DeWitt, Tom

Design Device - A Unique Video Synthesizer Tools

Proposal from WMHT TV to the New York State Council on the Arts for the Design Device, a hybrid video synthesizer conceived by Tom DeWitt and Phil Edelstein in 1975 after sketches in Poughkeepsie; DeWitt developed the design drawing on documentation from an NEA Fellowship and with graphic help from Vibeke Sorensen. The instrument was specified to combine vector and intensity approaches, include RAM-based memory oscillators, a RuttEtra display, a camera-controlled matrix switch, a colorizer-sync adder and interfacing to PDP-11/10 computers; WMHT and the Electronic Music Studio at SUNYA supplied facilities and some equipment, the NEA awarded a $10,000 grant in April 1975, and the proposal budget totaled $22,000.26.

Dewitt - Burris Bibliography

Created with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to the Experimental TV Center in collaboration with the Vasulkas, c 1977. The research project concerned the design and creation of electronic moving-image instruments by independent artists and engineers, and the place of this work withi…

Eigenwelt Der Apparate-Welt, Pioneers of Electronic Art: The Video Synthesizer by Tom Dewitt Bibliography

Eigenwelt Der Apparate-Welt, Pioneers of Electronic Art: The Video Synthesizer by Tom Dewitt. Includes introduction and a Review of Existing Video Synthesizers and Ideas for a New One. Institution/Organizer: Ars Electronica Curator(s): Vasulka,Woody Vasulka,Steina Exhibition Dates: late 1970's

Pantograph Tools

Tom DeWitt's Pantomation (illustrated by Vibeke Sorensen) describes the Electronic Pantograph, a television-camera-and-computer system that tracks keyed points and records position-versus-time; by December 1976 the authors had developed a machine that could load hand-drawn waveforms and produced a pantomation videotape (Dec 31, 1976) used in the pantomime Outta Space. Phil Edelstein documents the Key Positioner hardware—two 8-bit counters, latches and strobe logic—implemented for a PDP‑8/L and requiring H/V drive, a 3.58 MHz chroma signal and DACs. Projects involved Electronic Body Arts, the Air Farce Mime Troupe, the Electronic Music Studio at SUNYA and WMHT TV; funding included a New York State Council on the Arts grant and a NEA conference demonstration on March 10 in Buffalo, NY.

Pantomation Bibliography

Presented at the Design in Electronic Arts conference at Media/Study Buffalo. 3/10-13/77.

The Development of a Video Art Facility by Electronic Body Arts, Inc Tools

Phil Edelstein and Tom DeWitt conceived the Pantograph in 1975; they developed a television-camera-to-minicomputer score reader and held residencies at the WNET TV Laboratory with EBA dancers in Studio 46. NYSCA/WMHT funding in 1975–77 provided equipment support that led EBA to begin building the Pantomation system in November 1976; the Pantograph was publicly demonstrated on September 14, 1977 at the University at Albany Performing Arts Center. After WMHT withdrew programs in July 1977 RPI students provided WQPI space; in April 1978 DeWitt received $12,000 from the Guggenheim and $6,000 from the NEA and EBA completed a commissioned tape for exhibition on April 28.

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.

Thoughts on 3-D Tools

Tom DeWitt recounts a career in 3-D imagery beginning in 1976 with Vibeke Sorensen on the stereo-pair video Hot Wax (transferred to film and shown at Anthology, 1978) and the creation of auto-stereoscopic parallax-barrier stereograms exhibited at SUNY Albany; he received a Guggenheim grant, discovered in 1984 a diffraction phenomenon enabling 3-D recording without two cameras, obtained a patent and later an NSF grant to study it. He worked at RPI under the student radio station and in the School of Humanities and Engineering, programmed particle systems in the Image Processing Lab through 1987, produced laser light shows, taught at Dutchess Community College using Amigas, and contributed Pulfrich 3-D computer graphics for Gerry Marks on a 1990 Rolling Stones project that used an Aspex PIPE for image processing.

Visual Music: Searching for an Aesthetic Bibliography