resource for learning about Nam June Paik is VIDEOFREEX member Skip Blumberg's documentary Lessons from the Video Master, which records the stories and lessons remembered by artists who worked with Paik at his memorial celebration in 2006.