Last week I co-organized, curated, directed and hosted a 12-hour long live netcast, with participants from the Americas, Asia and Europe.
My good friend Bill Etra, media art & technology pioneer, said he wanted to be memorialized with a media jam, so we worked with CultureHub in New York, inviting participants to join in with their network collaboration software, Live Lab.
Bill Etra and his colleagues helped create the mediated world we live in today, predicting and developing many tools and aesthetics which still fascinate. Bill is best known as the co-inventor (with Steve Rutt) of the Rutt/Etra Video Synthesizer.
Bill Etra’s work changed the face of video forever and on October 7th, Anton “vade” Marini, Benton C Bainbridge, and Tom Zafian, along with guests both near and far will commemorate Etra through a 12-hour visual performance. Credited with helping to make video an art form through the invention of the Rutt-Etra synthesizer, Etra made seminal works alongside pioneers like Nam Jun Paik.
Bill Etra NY Times obit: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/02/arts/television/bill-etra-dead.html