The Melissa Virus
by Benton-C Bainbridge
1 hour, Stereo, NTSC Color, 2000

Benton-C Bainbridge: ARP 2600, Heathkit 10-30 Oscilloscope, Panasonic WJ-MX30 Video Switcher, Sony SVR-2000 TiVo


I made this video in two 1 hour realtime sessions in the year 2000... probably my most productive year so far. Sometime in the spring I set up a patch on the ARP 2600 analog audio synthesizer and hooked it up to an oscilloscope my father built around the time I was born. Like others before and after me, I had the idea that, when constrained to a set of limited parameters, abstract sound and image can evoke language. To me the repetitious variations of strange flatulent noises and squiggly shapes were like an alien mantra.

Months later, I was infatuated with my hacked TiVo and the artist Melissa Lockwood, so I made a video for her by feeding the ARP and O'scope recording into a long audiovisual digital delay loop. I suppose the result was not so romantic, but Melissa seemed to appreciate the effort I put into making a video for her.