/ BLACK MAGIC IN THE AIR /
A fairy tale in disconnected fragments. Memories of the early days of black and white television. Hyper-realistic flashbacks already in the unthinkable era of the touch screen.
The picture is really made up of thousands of tiny dots.
The Television Code.
Empty lifeboats on a darkening sea.
Felix the Cat and the Cathode Ray.
Spectrum of emitted light, returning spectrum molecular signature.
Saturday, February 26th 2016.
Hollow Point 2021.
After Visual Nation.
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"The picture is really made up of thousands of tiny dots arranged very close together, but normally our eyes don't notice the dots, especially when the picture is being moved. This fact helps to make television and motion pictures possible. Television is simply a way of sending these dots from a transmitting station and putting them together to make a picture on the screen of a receiving set". (1)
"The free television system is based on the competitive flow of ideas which in turn contributes to a flow of goods the economists tell us this is the basis of free enterprise and in turn is fundamental to a democratic system. Our way of life then is based on standards of quality and taste". (1)
"Empty lifeboats on a darkening sea. The imagination of a boy quickened and enriched by seeing great events, as and when they happen. Familiar sights assumed new importance, and our boy has some fun on the local pond and witnessed on television by millions that one awful moment in maritime history when time and oceans stood still, when a majestic liner Andrea Doria hesitated as if pleading for mercy rolled over and sank in a grave". (1)
Felix the Cat and the Cathode Ray
Felix the Cat was one of the first images ever broadcast by television when RCA chose a Felix doll for a 1928 NBC experiment in New York's Van Cortlandt Park. The papier-mâché (later Bakelite) doll was chosen for its tonal contrast and its ability to withstand the intense lights needed. It was placed on a rotating phonograph turntable and photographed for approximately two hours each day; as a result, Felix is considered by some to be the world's first TV star. After a one-time payoff to Sullivan, the doll remained on the turntable for nearly a decade as RCA fine-tuned the picture's definition.
SPECTRUM OF EMITTED LIGHT
RETURNING SPECTRUM MOLECULAR SIGNATURE
SATURDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2016 07:59
HOLLOW POINT 2021
AFTER VISUAL NATION
REFERENCES
(1) A Welcome Guest in the House, 1957, Cal Jones, National Association of Broadcasters.
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A Welcome Guest in the House
Prelinger Archives, National Association of Broadcasters
1957. United States of America. vo English. s Spanish. 20’ -
Magic in The Air
Prelinger Archives, Jam Handy Organization for General Motors
1941. United States of America. vo English. 2’ -
Magic In the Air
Toni Serra, Joan Leandre
1999. Spain. vo English. 11’
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A Welcome Guest in the House