Bug-Eyed Ramrod

Bug-Eyed Ramrod

Bug-Eyed Ramrod was recorded at the Experimental Television Center in a single session in February 1984. By that time I had long been combining my own video synthesizers with those at the TV center. Bug-Eyed Ramrod was one of many works that used custom voltage control video mixers to combine waveforms in ways I could not have managed with the ETC hardware alone. In this, and probably all the work that came after, color came from a crude method of mixing processed subcarrier into pedestal or gain controls of my keyers, or mixers, rather than using the colorizer we had built for the residents.

When I made Bug-Eyed Ramrod, in 1984, we were still using the Cat frame buffer which had a blink frame every time it made a grab. Many times I was tempted to edit it out, as others have done, but I always decided against the effort. The Jones buffer was built sometime later.

This piece was one of few that I allowed myself to let 5 segments run almost 6 minutes. There were a few Bug-Eyed Ramrod cuts, some longer and some shorter. This one is a little bit on the longer side. The first segments were based on rhythms while the later segments evolved from the movement and became matted behind the surface, inside, rather than on top.

For better quality video see the work page.