Bill Alves: Computer Video Works

DVD (NTSC) – 25 minutes

Price $20.00

Static Cling (2000) is the result of a fascination with the resonant patterns that emerge from the chaos of our world, in the same way in which one can start to see interesting patterns and shapes in the static screens of interstation tuning. In this piece, Alves has transformed the sounds of the nightly ritual chaos of local news broadcasts into abstract timbres and static images into patters of visual resonance. In both cases, the patterns are based on harmonic proportions, known in the music as just intonation.

Collateral Damage (1992) uses digital editing technology to cut, splice, and mix video and sounds simultaneously into a piece of “video concrete,” that is, the visual equivalent of the works of electronic “musique concrete” composers, who create compositions by manipulating everyday sounds. The result is a musical look at the mindless repetition of Gulf War briefings.

Hiway 70 (1997) is the result of the development of software based on the vision of computer animation pioneer John Whitney, Sr., with whom Alves had worked before Whitney’s death in 1995. Hiway 70 creates a vision inspired by long night drives on lonely Texas highways. The soundtrack utilizes computer motivations of traffic sounds, as well as electric guitars and others sources. These sound are in the harmonic proportions of just intonation, and many of the images of the video are a visual analogue to these same harmonic relationships, an idea also inspired by Whitney.