Japhy Riddle - 2014-03-28
Pre-script: While I do have a fondness for outdated video technology, video feedback is not my passion. I'm more of a stop-motion guy. My other videos far better represent my interests. 'Video Feedback' by Japhy Riddle None of this imagery was computer generated. This is an example of very controlled video feedback using all analog 1970's equipment. Shot with a Sony AVC-3400 vidicon tube camera aimed at a Quazar black and white CRT, and fed into it via RF—This was pre video-in. One advantage of using RF is that tuning away from the correct channel frequency results in noise (static) being introduced into the signal, which adds all the "wormy" detail. I recorded the camera's video output onto my computer while I was playing around with this feedback. The video is made up of three sessions back to back. It's best viewed as something to zone out (in) to. This is not for the impatient mind seeking something exciting. All the audio was procedurally generated from the analog video signal but run through many digital filters after to strip most of the 60hz hum and accentuate the overtones. The sound was also run through some varying pitch shifting filters. Sorry for the abrasive audio. For a more relaxing experience, switch off your speakers. Enjoy.
sound is amazing. one of the coolest sounds I've ever heard, especially considering its source. one of the neatest videos on youtube in my 12 years of watching
Aw. Thanks you for your kind words. You may be the only person who likes the sound. Most people can't stand it. Ha ha.
@Japhy Riddle I love the sound too. The combination of visual and audio in perfect sync is so hypnotic, the whole thing is a work of sublime art.
pretty sure that's an osha violation
every frame of this video would make a sick t-shirt
Kubrick could have used this in his ending of 2001
If Kubrick knew about this, especially with him being a numberphile and mathematician, he would be all over these clips in his movies for sure.
bernard lodge did it first
They were actually going to use video feedback as a concept for an alien creature that would be featured at the end but decided not to.
toward the 8 and 9 minute mark it looks like an oscilloscope had a baby with a paramecium
A quick expression of my appreciation for every one who uploads treats like these, especially you Japhy as creator/discoverer of this beautiful fractal form. Poetry in Motion! I no longer have analogue equipment so it's hard for me to do this thing, but I have example on my YouTube channel(s) somewhere of what I used to do in the early 1990's. However, I have taken snippets (in the music biz it's called 'sampling'!) from what I can find of feedback fractals generated by others (perhaps we discover or uncover fractal forms rather than create them ourselves), and I hope it's ok to use some of yours. You will get credited where technically possibly, but I've always thought of feedback generation as an open-source system so we can build on each others efforts and create incredible edifices of gorgeousness and gorgeosity made electric! Firstly I'd like to run this piece through something like DaVinci Resolve to double the frame rate through optical flow interpolation, which could make it look amazingly smooth and very ALIVE! I could also see what colours it would like to wear as it evolves. If the demands of life allow me that time, I'll let you know directly and you can see if you approve... if you're into all this stuff still!
My own work was transferred from S-VHS to digital format very badly, and I don't know how much processing will help clean them up, But I like to use some 'samples' of mine as great visual metaphors of the process of existential self-creation, starting with an inflationary Big Bang!
I also have a video feedback inspired title sequence for some of my YouTube vlogs which are made from sampled feedback images. I used one that was so flowing and beautiful, making shapes like a demonic rabbit, and which morphed into a smilie face, so I named my 'channel' 5mile.tv ( geddit?) and bought the domain name. I just made a freeze frame there and left it as the 'channel ident', which my company, Cosmic Inflation Productions produces content for. There's not much so far, but I've learned a lot since September and after taking up a challenge of 10 vlogs in 10 days, I got to love being in from of the camera and answering daily F.U.Q.s (Frequently Unasked/Unanswered Questions), i.e. inaccurate assumptions hidden in plain sight.
As spring nears in the northern hemisphere, I can feel creativity coming on... (as long as I don't get too distracted.. I started the day re-syncing a stereo soundtrack for a fresh 2" dub of Queen's original VT promo for Bohemian Rhapsody, rendered at 1080p50... Then when I got ScreenFlow up and running to do the job easier with a 25fps version and got caught up trying to make a short video with Malcolm Lockyer's beautiful incidental music for Dr Who and the Daleks......... Shit! It's gone 6pm... Yes, I talk too much and I'm easily distracted... my kind of heaven!!
Hey, thanks. Sure, sample away. Optical flow might choke on it as it's got a lot of similar looking parts. You might end up with a lot of artifacts because of this.
absolutely mesmerizing.
It's utterly uncanny how similar this footage looks to some I made while attending college in New Mexico. I made several tapes worth over the span of several days, spending entire days making minuscule adjustments to the setup to produce patterns exactly like these... so strange, I could swear this is that footage.
Beautiful and inspiring, thanks.
This is my favorite music video ever. Thanks for making this!
Mind bending. Beautiful!
Spontaneous perfect, the universe
I love this and am mesmerized and hypnotized by it. I can't stop watching it. Wish there was a "visual synthesizer" where I could no only play it for the sound but also for the visuals like this!
I love the audio! its kinda adds to the whole thing for me.
Excellent. Old analog equipment is the way to go!
this is terrific! 👍🤓👏
making synchronized sound accompaniment out of the video signal was a brilliant added touch. well done!
Thanks. I wish the sound were more pleasant to listen to, but it is what it is. Glad you liked it.
This is so good, the sound is so interesting at the end!
Thank you very much.
Hi Japhy, I'm a video producer at Newsweek and I want to use your video in one of our articles. Can I have your permission to use your video? Thank you!
Sure. Go for it. Please send me a link when it has been published.
Japhy brought me here. Amazingly wonderous video. Fascinating article on consciousness.
You have very good control of your video feedback. Analog feedback with vintage equipment is beautiful the way it flows. I liked the audio too, even the glitches worked. I achieved control with my own video feedback by using a computer to control motion.
fantastic!
Great! I spent ages recording brilliant trippy patterns like this in my misspent youth, then setting them to my favourite dance tunes. Try dangling things in front of the TV screen then completely the feedback loop - also very entertaining.
I love it.
Hei, thx for sharing these great video feedback, could you tell me which type of device do you use, the type of camera and tv , their frequencies, please? the outcome is very dynamic, bouncy, i'm curious about the type of electronics. I made also VF but rarely had this dynamic movement, generally i got more smooth movement for the same type of patterns. thx!!
The specifics are in the description.
is that the big bang?
The small bang.
imo
Great vid.
I love the video & the audio.
imo
Now do the Doctor Who theme
I used to make these with an old video camera and a tube tv. They were so cool! I got mine to the point of a blob of light in the middle of the screen that I could literally push around and deform at will. That was like 30yrs ago. Still cool today!
Yes. The blob. Been there. Fun stuff.
Mr Riddle, could you please describe your process for creating this effect with video feedback? Thank you.
It's all in the video description.
Excellent!
Hi, This video is amazing. I work @MailOnline Can we use your footage & screen grabs in the Dailymail.com video player, apps and Dailymail.com social accounts? We will fully credit you in the article. Please email us if you have any questions. -ES (NYVideo@mailonline.com)
Where/how did you get the tube camera? I'd love to try something like this, but isn't that old equipment mostly junked and super-expensive to ship?
(I have a few CRT broadcast monitors, but a 70s video camera sounds pretty unweildy to ship. I could definitely find a period conrac monitor, if I wanted :D)
The camera I used is relatively small and light. It's a consumer product, not a huge studio beast. Shipping shouldn't be much of an issue if you seek out something small like this. The 3-tube color cameras weigh a lot though. I found this particular camera at a thrift store for $20.
I don't think the camera being tubes really matters that much to be honest, anyway.
I mainly want a studio camera with tubes because they're probably getting pretty rare nowadays and I'd like to preserve them.@Japhy Riddle
@wyatt8740 Ah, yes. That's understandable. The black and white ones are fairly plentiful on eBay. The three-tube color ones are getting really hard to find for reasonable prices though.
Hello Japhy, love the video! I used to experiment with video feedback in high school, but was never able to get it so precise - great work!
I saw that you gave someone permission to use part of this video in one of their projects and wanted to ask the same :). I'm a hobby musician and was hoping you might let me use part of it for a music video that I'm making (no profit). It would be greatly appreciated, and of course you would be credited as well.
Thank you. Yes, feel free to take however much of this you'd like. Send me a link when you finish your video, please.
Will do, thanks so much Japhy!
wow.. I wonder if this also works with a digital camera and a computer screen..? I'd love to generate these myself!
some of these patterns remind me of mangekyu sharingan from naruto xD .. really pretty!
Yes, you can do similar effects with newer digital equipment. There will be some differences of course. Most likely, a very noticeable difference will be a delay between the camera and the screen resulting in further delays on down the recursive rabbit hole, which is not a bad thing.
I had to look up what you were referencing. And yes, I see the similarities. There's a great book of Mon designs published by Dover called Japanese Design Motifs if you want to dive into that world. : )
This has just GOT TO BE , Fractal Mathematics ... !
Or... is it done , through "MOIRE Patterns " .. ? ? ?
It's certainly a recursive process, but I don't think I'd classify it as a fractal.
@Japhy Riddle Hmmmm.... I think ANY sort of Colorizing into this video , would be for the Better... : )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdcOGFUQAag&t=14s
the shuriken-like figure was so cool. also, that portion of the screen bleeding out from the circle sometimes reminds me it's real analog feedback and makes it even cooler. so sharp and well-defined. really, really good stuff on your channel!
Has anyone tried putting the feedback itself put through the same process that generated it, in a sort of recursive series?
I'm not sure I understand the question you're asking.
Doo wee woo
What is "RF3 you speak about in the video description ?
RF stands for Radio Frequency. Rather than the dedicated video input, a video signal can also be fed into the TV basically where the antenna connects. The video signal must go through an RF modulator first to transform it into a signal that appears to the TV like a channel 3 or 4 signal. If you have a TV with an analog dial, you can tune slightly off of the station and introduce noise (video static).
Nice. Looking on youtube before, they didn't really have any video feedback things as good as what I had gotten myself with non-digital camera and TV, but this is categorically superior, getting the center to be so slow and sometimes motionless, great work. What is the audio? Makes me want to watch with binaurals/isochronics like the old days
Definition of the audio is in the description.
wonderful
Circa 10:30 it's one of the alien spacecraft escorting Dr. Dave Bowman's space pod in 2001: A Space Odyssey .
How was this made?
Point a camera at a screen. Feed the camera video signal into that screen.
Hello, are you the author of this experiment?
I am an art student and am researching some video feedback images as reference, I had already seen this experiment once at the university and now I found it again.
I am going to produce a short artistic video based on this concept of feedback - I don't have it fully planned yet but I would like to know if there's any chance I could use a few seconds of this video in it, no more than 5. If so, tell me how I could credit you!
This is a project with no funds involved, I'm making 5 experimental videos each one with a different concept for its construction, only for experience and maybe portfolio.
Thanks for the attention :)
+Lorena Ramos Yes, I made this. You can absolutely use this. Any duration you want. You can credit me however you'd like. My name is Japhy Riddle.
Thank you for asking and taking interest. I hope your project turns out great.
Cheers,
Japhy
+Japhy Riddle that's lovely of you, thank you so much! cheers :)
They look like flowers,
Hi Japhy. Please may I use your video feedback for creative commons non-commercial music videos?
A number of people have purchased the rights to use this video from me in the past, so it's usually not for free. But, if you really don't want to pay for, I could send it to you.
❤
Outstanding !! But is there a way to see this with less digital quality reduction ? I mean, I suppose the original has to be "cleaner".. when I watch it in fullscreen it gets blurry and "pixelized"... I just want to enjoy it as much as possible ! thanks a lot :D
Well, there's no way to stream it online much cleaner than this due to the current compression algorithms, but you can download a 3GB+ version here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=178Z2GhYiUpZ2hJ_MyiXOTjxgxEzMpCGy
Very nice! What were the parameters that you changed to obtain the different dynamical patterns? Please feel free to check my simulated videofeedback videos!
Thanks. Only two things were adjusted: Camera angle (z-axis rotation), and channel frequency (tuning slightly off the channel to introduce more noise). Does that make sense?
Yes it does. Other parameters could be the brightness or the contrast of the camera/TV. Digital cameras have filters that can affect the loop also. Lookig forward to watch more of your videofeedbacks!
Why didn't you warn me that this video would make me see god
God most likely doesn't exist. You're thinking of something similar. The Great Wombat maybe.
@Japhy Riddle is there a difference?
the sound is very interesting ... how did you make the sound?
The sound was made by plugging the video signal into the audio input. I ran it through a handful of filters to make it a little more pleasing and interesting, but it's still rather harsh on the ears.
boggo - 2016-10-09
There is something amazing and beautiful and incredible right there, in mathematics, underlying our reality. It's so mindbogglingly cool that this comes out of a simple feedback loop. I've not seen anything more fundamentally beautiful.