Hypnotic retrospective of early video art June 13

Early work by Daniel Sandin is included in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art.

Trailblazing video artist Dan Sandin, former director of  the Electronic Visualization Lab, will present a retrospective of early video art June 13 on campus.

“Analog Dreamscape: Video & Computer Art in Chicago, 1973-1985,” begins at 7 p.m. in the Institute for the Humanities, lower level of Stevenson Hall.

The program will feature work created by Sandin and others from UIC and School of the Art Institute using the image processor and early digital computer systems developed at EVL, an interdisciplinary program at the crossroads of art and computer science where Larry Cuba created the 3-D computer models used in the “Death Star” sequence of “Star Wars: A New Hope.”

The event will include a discussion with Sandin and new media historian Jon Cates of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Sandin’s early video “Spiral PTL,” made in collaboration with Thomas DeFanti and Mimi Shevitz, is featured in the inaugural collection of video art at the Museum of Modern Art.

He is the developer of the Sandin Image Processor, a 1973 analog video synthesizer that allowed the artist to radically manipulate images in real time. Artwork made with the Sandin Image Processor conjures up the unconscious of a circuit board, creating a chromatic blur of geometric shapes and patterns.

An early advocate for open-source software, Sandin made the blueprints for his invention available to the public.

The program is presented by the Institute for the Humanities, UIC’s minor in moving image arts program and South Side Projections.