Sandin Image Processor Documentation
I've been teaching the Sandin Image Processor for over a decade through my faculty role in the Film, Video, New Media, and Animation at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
After learning the device from Jon Satrom and Nick Ciontea of BrownShoesOnly, I developed a guide for the Image Processor in 2014 to make it easier for my students to work with the machine. The manual is regularly updated to include additional patches and information.
Information on the Sandin Image Processor
The Sandin Image Processor is a historic patch-programmable general purpose analog computer developed by Dan Sandin in the early 1970s. It continues to engage artists more than half a century after it was invented. It was open-sourced through Dan Sandin and Phil Morton's Distribtution Religion document, allowing not-for-profit artits and institutions to copy their own for free. The device is obsolete and should not be recreated today, but using it in the contemporary era can be beneficial.
The device is activated through the user building its functionality by patching signal flows, constructing its interface and experimenting to improvisationally explore and control the video signal.
The Sandin Image Processor is the first tool I teach students in my Realtime class. They go on to build custom systems using contemporary digital tools and systems such as Max, TouchDesigner, and Resolume, empowered by the experience of working with this machine.
In the introductory chapter for Distribution Religion, Sandin stated:
"I THINK CULTURE HAS TO LEARN TO USE HIGH-TEK MACHINES FOR PERSONAL AESTHETIC, RELIGIOUS, INTUITIVE, COMPREHENSIVE, EXPLORATORY GROWTH."
All technologies have ideologies embedded in them. With the contemporary era's ideologies of AI, algorithmic consumption, and data-surveillance, I believe it is important to return to tools of the past that empower users and offer alternatives. For this reason, I preserve and teach the Sandin Image Processor and regularly demo it for artists and researchers.
The FVNMA department at SAIC works with Sean Hallowell to preserve and repair our Sandin Image Processor modules. Contact him for technical information on preserving copies of this historic system. The FVNMA Sandin Image Processor I teach was preserved by jonCates, who founded the New Media wing of the FVNMA department at SAIC, and the Phil Morton Memorial Research Archive, which was recently relaunched by the Video Data Bank.
Sandin Image Processor User Guide
Download a PDF of the Sandin Image Processer user manual for screens.
Download a PDF of the Sandin Image Processer manual for printing.
Preview diagrams
