Spiral 5 PTL (Perhaps The Last) (1979)

Overview

Spiral 5 is in the inaugural collection of Video Art at MOMA [Museum of Modern Art] in New York. It was the fifth in a series of performances of a piece called Spiral. Most of the Spirals were performed live in front of audiences by people controlling digital computers and playing on the analog image processor (IP), with musicians jamming along. The GRASS digital system combined with the IP formed the digital visual instrument used in the performance. Spiral 5 was performed in front of a studio audience and the music was re-recorded later. It is an abstract, mathematical animation based on the linear spiral, in something you might call the visual music tradition.