Glitch Art Dot Com

I recently had the distinct honor and pleasure of collaborating with the legendary Richard Devine on a multi-sensory piece for Moog synthesizers. The project is called “Cathodoluminescence” and features Richard with an original track (composed on the Moog Grandmother and the Matriarch) and myself contributing the visual element. To find out more about the piece as well as read a conversation between Richard and I about the creative process please check out “Cathodoluminescence” on Moog Music.

Originally we had filmed a live performance of Richard’s in Durham, NC for Moogfest. We had used an interactive vector graphics based installation of mine as the backdrop of which I performed on for the shoot. I got involved in the post production, one thing led to another and the live performance evolved into an entirely different affair.

The visuals were created over a number of sessions with an assortment of fun gear in the mix. I had built a couple of interactive video walls for Moog in the past and I wanted to pay homage to them by incorporating a lot of simulated video wall elements into the piece. I also made a point of incorporating a number of the modified gaming systems into the mix. The floating man motif that I return to is from a rare consumer game development platform for the Japanese Sega Saturn that I’ve spent a lot of time with. There is some circuit bent Playstation 1 & 2 in there as well… even some 3DO (let me know if you can pick it hehe). The dominant system in use here is the modified Dreamcast I crafted back in 2016.

The Video Nasty is featured heavily as it is the lone source of analog sync corruption throughout the video wall sequences. As I’ve said before it’s got one of my favorite sync corruption looks in the BPMC arsenal. There is a number of fun DVE units featured in the creation of things as well including the Pinnacle Prism, the Fairlight CVI and some Sony DME series units. Probably some other shit as well, hard to keep track.

The piece was composed as I was packing up the Pauper Palace over a number of sessions in an apartment that kept catching fire. Regardless of the fire it was a productive time and I’ve got a lot of unused footage from the sessions. I thought it’d be nice to piece together an alternate edit of the video using the original live track Devine and I were first working from (which is another banger). Something for the BPMC youtube channel a little later on in the year perhaps.

It’s been an honor working with Moog over the years. I grew up playing an Etherwave theremin and saving my hard earned cash for a Moog Model D from Daddy’s Junky Music in Boston, MA. Big respect for Bob and the house that Bob built (no respect for the House Jack Built however… the f is wrong with Von Trier?). Besides the point but I missed meeting him by ONE session at RBMA a year before he passed away. Still haunts me! That said, much respect to Richard and Moog and thanks for watching.

Oof! Your boy fell off hard with the updates. My apologies. Ya’ll have kept me running regardless and for that I am forever grateful. Things are movin over here! I’m starting to finally dust off some of my pre-pandemic projects and am happy to announce a couple of things on the very near horizon in Paup-ville.

Guess who’s back?!? The PAUP EYE round two pre-order goes up March 20th at noon pacific time (SHIPS JUNE 1ST). Really I just wanna keep my IG feed full of pretty glitch pics… it’s been a real delight seeing what ya’ll do with these things. I’m only able to facilitate a run of 15 this time and it will be the last run with this camera model……. but don’t fret if you miss out!! I’ve got another glitch camera release in the pipelines.

Remember HDK? I sure do! The facking prototype has been sitting on my desk by the computer for over three years now… ulp!!! Well, this summer I’ll finally be setting the cogs in motion to bring raw 1080p HDMI glitch to your doorstep. This will be my first foray into Kickstarter as the manufacturing commitment on this one isssssss significant… so wish me luck. I’m confident however that if we spread the word folks will come out of the woodwork for this one. The end results are just too good.

As BC/PC supply lines began to dry up I teased the VIDEO NASTY; a worthy analog glitch video successor. The Video Nasty pre-order goes up FOR SURE this April. For the glitchers on a budget I’ve done my damnedest to make sure that all the evil that can be coaxed forth from this circuit is indeed at your fingertips. I’ve even employed a custom CV circuit with internal oscillation that I add to each one. With it’s release a host of swag I’ve been meaning to squeeze out into the ether will finally be available. This includes limited sticker sets, mix tapes…. and *woah* paup-printed t-shirts?!? SHA-BAM!

Last but not least, I’ve been creating content for the new BPMC youtube page that, while delayed, will debut videos this spring. The years are slipping thru my fingers and I wanted to take a chance to both document some of my projects as well as pass on some knowledge to all the folks that have been emailing me asking for tips over the years. I just had to hastily vacate my residence so they are slower to trickle out than I’d like, but I should be back up and running soon. Peace!

I love when I get a chance to put down the soldering iron (turn it off even), put on a pot of good coffee, blast some Espirit and plug a bunch of weird shit into the big screen.  It’d be even better if I could do all of this from the bath (as I am a lazy comfort-seeking bitch)… but there is a serious electrical hazard there.  Man oh man, when winter chills ya’ to the bone nothing beats a silky smooth hot bath.  Candles, powdered milk, a good oatmeal scrub, some dead sea salts loaded with essential oils…. oh, I don’t know, call me crazy but perhaps even a glass of 2012 Californian Merlot?!?  But I digress…. ah yes, you’ve no doubt got a little time off on the horizon so I suggest you get plugging in some video gear of your own.  If you are looking for a little inspiration take a gander below.  Here I’ve posted some recent demos and excerpts with a brief explanation of what is going on technically behind da scenes.

I knew there was more to this thing!  Recently I re-worked my mods on the extraordinary Sima SFX-9 two channel mixer.  The intent being to take better advantage of the multi-option chroma-key feature.  I really love the chroma options on the SFX-9 and wanted to ensure that the surgery hit it right-proper.  The demo utilizes a VHS input on channel one and an out being routed back into channel 2 in conjunction with the chroma mode.  One of the mods implemented greatly distresses the FX buffer sending it cycling through all FX settings (independently on each channel) at warp speed.  The joystick, in this mode, has a lot of say in corruption speed, feedback speed & effect variability…. and you see that here.

While the SFX-M does not have a TBC, instead frame synchronization, it sure handled every conceivable corrupted signal I could throw at it via the Premium Cable.  Here we have the SFX-M plugged directly into a projector.  I’ve got a VCR on channel one with the monitor out on channel one going into the Premium Cable and then back into channel two.  Utilizing the awesome, though limited, wipe patterns on the SFX-M I dialed in a nice feathered circular blend with the processed signal on channel two and the clean signal on one.  I enjoy the moments when the corrupted channel artfully shadows the action on channel one.  Radical!

Some serious stoney baloney shit right here.  Here I’ve got a GlitchMix’d SFX-M with mixer feedback set up on channel two.  The feedback channel, in wipe mode, also has negative and strobing on to create this cool stutter-steppin trippy goodness.  The soft pastels and posterization come from some of the delightful FX buffer mods I stumbled upon.  These mixers are like little old plants.  They have a look like a mushroom and taste like you just picked ’em fresh from the garden.

These are some recent sketches I made for Leaving Records utilizing the Fairlight CVI processed by a Premium Cable.  The two make a delightful combo with the CVI doing the bulk of the heavy lifting.  The Leaving logo was transplanted into the CVI via laptop and processed within the confines of the almighty trails effect.  Great for green-screenin’ but also great for spicing up something simple like this.

It takes some care putting the audio reactivity feature of the Fluxus to good use.  It is all about implementing audio in conjunction with a stable effect.  Wild and erratic effects tend to make it challenging to pick out the audio reactivity… “is it doing anything?”  The dropshadow effect in powered mode reflects the influence of audio well.  As does some of the chunky artifact feedback in feedback mode.  Choosing the right sonic source is important as well.  The feature was not designed with My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless in mind.  More like the output of an 808 or an old Fender Rogue.  The more defined attack and decay you give this thing the better.

I am a certified gearwhore and was advised, somewhere in the mid-two thousands, against getting into modular synthesis due to it’s crack-like effects on the gearwhore brain.  I am glad I held out so long, definitely saved me a buck or two, but I can think of a number of video projects over the years where a healthy modular setup would have been most helpful.  The first time I hit the AVE3 with CV my jaw damned near hit the floor.  It was like seeing the machine in a whole different light.  “Why the hell didn’t I get into CV sooner?”  Damn you.. sensibly responsible self!

My apologies to your brain if you’ve ever seen this early Herschell Gordon Lewis student film but it definitely made good b&w fodder to toss into a Touch Deluxe.  The Touch Deluxe has a weird digital feedback made available by one very particular mod in conjunction with the onboard “art” effect.  It has varying degrees of line thickness and fill however in this video I dialed it in to one silky lil’ position and let it go for the full duration.  This look is B-U-T-T-A!

Here we have but a mere function generator injecting tiny little voltage packets into the guts of an AVE3.  Pretty entertaining for a single module but imagine the visual potential all you Celldwellers & professional Muff Wigglers have at your fingertips.  We are going to leave it there folks, thanks for having a look and let me know if you develop a bathtub friendly video synth anytime soon.  Error successfully illustrated.