The miniature refers to historical video rasterizers, which, in the 1970s, artists used to transform video signals in real time.

As in the original “scan processors,” here the image becomes a material susceptible to modulation, distortions, and shifts that imitate three-dimensionality. The work is a contemporary, original interpretation of these technologies: exploring how an algorithm can reproduce the analog sensitivity of early video experiments.

CRT RAS is ideal for field work, allowing reality to be scanned using a mobile device.

A bit of history, scanning, field work

“Scan processor” is the name of a family of devices—video signal rasterizers—developed in parallel by authors drawing inspiration from each other. For example, the “Rutt/Etra Scan Processor” was designed and prototyped in 1972-73 by Steve Rutt, Bill Etra, and Louise Etra, working with funding and resources from the New York State Council on the Arts (grant), WNET Thirteen Laboratory New York, and their own savings. Similar devices were already circulating in more or less ephemeral hacker-art circuits at the time, such as “Scani-Mate” by Lee Harrison and Nam June Paik, or the “Paik/Abe Scan Modulator” by Shuya Abe and Nam June Paik. Abe and Paik’s design, interestingly enough, was assembled through a visionary combination of commercially available circuits, with its Achilles’ heel and yet characteristic feature being image interference from the power supply module (this interference proved extremely difficult to intentionally simulate). The devices differed in many functions, but their common denominator was the idea of ​​influencing (modulating) the television signal using various generators, envelopes, and mechanisms for extracting a signal parameter and applying it to change the value of another parameter. All of this strongly resembled modular audio synthesizers, and some of the “scan processors” (e.g., the “Rutt/Etra Scan Processor”) could communicate with the outside world using protocols typical of contemporary modular audio systems (primarily via control voltage). Although the designs of these devices were often created by creative individuals with recognizable, original achievements, “scan processors” were popularized within the community through artistic “proxies” who experimented with them as instruments. The most widely distributed works created using them include those by Gary Hill and the duo The Vasulkas (Stein and Woody Vasulka). The duo The Vasulkas are credited with creating the “Rutt/Etra Scan Processor” configuration, which allows for modulation of the vertical position of video image lines with the brightness of these lines, creating an effect suggestive of three-dimensionality.

“Scan processors” are, from my perspective, extremely interesting devices-instruments, transforming mental figures derived from designing and working with electronic musical instruments into a visual context. Therefore, I sought to understand their functioning and the specifics of their operation in specific cultural contexts as deeply as I could, without limiting myself to applications.

“Scan processor” designs from the 1970s were based on analog technologies, while later, often virtual, designs were based on digital technology and software. Such digital emulations, constantly rebuilt by new creators, also circulate between the worlds of hobby applications, related to art and creation, and the reconstruction of historical technologies. At the WRO Art Center, we have also repeatedly used such emulations in various activities – particularly important in this context were our group installations from the “On the Silver Globe” series, implemented since 2012. “On the Silver Globe II” and “On the Silver Globe III” contained (among many other components referencing art history) digital emulations of the pseudo-three-dimensional effect developed by The Vasulkas.

All digital emulations of “scan processors” that I know of, in particular the aforementioned pseudo-3D effect, are based on the same mechanism: a two-dimensional image (texture) is applied to a mesh, the vertices of which are moved using color values ​​or simply brightness values ​​taken from texture locations with coordinates corresponding to those vertices—this is a standard technique in 3D computer graphics (so-called “bump mapping”—a technique typically used for static images and, for example, simulating minor irregularities in three-dimensional objects, such as cracks or roughness). This approach seems optimal from a technical point of view, consistent with the architecture of modern graphics processors. Perhaps the best “scan processor” emulations, based on the idea described above and characterized by the deepest understanding of the subject, were designed and programmed by Anton Marini (in collaboration with Bill Ettra) and Ramsey Nasser. These are, respectively, extensions for the VDMX and Hydra electronic image experimentation environments (in the latter case, the vertices are essentially virtual – however, the overall idea of ​​the mechanism’s operation is similar to that described, and Nasser presents his approach in detail in the article Livecoding Scanlines on the GPU).

While appreciating the new capabilities and efficiency of modern incarnations of “scan processors,” I have long been interested in building my own rasterizer algorithm that would create images that more closely reflect the historical combination of processes occurring in analog electronics and CRT screens (although also potentially subject to manipulation using mechanisms available thanks to modern imaging technologies). Previous experience with designing an algorithm used, among others, in In the miniature “CRT Hix” and the performance “Silver Moon, Blue Planet, Blue Note,” I was able to formulate a generalized procedure, an approach at the level of system architecture design. However, as with “CRT Hix,” I aimed to achieve this goal not through stylization, but by managing the computational mechanics in a way that avoided “bouncing off” from the specifics of GPU programming.

The final important characteristic of the Miniature stems from the fact that, as with “CRT Hix” (and to a greater or lesser extent, this applies to all miniatures), a very important parameter for me in “CRT Ras” is the ability to transfer work with the designed system into the field, to scan the environment ad hoc—using a mobile and possibly inexpensive device taken outside the studio, workshop, or laboratory.