Glitch Art Dot Com

Signal Culture is currently accepting applications for it’s spring/summer artist, researcher & toolmaker residencies.  As a past attendee I highly recommend Signal Culture to new media artists seeking a unique hands-on signal processing experience.  The mid-february deadline is already creeping right up so don’t sleep!

Back in the fall of 2016 I flew in to Albany, NY and somehow found my way to the quiet little upstate town of Owego (not Oswego… by all means, do not fuck this up).  I had been accepted to the toolmaker residency  and had the Codename: Video-3 (now Televandalist) to iron out and build.   Scott Kiernan (pictured), of ESPTV, was the artist-in-residence and chief wobbulator-modulator for the duration of my stay.

Aside from working on my circuit design (and a couple of fifths of Bulleit rye) I was excited to research and wrap my head around NY state signal processing history.  The library at Open Signal had a lot of unique and obscure reads but of all the books I stumbled upon The Emergence of Video Processing Tools (Vol. 1 & 2) was by far the most useful in my quest.  A great video companion piece to the books was the Experimental Television Center’s Early Media Instruments 8-DVD set which will eat up a full day of your residency if you are not careful (as it did mine).

You could go the entire residency without leaving the studio for anything more than coffee at Carol’s and booze from the Wine Connection.  HOWEVER, there are a couple of things worth checking out in the darling town of Owego.  Perhaps a Pauper top-five is in order?

1. I highly recommend a morning stroll/jog thru yee ol’ historic cemetery on the north side of town.  It’s got an incredible view of the valley and a couple of creepy unmarked trails that lead to Blair Witches.  It’s a great place to film from the back of your Mom’s bright yellow Subaru Baja (footage came out terrible – my bad Scott).

2.  If looking for a comfortable local watering hole stick to the John Barleycorn Tavern.  If you are looking for a bar that offers free teeth removal and lousy crank check out the Rainbow Trail.

3.  Are you a fellow insomniac?  If you just need to air out your brain with coffee & pie at 4am peep the Skylark Diner in Vestal which is just a couple of towns over.  You’ll need a vehicle to get there but it’s a great little greasy spoon to scribble schematics in a notebook & cold house a stack of pancakes in.

4.  I have no idea what I did with mine but you’ve got to pose for a photo in front of Video World before it gets demolished…. oh mighty pillar of our once proud video rental industry.

5.  Oh wait…. here is a good one…. GET TO WORK!  You’ve got a whole world-class video art studio at your fingertips… what are you doing wandering Owego?!?!  Enough with the avoidance behaviors AND GET BACK TO WORK!