Spring 2013 Fellow
Fellows: Benton C Bainbridge with Minou Maguna and Bill Etra
Project: Telematic Etra

about Telematic Etra

Telematic Etra was a series of video chat room discussions with Bill Etra about his lifelong pursuit of “total plasticity of the moving image.” Etra is best known as the co-inventor of the Rutt/Etra Video Synthesizer. He has also created other milestone art works, pivotal patents, and collaborations with artists ranging from Steina and Woody Vasulka to Francis Ford Coppola.

Etra’s congenital spinal stenosis has immobilized him and he is rarely able to leave his apartment in the Bronx. Telematic Etra enabled Etra to reach out and educate and inspire the next wave of Visual Music composers, performers, critics and academics. Each session included both a lecture and a Q&A section, to maximize interaction. 

Session 1 was held on June 9, 2013 at the Old American Can Factory. A recording of it can be seen here. Session 2 was held on August 18, 2013, exclusively online. In it Bill Etra narrated a history of tools and instruments created for real time visual performances. Bill has pursued the creation of a “visual piano” and a language for the scoring of visualization compositions for over 4 decades. A recording of Session 2 can be seen here. Both sessions were made possible with the support of Really Useful Media Company. 

Minou Maguna lives and works in Buenos Aires. Art director and stage director of multimedia performance, exploring new modes of interaction between humans, machines, algorithms and the environment to create art and the poetic. In recent years Maguna has co-created performances of music, opera and experimental musical theater in Argentina and New York, London, Berlin, Rome, Singapore, Brazil, Colombia and Peru.

artist bio

Benton C Bainbridge is an artist, designer and educator based in the Bronx. Bainbridge makes movies, installations, and live visual performances with custom digital, analog and optical systems of his own design. He has presented video as immersive environments and extemporaneous compositions across 5 continents, collaborating with scores of artists around the world.

Sponsored by Really Useful Media (Dan Winckler and Emily Kornblut).