A brief introduction to the Paik Abe Raster Manipulation Unit aka The Wobulator, designed by Nam June Paik and video engineer Shuya Abe. The Experimental TV Center have one of around 4?? that were ever built, it directly modulates the scan lines of the TV so to record any of its output you have to point a camera at the screen. I think a similar process using a more complex 3 channel (RGB) version was used by Paik to manipulate the image of Nixon in Paik’s video tape Global Groove.
The archives at ETC contain the full instructions for building one of these, although it relies on a specific make of TV that was available in the 70′s but might be a little harder to find now. If anyone wants a copy of the instructions please send me an e-mail. Although it looked like a fairly simple hack, according to Hank at ETC it was ‘funky’ and the instructions warn anyone off from attempting to build one.
