#JohnLogieBaird

[usnatarchives]

From Spinning Disks to Streaming 📺

On January 26, 1926, Scottish inventor John Logie Baird gave the first public demonstration of a working television system. This event, which took place at the London department store Selfridges, marked a significant milestone in the history of television.

Baird's demonstration used a device called a "Nipkow disk," which scanned an image and transmitted it over radio waves. The images were only 30 lines of resolution and were in black and white (compare that to today's 1080p HD). 

The National Archives holds a wealth of information about the history of television in the United States, including records of early television experiments, documents about the regulation of the television industry, and photographs and videos of early television programming.

See History As It Happened - The National Archives Experience Highlights America's Film Treasures

[ed4wo-study-abroad]

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📺On this day in 1925, the world witnessed the MAGIC of television as Scottish inventor John Logie Baird brought MOVING IMAGES to life on our screens for the very FIRST time!

Can you imagine a world without TV? We can't! Thanks to Baird's pioneering spirit, we've had decades of entertainment, information, and so much more! 🙌

[travellianna]

#london #citywalking #blueplaque Who knew #johnlogiebaird discovered the first #television on #frithstreet in #soho #whereintheworldislianna (at London, United Kingdom) https://www.instagram.com/p/CZscQPZNJA1/?utm_medium=tumblr

[artandhue]

On this day in 1926, John Logie Baird made his first demonstration of television images to Royal Institute members in Frith Street, Soho. artandhue.com/tv #ColourTV #ColorTV #ColourTelevision #OnThisDay #OTD #Broadcasting #JohnLogieBaird #FrithStreet #Television #TV #midcenturymodern #MidCentury #Modernism #Retro #retrotv #retrotelevision #interiors123 #interiorinspo #Interiors #homedecor #thehappynow #nothingisordinary #paradiseofminimal #minimalist #frithstreet https://www.instagram.com/p/BtGD93-ANp9/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1cafsh4vw0iuf

[ribaarchitect]

Alexandra Palace http://www.alexandrapalace.com/timeline/#a_short-lived_inauguration #iconicbuilding #iconiclondon #muswellhill #homeoftv #marconi #johnlogiebaird #bbc #willisorgan #historic #architecture #landmark #allypally #alexandrapalace #exhibition #music #theatre #greenlung #mybackyard #sunset #sunsetpics #instasunset (at Alexandra Palace)

[thomgoddard]

So Soho Square really has been a Mecca for television luvvies since... well, literally the beginning! #loveSoho #television #johnlogiebaird #wellididntknowthat (at Soho Square)

[greigpaterson]

[livepicx-blog]

@Regrann from @msnbcphoto - This Week in History: Ninety years ago, Scottish inventor John Logie Baird produced the first public demonstration of the mechanical television, broadcasting a three by two inch image of his business partner, Daisy Elizabeth Gandy, in 1926. Baird was an early TV pioneer whose company, the Baird Television Development Company, also realized the first transatlantic TV transmission. By 1928, the first mass-produced TV sets had arrived on the market. The mechanical television had a strong run, used by the BBC until 1937, but was ultimately surpassed in the market by the electronic television in the 1930s. Here, photographer Martin Parr captures an image of a television in England in 1970. Photo by @martinparrstudio / @magnumphotos Check out more from MSNBC’s “Throwback Thursday” at www.msnbc.com/photography (link in profile) #tbt #throwbackthursday #throwback #TV #Television #JohnLogieBaird #MartinParr #Photography #msnbcphoto #msnbc - #regrann

[babaalexander]

November 21: World Television Day Television: a cornerstone of democracy and a pillar of freedom of expression and cultural diversity. It nurtures education, continually invites people to explore beyond their living rooms and arouses curiosity. #WorldTelevisionDay #InternationalTelevisionDay #TVDay #WorldTVDay #GlobalTelevisionDay #UniversalTelevisionDay #TelevisionDay #Television #Telecommunication #Transmitting #broadcasting #SDTV #HDTV #CRTTV #LCDTV #LEDTV #OLEDTV #Plasma #SmartTV #SatelliteTV #DigitalTV #PhiloFarnsworth #JohnLogieBaird #CharlesFrancisJenkins #Philo #JohnBaird #CharlesJenkins #WRGB #NBC #CBS

[bobbystevenson]

BAIRD: 50 Shades of Grey: Two Scenes from the birth of television

BAIRD: 50 Shades of Grey: Two Scenes from the birth of television

BAIRD: Intro

FLORENCE – Logie Baird’s secretary. She is late teens/early twenties. Florence is pleasant with a somewhat nervous disposition. It was reported about his secretary that on first seeing the ventriloquist’s dummy head, she let out a scream and fainted. 

BAIRD– John Logie Baird is 36 and never in the best of health. He has a faint Scottish accent. This is a man on the verge of a…

[interlacedtriangles]

[whitworthworkoftheweek]

WORK #24 (WORKS ON PAPER COLLECTION)

Tony Oursler, JLB Relationship, acrylic on paper, 2001.

All images © courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York and Hong Kong.

INTRODUCTION:

A bespectacled man peers down at a ventriloquist's dummy - or at least the head of one. Its mottled clown-like visage is angled in the direction of another face. This one - pale and ghoulish - lurking in the gloom is reminiscent of a horror film character, albeit not a particularly frightening one. What seem to be lightbulbs cluster above this assembly, hanging like helium balloons. The whole scene is shadowy, dark and unclear. It portrays a meeting of shadows from history which we are prying on. The meeting is one of huge significance.

The man is John Logie Baird, the Scottish inventor of the first mechanical television. The dummy he is holding is Stookie Bill, whose image was the first apparition to break through the static from the other side. Tony Oursler, the American artist who painted JLB Relationship is a huge, well respected presence on the contemporary art scene. Oursler was also responsible for the music video for David Bowie's comeback single.

Essentially, Oursler's art is the product of the fusion of several enormously fruitful fields of research, with a unique and personally identifiable visual language developed over the past twenty five years. The core interests are technology and science but include psychological disorder, wireless communication, the relationship between mass media and the human mind for example. Tony Oursler has created an aesthetic which combines projections, often of faces, (human or otherwise) with sculptural objects to create installations. They seem alive, possessed or inhabited, and sometimes they talk to you or even scream at you. They can unsettle you or make you laugh, or both. The installations engage you at times and at others seem to be oblivious of your presence. 

These works on paper, which Oursler creates alongside his installation practice, are not so interactive but do reveal Oursler's preoccupations and fascinations. This work specifically deals with what he calls: "twilight moments in any new technology." He goes on to clarify this by adding: "right when they are first invented. People have no idea what could be done with them." There is one area which I find most intriguing in Oursler's research, and which has a strong link to the Whitworth. Oursler explains: "during my research, I discovered a different narrative lurking in the shadows. It started with spirit photography and had to do with using technology to communicate with the dead." I am particularly drawn to this area, because within our Outsider Art collection we hold works by Madge Gill and JB Murray whose creative output was channelled through them, they believed, by a spirit, or in Murray's case, by God. 

This interest in the way that humans have used each advance in technology to try to contact the other side became a preoccupation for Oursler which culminated in the large scale outdoor project The Influence Machine which was first shown in 2000 and then here in Manchester for a third time, in Whitworth Park, as part of the Manchester International Festival in 2011. It was shown again outside Tate Modern just last year. This project explored these ideas around the communion with the dead through various methods of technology. It manifested as a large scale quasi-phantasmagoria with disembodied heads floating on trees, walls and on plumes of smoke with voices from beyond drifting into the night air. It was certainly a spectacle! There is too much in Tony Oursler's work for me to delve into fully in this short piece - as this statement on his research process illustrates, he: "started with the camera obscura and ended up with the internet." 

Andrew Cheetham (Visitor Services Team)

Quotes drawn from Tate Shots interviews with Tony Oursler. See links below.

ARTIST PROFILE:

Tony Oursler was born in New York in 1957. He completed a BA in fine arts at the California Institute for the Arts, Valencia, California in 1979. His art covers a range of mediums working with video, sculpture, installation, performance and painting. Oursler is perhaps best known for his use of video footage of human faces projected onto spheres, dolls and other three-dimensional surfaces. The results are riveting: sculptural objects that seem to be alive, returning your startled gaze as they mutter, twitch and scream. Psychological disorder, the relationship between mass media and the human mind, youth culture and wireless communication are among the themes evoked and explored in Oursler's vividly surreal imaginings. His work has been exhibited in prestigious institutions including the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Documenta VIII, IX, Kassel, Museum of Modern Art, New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Skulptur Projekte, Munster, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, Tate Liverpool. The artist currently lives and works in New York City.

From The Whitworth archives.

FURTHER READING:

Tony Oursler:

http://www.tonyoursler.com/

Lehmann Maupin:

http://www.lehmannmaupin.com/artists/tony-oursler

Artangel on The Influence Machine:

http://www.artangel.org.uk//projects/2000/the_influence_machine/about_the_project/about_the_project

Tate Shots on Tony Oursler:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuWozY8NIS0

Tate Shots on The Influence Machine:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YQoEgAyqp0

[ribaarchitect]

ALEXANDRA PALACE - HOME OF THE WORLDS FIRST PUBLIC TELEVISION BROADCAST It's a privilege to live next to this iconic landmark and especially if you consider how television has transformed the world since this first broadcast @yourallypally @bbc #muswellhill #allypally #alexandrapalace #london #homeoftv #johnlogiebaird #marconi #tv #broadcast #technology #changetheworld #1936 #iloveallypally #onmydoorstep #frommywindow #history #architecture #iconiclondon #ilovelondon #happyweekend (at Alexandra Palace)