Physicality of the analogue

Inside the video player, spools spin, sensors read and heads rotate, generating an analogue signal from the videotape running through the system to the monitor. Within this electro mechanical space there is opportunity for intervention. Its accessibility allows direct manipulation to take place, creating imagery on the tape as pre-recorded signal of black burst without sound rolls through its mechanisms. The actual physical contact, manipulation of the tape, the moving mechanisms and the resulting images are the essence of the variable electrical space within which the analogue video signal is generated. In a way similar to the methods of the Musique Concrete pioneers, or EISENSTEIN's refinement of montage, I have explored the physical possibilities of machine intervention. I am working with what could be considered the last traces of analogue - audiotape was superseded by the compact disc and the videotape shall eventually be replaced by digital video. For me, analogue is the space inside the video player. My work involves physical manipulation of the tape and moving parts within this space. This exegesis examines examples and texts of artists using tape-based and digital media and discusses the processes behind what I consider to be an extreme video vision. My interventions push the boundaries of analogue vision and sound.