JAMES H. CONNOLLY


RGB.VGA.VOLT

RGB.VGA.VOLT is an audio/video synthesizer that enables realtime exploration of the rich materiality concealed beneath the consumer interfaces of cathode ray tube computer monitors. By hacking and improperly rewiring the cables of these obsolete devices to short their video signals, their black-boxed analog infrastructure is liberated and driven by digitally synthesized high-frequency complex waveforms, audio playback, and feedback loops that fully exploit their latent visual spectrum. Inspired by early video tools such as the Sandin Image Processor and the Paik-Abe Synthesizer as well as contemporary programming and error-based approaches to sound and moving image, RGB.VGA.VOLT revives an analog aesthetic that has acquired a renewed power and potency in the present era of digital immateriality.

The instrument combines custom built software, hardware modification, and DIY instrumentation. The PDF guide below includes full documentation of the RGB.VGA.VOLT software as well as the instrumentation used in interfacing the software with VGA computer monitors for realtime synthesis. Because I am interested in not only generating aesthetic experiences with these objects, but also disseminating critical approaches to technology, the documentation is free to copied, repurposed, remixed, etc. for noncommercial purposes. "Copying is as good (I think better from this vector-view) as any way of getting 'there.'"

COPY IT RIGHT

DOCUMENTATION/SOFTWARE/TUTORIALS

RGB.VGA.VOLT SOFTWARE

The RGB.VGA.VOLT software is an audio/video synthesizer application built in the Max environment that generates complex high-frequency waveforms that work particularly well for VGA video synthesis when interfaced with the hacked VGA cable outlined below. The program also allows for any video file to be displayed on the monitors the user is outputting to, any audio file to be bent into video and displayed on the VGA monitors, and low-frequency sine waves to wobbulate CRT imagery when interfaced with Kyle Evan's DIY electromagnet tutorial found at crackedraytube.com.

DOWNLOAD THE SOFTWARE HERE

Note: this is the first release. There will be bugs. Email those to me at jconno [at] saic [dot] edu.

MAC

WINDOWS (NOTE: this software requires Max Runtime. Download that here.)



RGB.VGA.VOLT guide

The above PDF includes a complete guide to the synthesizer's software and instrumentation.


Tutorial: Hacking a VGA cable to bend audio into video

This tutorial shows how to build a DIY VGA cable that is modified to bend audio into video with a shorted signal to enable vivid, erratic imagery. This this hack is the basis of the instrument.


Tutorial: Hacking a VGA cable to bend video into audio

This tutorial shows how to modifier another VGA cable to bend video back into audio to sonify your signal with all elements of your a/v output.



IMAGES

See more images here.



I am a Chicago-based artist, educator, museum worker, and archivist. My videos, open-source tools, and real-time audio/video performances undermine the interfaces and break through the algorithms of digital and analog systems, examining hidden power structures and liberating latent aesthetic materialities in cathartic and captivating compositions.

I am an Adjunct Associate Professor in the department of Film, Video, New Media, and Animation at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Collection Manager of the Roger Brown Study Collection.


NEWS/EVENTS

2022

September 10, 2022, 8:30 pm CRT Flux Phaser/RGB.VGA.VOLT performance at The Latent Space for the "Control Signals" exhibition performance series, Chicago, IL

August 13, 2022, 8:30 pm CRT Flux Phaser/RGB.VGA.VOLT and Cracked Ray Tube performance at The Latent Space for the "Control Signals" exhibition performance series, Chicago, IL

August 6, 2022, 7:00 pm opening for "Control Signals" solo exhibition at The Latent Space, Chicago, IL

August 6 - September 10, 2022 "Control Signals" solo exhibition at The Latent Space, Chicago, IL

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EXHIBITIONS