Video History Project

People

Jeff Donaldson

Jeff Donaldson (noteNdo) creates digital images and video with hardware modified video game consoles. Video is manipulated live with interfaces (control box, MIDI interface, proximity sensors) specifically made for each system. The work is based on a closed systems ability to generate pseudo random images through the re-wiring of existing hardware to produce a sort of artificial intelligence.

Common video game hardware is transformed into an audio/visual synthesizer capable of producing an infinite variety of moving and still images. Work was begun in 1988 but not documented until 2000/2001.

Cite this record

"Jeff Donaldson." Video History Project, Experimental Television Center, 2011. https://www.videohistoryproject.org/jeff-donaldson.

Download RIS citation
Summary

Jeff Donaldson (noteNdo) creates digital images and video by modifying common video game consoles and re-wiring their hardware to generate pseudo-random images; he manipulates video live with interfaces made for each system, including a control box, a MIDI interface and proximity sensors. The transformed game hardware functions as an audio/visual synthesizer capable of producing moving and still images; the work was begun in 1988 but was not documented until 2000/2001.

Submit a change or correction

If unchecked, this will appear as a public note on the site immediately. Spam filters may delay publication, but all submissions are reviewed by staff.

Changes will be reviewed and integrated as time permits. For major changes, feel free to email [email protected].

Last modified 17 June 2011

Related records

  • Video Modular System Chronology

    Bill Etra, Dan Sandin, Lee Felsenstein, Bill Hearn design Video Modular System

  • Fairlight Computer Video Instrument Operator Manual Revision 5 Bibliography

    Fairlight Computer Video Instrument Operator Manual Revision 5. Approx. 90 page booklet illustrated with block diagrams, connection diagrams, and seperate preset guide illustated with screen shots. "The CVI is a digital live image processor and graphics generator with paintbox facilities. These two …

  • National Endowment for the Arts: Computer Interface with Video Synthesizer. Proposal Bibliography

    Computer Interface with Video Synthesizers concentrates on the design and construction of an interface between computer and image synthesizer and the development of a computer language to permit the artist to enter the system to create images and notate compositions. Computer Interface with Video Sy…

  • The Video Synthesizer - Review of Existing Synthesizers, excerpted from "Design Device" Tools

    Tom Dewitt presents the Design Device, a proposed video synthesizer to be controlled by a mini-computer reading a formatted picture language; the instrument is intended to perform video synthesis and signal processing and to let artists prepare and record programs on paper. He reviews existing vector and intensity-based synthesizers and modular, matrix, and computer-controlled patch systems, citing Rutt/Etra, Stephen Beck, Dan Sandin, EMS Ltd., Computer Image Corp., Vector General, Arp, Woody and Steina Vasulka, Don Buchla and Bell Labs. Planned features include memory oscillators for arbitrary wipes, an outline generator to reduce volumes to lines, rotation via low-frequency sine-cosine control voltages, and colorization approaches using luminance, chrominance and hue.

  • Video Modular System Tools

    VMS Video Modular System Video Modular Systems, Berkeley, CA The VMS was designed by Bill Etra of Etra Technology Research Associates, Dan Sandin (University of Chicago, Circle Campus) and Lee Felsenstein, with assistance from Bill Hearn (Electronic Associates of Berkeley). The device could colorize…

  • Computer Systems Approach to Video Art Tools

    A 1975 proposal to the New York State Council on the Arts and a 1977 report describe a computer-based video synthesis system for synthesizing, processing and controlling video images for artists. The documents list proposed and conventional components including spatial and intensity digitizer, function generator, digital memory, A/D and D/A converters, sync generator with genlock, time-base corrector, chroma keyer, colorizers, keyers and special-effects generators; they define interactive-compositional and automatic-production modes. The system specifies a 1,024-word 16-bit buffer, a DEC LSI-32 microprocessor with Teletype I/O and floppy drives, a 9.7552434 MHz clock phase-locked to a 3.579545 MHz subcarrier, and an X–Y module providing 512 pixels and 18 bits of timing.