Media Recyclator
Marko Koschnik
Definition
The closed circuit system is a machine for real-time reinterpretation of the TV programme by the means of deconstruction/remix of video and sound.
Principle
The system takes the real-time TV programme at the input, digitize the picture and manipulate different aspects of the video signal in the buffer, recomposing it back at the video output of a computer. The sound is recomposed separately by the real-time sampling unit.
Specifie Operation
We call the system "closed" because there is no other input but the source signal, which reinterprets itself via several feedbacks and translations: sound triggers its own sampling over a certain threshold; audio samples are translated to midi data which are triggering the same samples; their loudness is translated to pitches at which the samples are played back: pitches and volumes of the sound are navigating several possible keying effects and determine other parameters of the digital mix.
The result is a self-determined video graphics, produced on the fly out of regular TV programme, varying in a broad range from noise to automatically produced clips and spots with new and different registers of possible perception compared to the original signal/input.
Target
We try to programme algorithms which operate in the anthropomorfie range of effects, thus staying near the blind spot of the "TV viewer", facing the observer with what he/she is trained to miss in the state of watching the 625-pixel beam controlled from the ideological center.
Statement
Philosophically speaking, the implemented process revitalizes the ontological question on what is real-time in electronic media. One of the possible answers derived out of observing our system is: real-time is a buffor fast enough to operate bellow the threshold of perception. If we imply processing in such a buffer, we enter the desort behind the selfevident use of traditional media. Many now questions arise: how to treat this kind of "misuso" with copyright law, for example? (Here we don't discuss the recorded material, but real-time public screenings).