The Pixel is Power

Project summary

2008-04-21T10:25:00.004+01:00

Well, it's been fun but the project is almost over. I didn't quite get the chance to transfer the whole project into teletext format, although I did make a start on it - maybe that's something for the future.

The Pixel is Power final written document
downloadable from illarterate.co.uk:

This blog and the microsite will remain in cyberspace for all to view. I know there are a few mistakes in the above documents which I may get round to revising some time.

Festival site - work in progress

2008-03-17T18:46:00.002Z

Further work on the festival website. I've added drop up menus and submenus for the individual artists and events.

I still need to do a submenu for the conference page, finish the drop up menus and add sound for many things. Might need to record some new ones.

View work in progress at my online sketchbook

Futuresonic - site

2008-03-14T18:00:00.003Z

Current progress. I've expanded the grid and developed the interlocking interface a bit more.

To do list:

Links to individual exhibits
Refine the teletext graphics
Add a custom cursor
Decide on final content - ie which festival it's going to be for

Possible festivals

2008-03-14T09:48:00.004Z

Some more festivals to choose from:

Futuresonic, which I am currently using for dummy data.
Backup festival, German film and new media
Independent Video Games festival. There is some similarity to the early Atari consoles and the BBC Micro so there may be room to switch genres.
The Love Bytes festival, if they ever get to uploading something on their website.
Dare to be Digital video games competition.
London Games Festival. Not likely as this usually takes part in October so no content is available yet

Teletext is Dead (Mark 2)

2008-03-12T18:09:00.002Z

Part two of an experimental glitch video. A film taking an (overly) dramatic look at what might happen leading up to the moment analogue is switched off.

Work in progress and a follow up to 'Teletext is Dead':
http://youtube.com/watch?v=VywerSpT-Rg

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Futuresonic 2008 - festival web page

2008-03-12T18:03:00.005Z

A work in progress.

The current website for Futuresonic is information based. Using the existing text and information on the Futuresonic website, I would like to produce something visually orientated for the festival.

The dark blue section in the second image expands when the image is selected, revealing more images which spread across the grid. I want to involve a few more little interactive clicky bits like this.

Wish/ to do list

Figure a way of introducing more clickable bits.
Resolve the crowded grid issue
Individual pages for Music, Art, Conference, Contribute etc.
Make the home page look a bit more connected. At the moment the links are a bit floaty.

Digital switchover - Switzerland

2008-03-11T18:18:00.002Z

A video from YouTube. Did this really happen? If so, a bit of an anticlimactic end to the analogue signal. I'm hoping the UK at least get a test card for a few minutes or something.

Tunnel vision

2008-03-10T16:22:00.010Z

Various snapshots from this weekend's experimentation.

Teletext is Dead?

2008-03-07T18:27:00.003Z

Following up the Teletext is Dead idea using DV imagery.

Glitched teletext art

2008-03-07T18:20:00.004Z

Teletext glitch art. ITV teletext > DV tape > DVD > Jpeg

Last chance to see the thing!

2008-02-29T17:51:00.006Z

Actually, there's another week and a half to the Thing yet. The title was just an excuse to show off my flashy animated GIF. I've got at least two ideas for posters now - the Viewdata and remote control ones on top of the basic word based one.

Meanwhile, I'm also developing ideas for a DVD interface for the show. Above is a pretty basic design - I'd like to use something a bit more artistic but I might decide the above deisgn will suffice. If I'm going to present it in my portfolio I would need to develop it a bit more.

See the thing (Again)!

2008-02-27T17:48:00.003Z

More work in progress visuals for The Thing. Might convert one into my DVD menu but I will certainly use them for posters.

E4 sting Work in Progress

2008-02-25T15:42:00.004Z

Based on the Teleglitcher video, I have been working on some Teletext aesthetic E4 stings.

This video is from quite a while back and I've made a lot of changes since:

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Here's some quick snapshots of the current progress:

Gordon Brown on Northern Rock

2008-02-22T17:02:00.006Z

On of the videos I have been working on. This particular one is not the best but is upload worthy nonetheless.

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Other videos based on this footage include a kung fu fughting Gordon Brown(!) made up of some of those hand gestures about halfway through the clip.

Weather forecast glitching

2008-02-22T16:07:00.002Z

Turning Philip Avery into a robot. Quite humorous actually.

And a screenshot from BBC News 24...

Channel 4 continuity

2008-02-21T18:07:00.002Z

This video was recently uploaded to YouTube:

A pretty standard continuity but I found the sound annoying... perfect for some of my video editing.

More glitch stills

2008-02-21T17:39:00.003Z

Yet more stills from the glitch videos I am making.
I'm thinking about making a video based around some of these stills,
but I will try and upload some of the videos to YouTube over the weekend.

Glitch stills

2008-02-18T18:17:00.004Z

Some stills from some of the video captures from the last few days.

Digital glitching

2008-02-18T11:33:00.003Z

In comparison to the analogue glitching, digital glitches are blockier and more pixellated. The image also often freezes and sound sometimes disappears altogether. Might be worth doing some tests contrasting the two but I think the digital glitches look better.

Analogue glitching

2008-02-15T18:10:00.004Z

Some analogue glitching, caused by weird 'electromagnetic gamma rays. TV glitching starts about 50 seconds in.

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Don't know much about circuit bending (I'm no good with the technical stuff) but it looks good.

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Teletext art (ten million)

2008-02-14T16:19:00.004Z

A few mocked up in development screengrabs. I can envision these going into a large grid or a long vertically scrollable page. I particularly like the Zenith one.

Subtitle subversion

2008-02-14T12:12:00.003Z

A recent advert for Cadbury's Snaps.

This could work for voiceovers also. Not as teletext based though.

Fake subtitles are almost automatically funny. I wonder if I could find a foreign language channel to subtitle?

Digital vs Analogue

2008-02-14T09:42:00.002Z

Another of these effect videos. I don't like the kaleidoscope effect but something is happening with the analogue pixellation.

Digital killed the analogue star

2008-02-13T18:26:00.002Z

I love the sound of this:

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Nothing much apart from that happens, though. Once you've seen the first ten seconds you've seen it all.

See the thing

2008-02-13T17:22:00.004Z

DYSTT Blog
Thing promo

Custom teletext art

2008-02-11T19:01:00.001Z

Pages to go into the TTX website and some general teletext art.

Teleglitcher

2008-02-11T15:26:00.000Z

Following on from the Telegiffer idea, this is Teleglitcher. In fact despite their aesthetics and patterns created the two are quite different - Teleglitcher can be seen as a more advanced version of 'Teletext is Dead'.

Link to video

New Pixel is Power playlist

Why digital is rubbish

2008-02-08T14:02:00.000Z

I concur muchly. On the positive side, it looks pretty cool.

Impossible game

2008-02-05T19:05:00.000Z

I'd hazard a guess that this game (Untitled) by jodi is pretty much impossible to play. Sounds like Doom or Wolfenstein in which all the pixels and the 3D environment mapping has been messed up. Intriguing.

Edit: it's a hacked version of Quake and can be downloaded here.

In a similar vein, Cory Arcangel somehow transformed his computer data into some fancy looking glitch art! Pretty awesome. Found via turbulence.org.

Glitching

2008-02-04T17:12:00.000Z

Snowy reception.

DeuxPix

2008-01-28T17:16:00.000Z

Another video in the same vein as the previous Larsen Feedback piece. By artist "Rocketrobos" (Toban Nicols) from YouTube. It's pretty cool how it's been done but a bit more technical than I could manage. Very similar to my proposed glitch film for which I am still collecting footage.

Larsen Feedback

2008-01-22T18:04:00.000Z

This is a composition by Maxime Merion involving a slightly psychedelic series of images, taken directly off a television screen. It's a little bit like what I would like to achieve and is reminiscent of Telegiffer in some ways. It is, however, a bit more considered and worked on.

Maniax Memori weblog

I like how this piece seems to have originated from the feedback generated from a microphone. Pretty cool.

Teletext is dead.

Misc. links

2008-01-21T17:30:00.000Z

Video cards were originally much the same resolution as teletext. However whilst Video cards advanced teletext's format remained the same.

Windows 3.0, released 1990, utilised a graphics card with over 1600 colours.
An article from 1987 about teletext in the US. Shows how behind the times the American continent was with teletext: televisions with appropriate encoders were not widely available in 1987.
It's always worth a look at the Lektrolab Flickr stream.
About the first video game -'Spacewar' at inventors.com
Windows 95 was a pretty popular Operating System in its time. It helped Internet Explorer dominate the web browser market for ages. WorldWideWeb, meanwhile, was the first web browser and HTML editor.
An important landmark in the history of the BBC and indeed television - the Queen's coronation. 22 million people watched.

Teletext remote control icons

2008-01-20T19:52:00.000Z

Remote controls modified for teletext control have their own selection of icons that correspond to subtitles, index page etc. This could be a useful set of visual metaphors for the website.

The impetus for a more complex type of television remote control came in the late 1970s with the development of the Ceefax teletext service by the BBC. Most commercial remote controls at that time had a limited number of functions, sometimes as few as three: next channel, previous channel, and volume/off. This type of control did not meet the needs of teletext sets where pages were identified with three-digit numbers. A remote control to select teletext pages would need buttons for each number from zero to nine, as well as other control functions, such as switching from text to picture, and the normal television controls of volume, station, brightness, colour intensity and so on. Early teletext sets used wired remote controls to select pages but the continuous use of the remote control required for teletext quickly indicated the need for a wireless device. So BBC engineers began talks with one or two television manufacturers which led to early prototypes in around 1977-78 that could control a much larger number of functions.
-- Wikipedia entry on remote control

BBC interactive streaming/digital layouts

2008-01-20T11:09:00.000Z

Every now and again, the BBC don't have enough channels to screen an event such as the snooker or football highlights. These are instead accessible via the 'red button', or through the BBCi interactive service:

Note that the familiar colour coded fastext keys have been kept for this new version of teletext. Essentially there isn't all that much content so it isn't really a true teletext service - only details on what's currently being streamed and what's coming up on the stream.

I hope that, by looking at some of these existing 'new' digital teletext layouts I can get inspiration for my website layout. Perhaps I can meld together elements of these different teletext services to create a new, web-friendly version. I kind of like the graphics on the BBC football:

Interactive TV - subtitles

2008-01-20T11:02:00.000Z

I suppose they are encoded differently on every digital set top box but this is what the digital subtitles look like on mine:

It works in exactly the same way as regular analogue subtitles except that you don't have to key in the '888' code, rather hit a 'subtitles' button on the digital remote.

Weather Watch - part three

2008-01-19T12:25:00.000Z

Digital teletext.

The maps have changed quite a bit since 2002 but have retained the temperature forecasts. Note than the Isles of Scilly are now included!

Digital teletext - audio

2008-01-19T12:12:00.000Z

Digital set top boxes allow for listening to radio via television. Aside from being 'crystal clear' audio quality, these have their own accompanying text services. Most are pretty limited and only exist to fill blank space (such as Talksport's, below left), but others such as the one for BBC Radio 5 Live (above) are more extensive. In fact, the latter is linked with the BBC's interactive service to provide news and programme details.

Teletext art - Flickr photos

2008-01-19T11:52:00.000Z

I've uploaded some high quality versions of the teletext art I have created up until now to Flickr.

My Teletext Art (flickr)

Incidentally, I like the idea of playing on the Britishness of Teletext. Whereas most British things fail miserably, Teletext held strong for 35 years and it will be a sad day when the analogue transmitters are turned off.

Font specifications

2008-01-18T18:16:00.000Z

There's a bit of a specifications guide from 1992 here.
Mode Nine looks like a pretty true teletext font.
A BBC Micro font.

TV glitching

2008-01-18T17:19:00.001Z

Been recording some results of 'glitching' my digital set top box. The idea here would be to collect a selection of glitched screens and sounds to edit together in a short movie. Whereas previously analogue television would just lose reception or the picture become all snowy, digital television becomes all strange and deformed with a low reception signal. Well, it does on my box, anyway.

Teletext art

2008-01-18T16:52:00.000Z

Using Photoshop and the Cebra Teletext Editor I have made some of my own teletext art. I'm getting used to the program now but not yet to the point where I could begin making some professional looking pages. Top two: Photoshop. Bottom three: CebraText.

More teletext humour

2008-01-18T12:27:00.001Z

Taken from the Lektrolab Flickr photostream.

Super Mario Brothers recontextualised

2008-01-17T16:10:00.000Z

Original - teletext art by Paul Davis - Mario 2600 - Super ASCII Brothers

ASCII Space Invaders

2008-01-17T14:41:00.000Z

It's just the same as the original but in ASCII.

ASCII Space Invaders

More glitching

2008-01-16T18:14:00.001Z

Some teletext glitch art by Paul Davis of Lektrolab and a piece by a user with an unprintable name at Flickr.

ASCII Art - links

2008-01-16T16:53:00.000Z

Canonical smileys list. Interesting how a combination of a few ascii characters can express an opinion or an emotion. Even though there are multiple meanings for each (for example, :-) can mean 'smiling' or 'user is an orator' amongst other things), there is a certain amount of shared knowledge amongst Internet users.

The Wikipedia Emoticons entry mentions that certain smileys have been copyrighted in Finland (!)
Japanese two byte emoticons are usually vertical rather than horizontal. For example "(；_ :)" means "feeling sad".
An article on the smiley's 25th birthday:"The critics of emoticons maintain that it has destroyed the fabric of proper writing, believing a functioning literary mind should be able to express emotion without the use of a direct symbol explaining to the reader exactly how he or she should feel. But to answer these critics, is it really that serious of a debate? A simple :-) here or a :-( there is a simple way to avoid an unintentional row, and that's something everyone can :-) about." -- ITPRO
A Tour of ASCII and ANSI art from the 80s and 90s.

Paul Slocum/Cory Arcangel

2008-01-15T12:53:00.000Z

Paul Slocum's website

I mentioned Paul Slocum in an earlier post when I wrote about his Atari Windows GUI. A lot of his work focuses on video game hacking, particularly through music. One particular piece, Combat (right), was actually exhibited at the 2004 Liverpool Biennial. It's another hacked cartridge in which the music is all glitched up:

Combat, 3 mins

I've never played the game before but in this version, the exisiting soundtrack is replaced by a house/garage/whatever funky soundtrack!

Cory Arcangel's website

...is fashionably unfashionable. Actually, I like the design better than most websites...

There's some interesting work on there, mostly conceptual but there's a long tutorial on how to recreate the 'clouds' piece, if you can get hold of a Nintendo.

Notice the great big chip pasted to the cart to modify the programming. It would have been much easier (but less fun I expect) to hack a ROM using computers... but that would probably be illegal, I suppose.

Glitch browser

2008-01-15T12:27:00.000Z

Glitch Browser

This is a little computer application that corrupts any page you input to the address bar. It works in your browser like any other, except everything is all messed up. Auto glitching, kind of. The above image is a small screegrab from my Teletext album on Flickr. I used to get a lot of glitched images similar to these when I used floppy disks but sadly nobody uses them any more - probably for that reason.

Befix - glitch art

2008-01-15T12:14:00.000Z

"Pleasure is Error". For some reason humans (particularly us British) like seeing things go horribly wrong. Not in a mean way but kind of accepting failure.

I always laugh when my cable box crashes, making voices become zombified and the screen display a nice little pattern. Befix is a website inspired by computer display glitches.

The glitch section is quite interesting, I feel. There's a variety of imagery which seems to be generated using different formats. It would be good to take a variety of video appliances and see how I could corrupt them - starting with my cable box and moving onto teletext pages, video game consoles, computers etc. Maybe a side project would be a 'glitch' blog.

ASCII/glitched Super Mario

2008-01-15T11:51:00.000Z

On my other weblog I'm exploring the possibilities of recreating classic video games in new ways. Mario might be a bit complicated for me yet but it's fun to experiment with this sort of stuff.

Here, someone has hacked the original Nintendo Super Mario game to be completely in ASCII.

I've had a go at hacking ROMs over Christmas but I can't seem to get my head round it. Oh well.

Something equally as interesting, however, is the idea of glitch art. I have explored this a bit previously in my post about Cory Arcangel but never really got onto expanding it. I like the idea of using existing commercial appliances such as video game consoles and exploring creation of glitches.

Telegiffer - hi-res

2008-01-13T12:53:00.000Z

You might remember Telegiffer, a small project from last year. Here's a hi res version of it.

I'm disappointed I can't get the HMTL embedding to work for Stage6 videos. Pity because it's a higher quality than YouTube.

More Teletextery

2007-12-20T15:35:00.000Z

Newsflash! The Isle of Wight has finally got teletext. According to one resident,

"I can’t believe that the information revolution can go any further than this."

Not that the IOW is behind the times or anything. Thanks to Newsbiscuit for that 'story'.

From the depths of the Internet's formative years comes MrDaveo's distinctly 1990s webpage on Digitiser. More proof that the cult spread far and wide across the land, beamed into the front rooms of tens, nay thousands of television owners. That purple text is beginning to hurt my eyes.

Elsewhere, Mr Tanilsoo has another edition of his Estonian teletext up at Youtube:

From one of these news stories at least, it seems some parts of Estonian society are a little bit 'anti-digital'. Good on them.

And finally, I have to admit I was a 'ziner'. That is, I sent at least one letter to the Mega Zine, a surreal pre-Internetisation forum. Much like Digitiser this had a cult following but was created by its readers rather than an editorial team. It was the definitive teletext magazine service but It's all disappeared now. Everyone has moved to the Internet.

Pong Blogger

2007-12-20T15:20:00.000Z

Pong is a strangely addictive game. I've been doing some experiments with the game engine in Flash recently and decided to put them into a blog format. The result is Pong Blogger, which you might like.

Pong Blogger

Ceefax.tv

2007-12-10T19:25:00.000Z

The design for ceefax.tv is plainly and blatantly ripped from Google's. From what I can gather the two are not connected in any other way than the ceefax.tv search engine matches Google's, page layout wise.

And what better way to apply a search engine to a teletext system? It knocks the socks off the old Telesoftware search function (maybe, depending on your opinion) because it's much more advanced. That said, the premise is very simple: enter a keyword and you get some results grabbed from the teletext service that day. So, if you can't be bothered looking through the number entry menu for, say, Gordon Brown, just put his name into the search engine and you get a bunch of news stories. You can also use the traditional three-digit method if you like. The latter brings the page straight up in a popup window which inlcudes some clickable hyperlinks.

In other words, this is a Ceefax website. This is the opposite of a Google webpage put into teletext (right). I wonder what the web would be like if it were all teletext? Not being old enough to remember, let alone use, Viewdata, I can only imagine. Would be an interesting project to transpose some famous websites (such as Google) into the teletext aesthetic.

Online teletext archiving - Digitiser

2007-12-10T19:01:00.001Z

Digitiser is a service that used to run on Channel 4's Teletext service. It was a video game magazine service that 'revelled in controversy' but was massively popular. It was a website before its time: a daily digest of news, opinion and reviews including a user feedback section. There was even an 'Ask Mr. T' bit!

This site is an archive of some of these pages. I read on the mailing list that all pages are kept in an official archive, at least for BBC, but I've yet to find any confirmation of this online. The site, by 'Moleman', is a fan created resource for nostalgics: the serviced finished in 2003 as part of the phasing out of teletext systems.

The service, which had a cult following, is now dead and the creators and users have dispersed, many to the Internet. Mr Biffo, one of the creators, now has his own blog whilst there are loads of tribute websites all over the net.

There are many interesting aspects... For one thing, they're not trying to be 'worthy', or communitarian. They're not being right-on, saying come over to us and be exclusive and culty. Fans who write in and attempt to creep in a supercilious way are liable to get the biggest kicking of the lot. And yet - the fans they do come. These pages probably get more 'readership' than any print magazine, and not just because they're free. And not either because they're trying to 'get in with the kids' in a patronising way. I reckon some of it goes right over the heads of most of their audience; it's not being 'clever', it's simply not being condescending and lowest-common-denominator. They expect their readers to have a little intelligence.

Brave New World

Teletext specifications - links

2007-12-05T14:55:00.000Z

Information on the general specifications of teletext pages.

How to Use TTXEditor, a teletext page creation tool. Includes information on some of teletext's functions.
Teletext - Old Digits in a New Age, a dissertation written by some former BBC employees. Explains in some detail how the packets are organised.
The Prestel Protocol, includes some character sets.
Lektrolab's Mac Cheater's guide. Created as part of the 2006 submission project, a bit of information on how you could create teletext pages in Mac paint programs. Includes demo gifs.
Broadcast teletext specification, courtesy of the web archive.

Breaking the barriers

2007-12-03T19:22:00.000Z

Every so often the teletext coders became more adventurous and pushed the envelope with their designs.

This is weird, I don't know how they did it but somehow the page is flipped horizontally. I can't read the thing but it mentions smarty pants coders.

This is included for no other reason than I like it. It's very eighties/nineties but I do think it looks more attractive than anything on Ceefax now.

And finally a nice piece of text art from the coders. From 2000, when the BBC website was up and running.

Source: Teletext then and Now

Commercial teletext art

2007-12-03T19:14:00.001Z

On special occasions, Ceefax used to have commemorative/decorative pixel art pages.

This very purple page is from Ceefax's Wimbledon coverage. Compare to the digital teletext version and it looks very low tech. Snazzy, though.

Graphs aren't used much on teletext any more but this page from Oracle in the 1980s is a diagram for motorway delays. Inventive if basic manipulation of the format.

An old Fun and Games page. Now defunct, this used to be the most fun part of teletext, containing tacky quizzes and puzzles that could be completed in a commercial break. Nice little image of a lighthouse but I don't know the relevance of it.

Source: Teletext Then and Now

Weather Watch part 2

2007-12-03T19:06:00.000Z

More from the history of teletext as defined by weather forecast pages.

This map from Oracle in 1977 displays a possible weathermap layout for a regional forecast. To my knowledge nothing like this was ever implemented and the test status of the page is indicated by the text: "regional weather forecast could use maps like this one".

And this is the national weather map from the same page set. Note the colour clash and different map to the Ceefax one.

This is a humorous map from an Oracle page in 1989. This must have been phased out pretty quickly as I don't remember it. The humour seems to have largely gone from commercial teletext - it has become serious.

2000s, an interactive TV map from Teletext including television icons. Note the JPEG advertisements.

Compare this to a 1996 televised broadcast of the weather including a satellite image of Britain. On teletext, Michael Fish's place is taken by some text.

Source: Teletext Then and Now

A modern teletext font

2007-11-28T16:27:00.001Z

If teletext had, or should it, live on after the switchoff, in order to fit in with the plethora of new technologies available on the Internet and elsewhere it would need to develop. It would be interesting to see how far I could take this whilst remaining faithful to the 80 x 69 pixel canvas. This could mean changes to:

Colour palette, increase from 8 to 16, 24, or even higher.
Change in character set. This might include:

Addition of extended Unicode symbols such as @, (, | etc.
Addition of new symbols for the teletext format
Addition of emoticons.

(Basically a whole new character set.)

Option to redefine the font. Eg. Courier, Fixedsys

Various references

2007-11-26T16:59:00.000Z

Whilst actually creating the text part of the dissertation I'm finding more specific and relevant information about the subjects I am researching.

Bob Bemer was an IBM employee who was involved in the creation of the ASCII character set in 1970. He proposed the curly and square brackets ([],{}) and the backslash (\).

Here he discusses his 'status' as 'Father of ASCII'.
And here he talks of the ASCII characters.

Scott Fahlman is the person first credited with specifying and using an emoticon.
A bit about the Jodi blogs and the source of the aforementioned Otowa ASCII game.
This is a screenshot from BBC Multiscreen, an interactive television service providing a number of news video streams.
A bit of info on the analogue switch off. I've probably posted this here before....
Here's a timeline of the evolution of British satellite television. Maybe an equivalent one for Teletext might be in order.
At the TV Ark, there's lots of screenshots from the history of BBC News 24.

The Otowa ASCII game

2007-11-26T12:09:00.000Z

I like this game, it's really cool how a game's whole graphical style can be created using ASCII.

Interview with Dirk Paesmans

2007-11-26T12:02:00.000Z

Some very interesting extracts from an interview with Dirk Paesmans of jodi.org. Warning, the translation is a bit ropey in places.

"We, I especially, did a lot of writing and mailing into mailing lists, but that was all unreadable stuff. Sometimes cut and paste from the text and with a lot of graphic stuff in between. Sometimes they looked as that if you would start to read them, most of the time they were not ascii drawings, they were ascii texts. I did hundreds of them, a lot a lot alot. I also tried to do it in the serious mailing lists. That time rhizome, I bombarded it."

"Anything media tries for their own explanations, like all these type of festivals like this, is actually more a warning for me as an artist to take care that don’t ever become like that, because it’s so general, everything can be replaced by something else and you won’t notice it. I want to feel a personality of the maker, of the person within this group that has a vision that will be real or strong."

On My Desktop:

"But then you have the ways when you do it in a very technically advanced way that you create a friendly virus, then you have to do it very constructive. And you demonstrate so bad amateur behaviour that it almost has the same effect, I mean you can’t imagine that someone is doing something so stupid or so different from the normal rules. For example multiplying folders, opening them at the same time, then throwing them to the trashcan and trying to delete it. A virus would do it a really advanced virus could do it, but you could also do it yourself when you were in the state of a five year old, let’s say, a five year old child for example would do it for fun, because it would like it, it makes sound and talalla, they think it’s great. It’s like a ball is not made for playing football only you can also just play with it on the walls, I mean it’s not just to be played eleven players against eleven players."

Source text

Peecol - design with restriction

2007-11-20T18:08:00.000Z

One relatively recent example that could be compared to the concept of teletext art is Eboy's Peecol. The equivalent font set can be seen as a webbificated, modernised version of teletext design. Taking the idea of pixel by pixel design on a small, monotone canvas, each letter corresponds to a 'body part', upper half or lower half. The parts can be combined in any way possible to form whole characters. In particular, the ones from the 'play' variation of the typeface can be likened to pixellated video game characters in their minimal, restricted approach.

It is very similar to Eboy's other work, which generally centres around the concept of low-resolution art; grid art; pixel art. Summarised, the canvas used is a 'shrunk down' version of the one used on teletext.

Peecol toys

Weather Watch

2007-11-19T16:26:00.001Z

One feature that defines teletext is the weather. British people always want to know what the weather's like and teletext has always provided a facility for this. This is a trawl through teletext history as indicated by weather maps.

Ceefax, 1973 test page. The one that started it all.

Ceefax 1978. Not much difference but the map seems to have had a redraw.

Ceefax, 1985. Seven years on and the map looks a bit more like a television broadcast weather map, complete with blue sea. The title has been redesigned with readability instead of space efficiency. Parts of Scotland get excluded and Ireland is reduced to but a squiggly yellow line.

Ceefax, 1990. Notice the 'weather' title is gone to make way for some more textual bits of information. The page now credits the Met Office. Southern Ireland now completely gone! Very psychedelic, a bit like one of Fred's sweaters.

Sky weather, 2002. The map is squeezed into a smaller area although all the content is still there. Notice the cluttered pages due to commercial elements.

Ceefax weather, 2007. The somewhat eye-watering blue background is gone and the overall map is reminiscent of Sky's. Plenty of room for textual information and weather warnings.

Digital TV weather service, 2002. Standardisation complete. The blocky map has gone in favour of standard weather iconography and photographic quality. Page starting to look like a static version of the TV broadcast weather (right). A long way from the original teletext page - at least Ireland will be happy the BBC now acknowledges its existence.

Source

Teletext then and Now

Some more links

2007-11-16T21:18:00.000Z

This blog entry talks about the analogue switchoff and one person's nostalgia for the teletext format.
This page has a few more details on the Microtel project, including exact dates of transmission.
Here's some more info on Telesoftware, courtesy of Teletext Then and Now.

Presentation?

2007-11-14T15:20:00.000Z

The obvious thing would be to produce an essay but that might not be that great. I think I could easily achieve a reasonable standard project but it would be a bit boring. I need to discuss with tutors what course of action I am going to take, however here are some proposed formats:

Documentary film bringing together all the material collected into some sort of interesting graphical piece using teletext imagery. This would be fun but I don't know if this is achievable in the four weeks.

A more watered down version might be a radio reading but I can't really see what this would bring to the piece seeing as teletext is largely silent and image-based.

Website. This would simply be a more organised form of the blog, formalising some of the text and splitting the content into pages. I would say this is achievable, with some effort.
If all else fails there is always the essay with associated imagery. I might have to resort to this if time is running low.

It might be good to first compile, select and write the actual text, though. This could then be reproduced in any number of formats.

Some proposed chapter headings

2007-11-05T09:48:00.000Z

Here are some rough headings for possible chapter sections, along with approximate dates. This assumes the project will be in essay format. Subjects I am more interested in will take the form of case studies rather than just a paragraph or two worked into the main body of text.

Intro - Technical/history

Teletext's invention and inception (1970).

Background: other digital media around at the time: arcade video games, links in commercial popularity and aesthetic. 1972 - Pong becomes widely popular, 1976 - teletext launched. ARPAnet in America - primitive early version of the Internet. Functionalities.
Aesthetic. 1974: the 40x24 character grid was agreed upon, including text and a few graphic characters for creating simple graphics. The constituent media of 'teletext' - Teletext and Viewdata.

Sociological

Teletext's growth in popularity

1990s - firmly in public conscience.
Teletext and television.

Television sketch parodies - Alexei Sayle.
Pages from Ceefax.
Case study: Tom Moody's 'Dallas' project (1990). Teletext as an extension of television, a text version of the medium. Comments on television and society
1997 - teletext spreads to satellite. Small case study - Data Design commercial teletext design - MTV teletext.

Pioneering: the medium's status as first commercially successful digital information retrieval method. Bringing technology to the masses through limited set of aesthetic restrictions.
Teletext's service - uses. Simple games. Information service. Accessibility tool - subtitling.

Case study: functions as compared to (early) Internet - Viewdata's crude email system; reader view pages - use of teletext pages as discussion forums etc. How the two mediums never genuinely converged.

Coexistence/crossing of mediums

Internet growth in popularity (1990s).

For the 1990s, coexisted with teletext.
2000s: Internet begins to take over.

Teletext adapted for the web browser.

Jodi's 'text' piece.
Carola Unterberger-Probst: 'Framed'
Encoding to receive analogue teletext via net.

Teletext's expansion worldwide (1980s)

Ceefax grows from 30 pages in 1973 to 600 in mid-80s. Spread to France, America in early 80s.
Along with Atari home console, propagating the 'jagged pixellation' aesthetic. Paul Slocum: Atari > windowed GUI.

Death of the traditional aesthetic

From first analogue aerial switch off in 2007 to the complete switch off in 2012.
Differing public opinions - "sad to see it go", "natural progression of technology would see it die out".
Introduction of digital TTX and later Interactive TV - an evolved form of the traditional analogue version. 'Sounding death knoll' of the traditional aesthetic.
Level 1 and 2 teletext upgrades - how these relate to modern 'digital teletext' in terms of aesthetic. The 'stepping stone' between teletext and digital teletext.

Future of traditional teletext

It would seem the traditional format is doomed but the very medium which could see it die out would be the one allowing it to live on after the analogue switch off, namely the Internet.
Estonia - still the No.1 method of information retrieval ahead of the Internet. Tarmo Tanilsoo's tribute websites.
Case study: Lektrolab - 2006 Microtel project. People still using teletext aesthetic to create art.

Some conclusions

Despite sharing a number of functions, Teletext is not really the predecessor of the Internet, more a separately evolved medium with some similarities. Whereas the ARPA network developed in America teletext was more a British invention and, even though there were signs they might with Viewdata, at no point did the two converge.

Maybe a simple diagram showing the two separate 'evolutions' could explain this point.

The teletext aesthetic survives?

Later, the Internet allowed for enthusiasts to create homages to the medium. To date, there are over 500 worldwide terrestrial teletext services available on the Internet. This could be the medium that sees the aesthetic live on, even after the analogue version is gone.
The mobile web browser as having similar technical/aesthetic restrictions.
Lektrolab's project shows there are still those who value the aesthetic as a medium for artistic expression. Eboy shows that the pixel as an aesthetic is still in the public's conscience in the fact it still has commercial value (brief mention of Eboy, not worth going into great detail over).
Services such as Digitiser, even after they were taken from terrestrial screens, adapted to the online format (Digiworld). Fan sites.

It might be worth having an appendix with some of these timelines in them to help illustrate. Perhaps these could be written timelines as in Internet Art by Rachel Greene. Should the medium of the outcome facilitate it, include with/alongside the text/content.

Cross reference sections in some way.

Tele Giffer, a tribute to jodi

2007-11-02T17:36:00.000Z

Inspired by jodi, been playing around with the idea of glitch art in the same way as the short video I did on Monday. I thought it would be interesting to see what this would be like if it were computer generated rather than video shot.

So, I set about creating a set on animated gifs then applied them to HTML, the result below:

This was created using a grid of 4 different animated gifs, comprising of a few graphic and text characters, each with a different timespan and running order. This is what produces the different patterns. These were then arranged into three HTML documents which are navigated by clicking on the animations. Each page has a progressively jumbled collection of animations on the same grid.

Elsewhere, been thinking about the wider picture with regards to presentation. This might be jumping ahead too much too soon but I'd like to visualise a final outsome for this, hence the reason for these videos. Would be good to create an archive/showcase site like the microsite compiling all the data from this project, including videos, photosets etc.

Index cards

2007-11-02T14:51:00.001Z

Bought and made some index cards in an attempt to organise the vast amounts of information in this weblog. Some of the selection has already been made in a previous post; I used this as a basis for making the cards. Tried out a few different arrangements of both the artists and the technological information separately, still, for the moment. Need to find a way of bringing these together, I think. Some shots of arrangements (pity about the terrible camera resolution):

They were pretty useful, actually - helped me get a better idea of what I have and how it could be arranged, for whatever medium. The best of these was an idea to have the Teletext timeline central to the piece and the other aspects, such as video games etc. auxiliary to these. Here's a rough Photoshop version:

The diagram is indicative of how mediums will be mentioned, as will their 'evolutions', but not included in great detail; only as a reference point as to the state of digital technology at that particular point in teletext's evolution.

Paramount Comedy teletext

2007-10-30T18:17:00.000Z

I've wanted to post about this for a while but I couldn't get my teletext capture software to run through the cable set top box. Instead, I resorted to taking pictures.

Paramount Comedy is a channel that broadcasts on Sky TV. Like many other satellite channels, it used to have a full working set of teletext information pages, including TV listings and an irreverent user feedback page. Now, the pages are no longer updated but still exist in a form untouched since they couldn't be bothered with the service any more. Included in these are some rather interesting technical and humorous pages, such as ones depicting cats and penguins.

Who broke my teletext?

2007-10-29T19:28:00.000Z

Working on the idea of glitches, I produced a quickly shot and edited short film based around teletext scrambled receptions. Other areas I could expand to would be snow and test cards, but for now I think the glitch idea has some mileage at least.

I may develop this but it's just a test, really. Maybe I could take the idea and develop it for the web browser much like Jodi have in their Text piece.

Cory Arcangel

2007-10-29T17:33:00.000Z

Cory Arcangel is apparently part of the video game art community - a bit more research reveals that he is a bit more well-known than I first thought.

Cory Arcangel, Amazon entry
To start, he has a book. It's 'a hacker's nostalgia trip' documenting some of his (and his fellow programmers' activities).
More info on the book.

Here's a page of some of his exhibits, including the Landscape series projected in exhibition environment. The image to the right is one such installation, and includes his video game 'I Shot Andy Warhol'. There's a video of this on YouTube:

I just found it simply awesome. The pixellated version of Colonel Sanders is particularly brilliant.

I'll leave this post with a nice, relaxing GIF of Arcangel's. According to Uncyclopedia.org, it "is the world's 3rd most seen .GIF file off all time after LOTR.gif and POO.gif."

A teletext timeline

2007-10-29T17:21:00.000Z

Teletext timeline
PDF download, 71Kb

From some of the data and information collected in this weblog, as well as some more added specific research (details below), produced a timeline of events. The top section describes major dates in the history of teletext whilst the bottom one describes major events in other related media. I'm going to work on this some more, I think.

Some extra sources:

Digiworld - teletext archving

2007-10-29T12:28:00.000Z

With the Internet and interactive TV set to supersede teletext, the pages of teletext will become history. However some enthusiasts have brought the format to the Internet. Digiworld is one such cult section, which made the transition online from the original 'Digitiser' part of Teletext's service. It seems this is new content formatted in the traditional manner. You can download an archived version of the service which is pretty extensive with over 1,500 pages.

This is one example of people making the move from a teletext collaborative service to one based online. The content remains largely the same, only the name and medium has changed. Perhaps the aesthetic is actually part of the identity of the Digitiser/Digiworld package and the emulation here is necessary. In fact, it could be argued that the online format is better for this collaborative element - emails and ease up updating would be positives.

Selection of information

2007-10-29T09:28:00.000Z

Info collected in this weblog organised into some headings. Some of the more important stuff.

Teletext technical history

Conception and invention of medium.

Early 1970s. Developed and created by the BBC, who were initially researching a method of closed captioning.

Technological updates/upgrades

Mid-1970s update to include 8 colours.

Level 1.0 and 2.5 teletext - more updated graphics but not used by any TTX broadcaster in Britain.

Significant dates and events in TTX's technical history.

1980 - Pages From Ceefax first broadcast. 2005 - service ended. (Case study for the lifespan of the medium?
Relaunches and redesigns. 1996.

The birth and death of teletext. 2012 switch off, gradual phasing out of the medium.

Constituent media

Teletext

'Ceefax' (BBC) coming first in 1973
'ORACLE' (ITV) following soon after

Viewdata - Post Office's method of transmitting text via telephone lines. 'Prestel'.
The teletext umbrella.

Collaboration of Ceefax, ORACLE and Prestel to create the collective term teletext, 1976 - 'Broadcast Teletext Specification'.
The single aesthetic which was agreed upon - 40x24 grid of text with some graphic characters - CEPT1.

1980s - Videotex. Minitel - TV with computer keyboard incorporated used to control. Not adopted in Britain.

Similar media (chronlogical?)

1960s. ARPANET. Information retrieval service/communication method. Early network. Precursor to internet.
Late 1960s. Arcade video games. Precursor to teletext.
1970s. Development of the computer GUI. Similar aesthetic to teletext, pixel medium. Moved away from this similarity, however.
1990s. The early Internet. Transmission of plain text information. Few images.
2000. Internet boom. Teletext and internet - comparisons/contrasts.
2000. Interactive television - successor to teletext. Retains many features/functions

Function of each medium, with regards to teletext.

Societal impact

Popularity.

First electronic information retrieval system.
Regular updates at the peak of its popularity.
Sep 11 01 attacks - when Internet down, TTX provided people with service. Probably last thing TTX will be known for.

Uses.

Transmitting/finding information - pools news, lottery, football results.
Playing games. Bamboozle multiple choice. Quiz questions - reveal button.
Discussion 'forum'. Viewer opinions on music, TV, entertainment etc.
Closed captioning method to aid hard of hearing.

Peoples' opinions on the phasing out and subsequent 'death' of the medium.

Sad to see it go. Nostalgic reasons, preference - simplicity.
Many don't use it anyway. Internet and interactive TV used instead. 24hr news channels.

Teletext humour.

Use in media - parody.

Naked News piece (video no longer on YouTube)
Look Around You DVD
Alexei Sayle's STUFF, The Wootton Project

Use of the medium to provide humour

Tom Moody's (Untitled) Teletext project
Paramount Comedy's inserts for broken pages
Teletext cartoons, kids' corner

Teletext art

The teletext aesthetic emulated within the internet browser

Jodi - 'Text'. Teletext style font set formatted for web browser.

Unterberger-Probst - 'Framed'. TTX aesthetic emulated and embedded into web browser.
Tarmo Tanilsoo - ES5DWXL. Personal web site. TTX aesthetic emulated and embedded into web browser.

Work broadcast on teletext

Lektrolab - Teletext art broadcast on Teletext in Netherlands. Created using Cebratext, later reformatted for computer format.
Tom Moody - Untitled teletext project. Pages for broadcast on teletext.
Data Design - Commercial teletext pages - MTV, racing teletext etc.

The pixel - works that share a similar pixellated aesthetic.

Paul Slocum - Windows GUI formatted for Atari. Use of Atari emulator.

Cory Arcangel - Landscape series, video game art. Pixellated aesthetic similar to teletext.

Eboy - Pixellated aesthetic borrowing from Sim City video game idea/aesthetic. How contemporary artists use the pixel aesthetic originally employed by teletext as a commercially successful format.

Artists/artworks and their relevance

2007-10-24T11:33:00.000+01:00

Might be good to get these into a physical format such as index cards or post it notes in order to organise them. May be the case of building these in Illustrator and printing them off.

Relevance to Teletext?

Started documenting this in a text document complete with screenshots. The index card system will allow me to organise information into sections and under headings etc. This, I feel, will be an important aspect of the project - experimentation with different arrangements will hopefully produce some ideas for outcomes. I will concentrate on this aspect for the next week or so to make sure I have some kind of organisation of the information I have collected.

Above right - example of some data that could go on the cards - artist name, artist's relevant works, screenshot.

Some links

2007-10-22T16:38:00.000+01:00

Teletext holidays

Some of the best pixel art on teletext can be found on the holiday pages. This includes imagery and typography, which usually blinks endlessly. This can be compared to early websites with their technique of 'flashing' - basically blinking text or images.

Links

Lektrogirl's blog is not worth visiting for long, otherwise your eyes may be damaged.
Look Around You is a popular BBC comedy show. The interface on the recently released DVD is a load of Ceefax pages! Even the subtitles resemble those on teletext. I'm going to have to look out for this.
Teletext inc. advertisements from Archimedia Design.

An advert for ORACLE:

Viewdata and telesoftware: links

2007-10-22T15:23:00.000+01:00

Silicon Village

This is a virtual village, now largely closed for business. In its heyday, it was a vewdata-themed hub for discussion, an early version of Second Life, if you like. Visitors could visit the leisure centre, with games such as F1, and the newsagent where people could chat and post comments. Formatted in a teletext format, this was an online version of teletext.

Carbuncle Corner was one section of the Silicon Village site that spun off into its own website. Originally transmitted on the viewdata service, site now serves as a place for Ben Hervey's comment as well as nostalgia from the old SV website and some other stuff, such as his guide to Cornwall, only updated when 'he had something to write about' much like a blog.

Telesoftware was a program for BBC Microcomputers with teletext adaptors. They worked on BBC Basic, a coding software which pretty much allowed for users to create their own teletext style pages. It seems the graphics are a bit more advanced also but the white on black aesthetic remains.

Left is a screenshot from a test page. Believe it or not, there is a BBC Micro emulation program which allows PC users to experience the original.

Andrew Wiseman's Television room

More Misc. teletext pages

2007-10-22T14:53:00.001+01:00

If I were to design my own teletext pages, I feel that looking at existing examples of good design is necessary to get some inspiration.
This design, from a German teletext page, makes use of the bold white on red and blue on yellow. Interesting to note that some aesthetic decisions are based on colour contrasts: for example red on yellow might be too much of a clash, whereas yellow on red is deemed to be fine. The blue on red isn't quite working though, and the purple on yellow doesn't show up all that well.
This colour scheme of red on white works better but the blue and red areas are staring to clash once more. Only on teletext could a designer get away with juxtaposing two such strong colours. Pixel mapping, an often underused technique, is also used here to render the Sky Box Office logo.
The above screenshot from Ceefax in 1983 is crowded but that's part of its appeal. Trying to stuff as much information on a page as possible is a trademark of the early teletext transmissions - mainly due to the high cost of having a larger number of pages (£50 per page when Ceefax began).Another crowded page, this time from the commercial service on Sky. I like this because there's a lot going on at once: aside from the main focus of the page - the weather forecast - there is room for an advertisement and a premium rate phone number and even some index links.

Screenshots from Teletext then and Now

Some useful quotes

2007-10-22T14:19:00.000+01:00

"As far as I remember, the idea for teletext came out of a Graduate Trainee Study Group (a kind of 'think-tank', when we had time for that sort of thing). The idea was originally for subtitling for the hard-of- hearing. I remember it being said that it would only be viable if the cost per set could be less than about £5.00! At the time, that was about 1/16th of my monthly take-home salary. That was in about 1970, possibly 1971. I still have the file in my office, but unfortunately only the cover, which has been re-used. The contents have long since disappeared."

Bob Walker of the BBC, from Teletext Then and Now

Confirmation that the initial brief of teletext was to provide subtitles.

Why were the pages so limited in size?
One factor was almost certainly the cost of memory. In around 1975 it cost £50 for the amount of memory that held one page, i.e. 40 characters on 24 lines, or around 960 bytes.

Adrian Robson, from Teletext then and Now

960 bytes? That's not even a kilobyte!

The Alarm Clock page - 160 - was updated every minute providing the original intended use for the Time Coded Page function. At the preselected time the ALARM CLOCK graphic would be superimposed onto the picture in a similar way to a newsflash. (These days the TCP function is more commonly used to access a specific sub-page.)

From An Evening With Ceefax, Teletext then and Now.

Maybe I need to look into this alarm clock function more. I've seen it before on the Paramount Text pages but I've never actually seen it in practice. I wonder if it is no longer available?

Fastext

2007-10-22T14:04:00.000+01:00

Fastext is a 'relatively new' service which allows the user to navigate the pages of a teletext system quicker than if they were to directly input the page number.

Four coloured links at the foot of the page correspond to four similarly coloured buttons on the remote control handset. Each link leads to a page related to the current one. This colour coding is by no means original - arcade video games often used it to distinguish between buttons on the control panel. In the 90s, the Super Nintendo home console also came packaged in the PAL region with the joypad shown below:
It would seem this combination of the three primary colours and green is a popular colour coding for button interfaces. This aspect of colouring has largely been lost in the web - designers prefer to choose neutral colours, with more vivid hues being used sparingly. Links tend to be a uniform colour to distinguish them from the rest of the page's text, defaulting to navy blue. Body text is invariably dark on a light background though is occasionally light on dark, as in this weblog.

Sources
McMordie.co.uk

The teletext photo printer

2007-10-22T12:44:00.001+01:00

I didn't know this existed until today, when I found the above photo from DGJones on Flickr. Much like the modern digital camera/memory card printer, this was a built in function in special television models that allowed for the user to print off a teletext screen, presumably around photo size.

Can't find much info about this online but it would have been useful for printing out information about holidays or lottery numbers for purposes of archiving. Seems as though the technology never took off, as I have never come across one of these before. I want one though.

If I could somehow get hold of a series of these printouts it would be a good resource point for the print aspect of this project, or at least an idea for a layout.

Teletext functionalities

2007-10-22T12:09:00.000+01:00

Teletext is navigated using a remote control. The format has many functionalities for getting around the numerous electronic pages held on the teletext database. These are all related to navigation methods on other information retrieval services.

Number entry system. The number entry page navigation system is a method relatively unique to the format, though it borrows from book/magazine page numbering. Similarities can also be drawn with automated telephone call centres which are navigated by entering numbers on the telephone keypad. Indeed, this is how Viewdata works.
Fastext is more like web browser functions and is closely related to the hyperlinking system, with a one-press/click labelled link navigating directly to the desired page. It is, in most cases, also quicker than internet linking, depending on the internet connection speed.
Page Up/Down function is commonly used to scroll through the data on teletext. Can be compared to web browser scroll bars.
Subpages. Due to shortage of space on individual pages, teletext services utilise subpages to transmit larger amounts of information. One teletext page can on average fit around 60 words in three line-separated paragraphs. This can be compared with mobile phone browsers which also have varying space restrictions and sometimes use subpages to transmit text.
Hold function is a necessity with the automatic subpage scrolling on teletext. Can be linked with VCR/DVD pause buttons as well as the 'pause live TV' function on modern TV set top boxes. Apart from this, it's not really used that often in other media.
Reveal Function. Javascript can be used to replicate the reveal function on the web browser to reveal some hidden information, e.g. pop up and drop down menus.
Mix/in-vision function. A lot of the new interactive TV services provide a small television screen alongside the text information. Not the same as the old in-vision version though, as there is currently no function for 'sport boxes' and in-vision videprinters to be relayed over the top of the television picture. For the football, this has largely been overtaken by the interactive score service and for the cricket interactive scorecards are sometimes available.
Current GMT date and time. A lot of modern set top boxes now have exact GMT time settings, but some still do not - the user has to manually input the time. Same goes for computers. There are wall clocks that have a built in signal received from Greenwich to synchronise their reading with the exact GMT.
Random page function. On some controllers there is the option to flick to a random teletext page. This is related to the 'I'm Feeling Lucky' button at google.com and more closely the wiki 'view random page' function.
Alarm clock. This function has been applied to all sorts of formats from video recorders to mobile phones to computers. The teletext version is no longer available but there used to be a page specially for it on a number of teletext services.

Teletext as a television guide

2007-10-22T11:08:00.000+01:00

One of, if not the centrepiece of teletext is the ability to look up television listings. This would seem a natural function, as the service is actually available on the television itself, negating the need for a paper based TV listings magazine. It is one service which has remained whilst others around it are slowly being removed.

In addition, some teletext services provide stories, news, gossip etc. in much the same way that a regular Sunday magazine supplement would, only with content updated more frequently. Ceefax used to have an extensive TV links section with recipes, calls for quiz show contestants and general information on the BBC's programmes. This is largely gone (above right), but a depleted version still exists on page 615. Teletext's TV pages (left) act as a more magazine orientated service with celebrity interviews and television-related stories. There's also a viewer's views page, a seemingly popular section considering the fact traditional teletext is in decline.

However, this isn't really that surprising as the content seen on the traditional teletext service is the same as that on Teletext's interactive television service. This, it seems, is the only thing keeping Teletext on the airwaves.

There are hundreds of television listings services online. Yahoo!'s provides links to TV clips, a function not possible on teletext. Also present are viewers' opinions. These are much more extensive than the Teletext service, the greater bandwidth allowing for more detailed discussion rather than just a sentence or two. The online format also allows for more visual representations of the television listings, such as the TV grid at Yahoo (right).

Other services, such as bleb.org and tveasy.co.uk are more straight factual services and provide a no-nonsense quick reference guide more like those listings found on teletext. It could be argued, though, that these are still more efficient than teletext's in that, since bandwidth is not at a premium, there is no need to wait for the appropriate subpage to appear. Ceefax combat this by removing old subpages from the daily listings as the programmes are shown, meaning that by the prime time slot only one or two subpages have to be navigated.

Despite their obvious benefits, the television listing can still be slightly misleading, however.

Teletext vs Wikipedia

2007-10-22T09:54:00.000+01:00

Wikipedia is, like teletext, an information retrieval service. Launched in 2001 at the height of the second internet boom as an online encyclopedia, it was unique in that it invited and encouraged the readers of the site themselves to contribute to building the knowledge database. This is in contrast to teletext which is programmed entirely by an exclusive employed team.

However, Wikipedia's predecessor, the now defunct Nupedia, was initially written by a team of experts, much like a paper encyclopedia, with the aim of providing free-licensed content. All teletext content is subject to individual copyright, but Wikipedia is licensed under the GDFL, meaning its content can be freely distributed in its unedited format, commercially or noncommercially.

Being an online service, Wikipedia naturally has the ability to transmit more content at a faster speed than teletext. Whereas teletext condenses information down to one or two sentence paragraphs, Wikipedia has the space and bandwidth to go into much more detail. Comparisons between teletext and the Simple English Wikipedia can be drawn, however, in their aims to articulate information in as simple terms as possible. The tabloid newspaper could also be placed in the same category, with its vocabulary limited in order to reach as large a reader base as possible. The BBC's Newsround (which is also broadcast on Ceefax) and many teletext services for children's channels utilise a simplified vocabulary to match the language skills of the reader base.

In other words, they use language that a teacher might use with schoolchildren. In this way, these formats could be seen as informal teaching aids, teletext helping children to learn colour and shape association, language and electronic interaction skills.

One function common to both Wikipedia and teletext is the ability to jump to a random page. On remote controls there is a button which brings up a random teletext page, whilst Wikipedia, like most wikis, has a 'Random page' text link on the sidebar. This function can be compared to Google's 'I'm Feeling Lucky' button when searching the web, only the user has no input as to what may appear.

Much like other internet sites and technologies, Wikipedia has continued to grow, almost exponentially, since its creation. A single teletext service, due to bandwidth restrictions, only has the capability to grow to a certain size. Indeed, since 2000 Ceefax and Teletext have been continually downsizing, moving and removing pages from the service. The popularity of teletext, if anything, has declined and these measures are a reaction to this.

It seems these factors, along with the greater ability to interact with and modify content, prove that Wikipedia will be the more popular information retrieval service in years to come. That is, unless the capability of teletext develops significantly. Maybe one day Interactive television will provide access to Wikipedia?

A bit about subtitles

2007-10-19T15:55:00.000+01:00

Teletext brought along with it closed captioning, a method of relaying the speech into text for the hard of hearing/deaf. It seems teletext pioneered the service which today is more popular than ever - almost all programmes on the BBC are subtitled. Also used as a translation service (for example programmes such as S4C's Pobol y Cwm are broadcast in Welsh but have English subtitles) the method makes television more accessible to a wider range of people.

Open captioning, which existed prior to closed captioning, meant printing the actual words onto the screen. This method is often used in films as an alternative to overdubbing with voice actors. Closed captioning is submitted via teletext in the vertical line blanking interval of televisions with appropriate encoders.

BBC's new iPlayer apparently has teething problems with subtitles but once they are sorted it will be the next step in subtitling:

About.com - a history of closed captioning
Subtitles, from Wikipedia

Action plan

2007-10-19T15:43:00.000+01:00

A series of to-dos and stuff to be explored:

Select information/images from blog to be presented. Convert into text format (traditional essay format?):

Pixel artists. Jodi. Probst. Lektrolab.
Teletext historical timeline. Invention. Initial implementation. 2012 switch off.
Teletext and the internet/video games/other media. Connections between teletext's functionalities, aesthetical restrictions and other similar methods of presentation.

Select a medium to convert the material to.
Rewrite/format information for the selected presentation medium. For example, if it were teletext, cut it down into one or two sentence paragraphs and reword it to be precise in as short a way as possible.
Work the aesthetic around this.

Raw text > Essay format > Proposed outcome format

Project aims

2007-10-19T15:37:00.001+01:00

Thought it might be good to reassess the original aims of the project and how I am progressing towards finding conclusions. Wrote these up. Most of this went into a project evaluation form:

Reached some good concepts for final outcomes, such as recontextualising existing information broadcast systems for a more technologically advanced age, for example, how the aesthetic of teletext would be transmitted via mobile phones, computers or even HDTV.

Done some fairly basic experiments for outcomes. These include exploring the possibilities for converting the medium of teletext to the digital form, in particular the web browser. Experimented with Flash, HTML and the Cebra Teletext editor to create a (and use the) visual aesthetic.

An initial project aim was to find out to what extent teletext was a precursor to the internet. I researched early web networks, video games and other similar media and found that teletext was in fact the first commercially successful electronic public information retrieval system. Thus, teletext and its functions and methods were influential in the early days of the web even if the aesthetic, which was largely determined by the medium, was not. In other ways, though, teletext remains unique. For example, the number entry page navigation system has not really been emulated by any subsequent technology.

A second aim was to look into some of the artists that use teletext as a medium for producing work. Found that this method is much more popular in Europe, where teletext is still a priority. Lektrolab’s user submissions project was a good example of this, with the general public creating their own teletext pages for transmission on Dutch teletext. Enthusiasts extend the reach of the medium by creating home made teletext systems for their website, such as Tarmo Tanilsoo, who uses the web browser as a teletext browsing tool by emulating the format.

In addition to this, artists still allude to pixel design, and look to utilise the idea of ‘extreme pixellation’ due to its distinct aesthetic and recognisibility. There is also an element of nostalgia in some cases – many will be sad to see teletext in its traditional form, with its traditional asthetic die out.

Finally, for the conceptual/historical aspect, I have a greater understanding of the historical timeline of the medium, from its inception in the 1970s to the switch off in 2012. In the UK, the medium ‘survived’ technological updates due to accessibility problems with level 2 and level 3 teletext, but also because people continued to use it as their main source of information.

Things are going along pretty much to plan with regards to the project. The weblog is providing a useful resource to compile and organise data. As an addition, the microsite has been a useful way of testing out presentation methods, albeit within the HTML browser restriction.

I now need to select information from the weblog and decide how it needs to be presented. With regards to this, I have a range of options open to explore further. From these I will choose the most appealing to develop into a project.

More on the digital switchover

2007-10-19T14:26:00.000+01:00

This week, the beginning of the end of traditional teletext was signalled. The first analogue signal was switched off in Whitehaven, Cumbria. In this part of the world, BBC2, along with CEEFAX 2, is gone and the other teletext services are to follow soon after.

Telegraph: Britain gets ready to flick the digital switch

Quote, from Andy:

"On analogue teletext you can switch teletext on and off instantly and rapidly scan through stories/ sports scores etc with just one press of a 'fastext' button.
On digital teletext (Freeview) it can take about 15 seconds for the digital text to even appear, then you have to arrow around and press 'OK' to get the category you want, then more arrowing around to select a story then a wait longer than dial-up internet before the story even appears.
Foreign satellite digital channels manage to re-insert the analogue teletext back into the digital transmission. Why can't the UK do that?"

One customer who is a bit annoyed at the newer technologies. It might be a case of interactive TV catching up with teletext in the case of speed. Certainly my Freeview box is slow loading and teletext keeps crashing. That never happened on the old, analogue version.

Digital Switchover - Wikipedia entry

Wikipedia can be good for collections of information, and in many ways it's better than a regular encyclopaedia. This entry covers the technical specifics on the old and new signals.

"Another issue is that the "98.5 per cent of the population" can only be achieved "via rooftop aerials", while Section 134 of the Communications Act (2003) sets out the principle "that no person should unreasonably be denied access to an electronic communications network or to electronic communications services".This is taken to mean that everyone has the right to mount a television aerial on their roof."

Interesting that this means people can still have analogue aerials even though in a few years' time they will be obsolete. The article continues to mention that HDTV will be the next big technological advancement. I wonder if they will be updating interactive TV for this?

Newsnight: Where should the BBC spend its money?

Interesting article on Newsnight a few days ago, looking at the BBC's job cuts. Part of this was the 'hacking up' of thousands of archived articles from the BBC website. This shows an inclination towards online information retrieval - and subsequently interactive TV, which is from the same information/text feed as the teletext service and website.

Looks like I've got some competition

2007-10-15T16:33:00.000+01:00

Seefacts.co.uk

Found this site whilst trawling the Internet today. Tom's blog is formatted as a teletext page - only a bit more advanced than my homage.

Aesthetic aside, I dunno how he got that teletext-style font to be embedded into the page. I see that he had to use Courier for the heading, as I did with my original microsite design. Doesn't seem like there is much content at the moment so I don't know what his intentions are. Maybe he designed the ttx font especially for the site? I did download it but haven't tested it yet.

Looks like he had some fun designing his own graphics, too, though some of them need a bit more work, maybe. On the whole, it works. Something to take and develop.

Update, 19/10/07:

Emailed Tom asking for some more info on his blog and maybe some sort of sharing of material if, indeed, his blog will be based around teletext.

Some ideas for projects

2007-10-15T16:05:00.000+01:00

From today's research, some project ideas have arisen. Here they are compiled and written about briefly.

It would be good to see Tom Moody's teletext piece recontextualised. Maybe I could use the Cebra teletext editor to make a'pages from Ceefax' style broadcast complete with cheesy music and ticking clock thing. A test card would be a nice touch.

This could be extended to include my own work as well as some existing teletext pages. It could be a kind of rough animatic of random teletext pages of interest: maybe interwoven with some factual content pages.

People have already created teletext browsers for Windows/Mac OS. How about a computer browser for teletext? Akin to the Atari customised GUI, I would like to see this as a piece of art/experiment to see what bits work where. For example, how to get around the problem of a cursor, or how to represent pop up windows.
Teletext is already available for mobile phones. It would be the natural progression that it would perhaps have its own system or even be formatted for watches. At the least, I could make some kind of mobile teletext web interface in an attempt to keep teletext alive.

Teletext ...

In ASCII, on DVD, in fine art, on walls, in Lego, on post-it notes, on videprinters, on video game cartridges, on paper, in a book, in a magazine, on an arcade machine, on an oscilloscope.

Note that some of these are a bit fanciful but I'm just exploring some of the other ways teletext could be presented.

More on the death of teletext

2007-10-15T15:34:00.000+01:00

The BBC don't seem to like the fact people are using Ceefax online. This article from the Inquirer mentions the fact that the BBC are furious at the online teletext browser at Ceefax.tv. The site itself uses a very clever interface that grabs analogue data and converts it to the HTTP format. Created by Hendrik Noorderhaven, it allows people to view a variety of teletext systems via the internet.

It seems that this software can be used on mobile phones with compatible browsers: the Ceefax site also has sub pages for mobile teletext. Maybe the BBC feel they are missing out on another money making opportunity?

This blog entry has some interesting information about the teletext cross-media content service. Apparently there is a limit to the headline lengths so it can fit on teletext:

"Believe it or not, the BBC’s content production system makes you choose a headline of 31-33 characters, which is pretty precise. This is so it can work on Ceefax and mobile phones, as well as the web."

When Saturday Comes is a popular football fanzine. This article laments the death of the traditional format, used by fans to keep up to date with the latest scores, pools news and a bunch of other statistical based information:

"The real replacement for football on Ceefax is the kind of round-table you-watch-the-pros-watch-football show available on Sky Sports and the BBC. You know the kind of thing. Gordon McQueen, Paul Walsh and Tony Cottee stare at a TV screen and tell you that Blackburn have just won a free-kick but it’s come to nothing still 0-0 at Ewood Park, Jeff. This is essentially Ceefax, but a crazily over-manned version with a human face."

Perhaps the new interactive TV service is part of the BBC's overall attempt to bring a more human element into the whole teletext experience? After all, with the traditional format, all you had was text and the occasional simple graphic. Now, there is scope for video and photographic elements which, whilst adding to the experience, are maybe overcomplicating things. All people want to get is the information they came for. I must say from experience that the new interactive BBCi service is confusing and too menu-driven. Sure, you get a nice little window of the channel so you can watch TV whilst browsing text, but people don't want this - they just want the information. And anyway teletext always had this in the mix function.

Sources

The Register
The Inquirer
Ceefax.tv mobile
Chrisdoidge.co.uk
When Saturday Comes

Atari user customised GUI

2007-10-15T15:15:00.000+01:00

As an addition to the earlier GUI interface analysis, I found this video by Paul Slocum demonstrating his customised interface for the Atari 2600:

The video may only be short, but the interface is even simpler than the ones previously analysed. It's the ultimate in simplicity - the icons are minimal and obvious. The cursor, which is actually only a block of colour, can be moved around using the directional keys. The 'exit' icon is reduced to a simple white pixel whilst the pop up window is outlined with a dashed line. Even the text (see 0:33) is rendered in pixels.

I wonder if something like this could be applied to Teletext? Taking the GUI back in time by mixing modern interfaces with a teletext aesthetic.

GUIs in action

2007-10-15T14:17:00.000+01:00

After a bit of searching on YouTube, found quite a few videos relating to the Apple Lisa, the first commercially successful GUI interface. The above video is an emulator running on a modern Mac OS. In it is exhibited some of the Apple design team's layouts and icon designs as well as some of the capabilities of the medium.

In particular the icons are very simple but are clear metaphors. Sometimes these need some additional text but in time users would have got to know what each icon meant. The statistics application is another well designed element, as is the mind map creator, though these seem pretty primitive by today's standards. Icon metaphors include an hourglass to represent a wait, floppy disk to represent external storage hardware (including floppies) and strange solid black triangles and rhombuses for warning icons.

Compare this to the BBC Micro. The above video is a welcome disc. It's more of a showcase of some of the things the computer can do, with little applications such as simple text based games and keyboard agility tests. This GUI is less advanced than the Lisa's, employing text and colour rather than graphics to navigate menus.

In fact, this computer uses a teletext system to navigate. There are small elements of graphics (a simple 'gun' like in Space Invaders obliterates some text at one point) typical of teletext. Things like the pattern generator, though, are a bit more advanced. Thus, this could be regarded as the 'next step up' from analogue Ceefax.

Finally, the Amiga Workbench is very similar to the Lisa, only is in colour. Displays some of the applications from the Mac, including a pixellated clock, calculator, notepad etc. A lot of icons here and it's interesting how many things can be conveyed by the simple computer icon. Stopwatches, hammers, pixellated printers and speech bubbles help the user navigate the various menus which, if perused via a command line interface, would be very boring.

Computing Interface timeline

2007-10-15T13:50:00.000+01:00

A timeline of significant events in the history of GUIs.

All text in this post is sourced, selected and copied directly from Toastytech.

1973: The Alto computer (by XEROX) utilises a 3 button mouse, a bit-mapped display and use of graphical windows, not to mention Ethernet network connection.

1981: The Star (right), successor to the Alto, is released, incorporating double-clickable icons, overlapping windows, dialog boxes and a 1024x768 monochrome display.

1983: Apple introduces the Lisa, which includes pull down menus and menu bars. Finder windows can be dragged around the screen by "grabbing" the title bar with the mouse. Clicking the small box in the upper left of the window closes the window. Files and folders can be dragged to the desktop - although they do not actually exist there. The item is not copied or moved to another location, only the icon is displaced from the folder where it really is and displayed on the desktop instead The Trash icon works in a similar manner, holding icons until the Empty Trash option is selected and the files are deleted.

1984: Computer Research release GEM. It is graphically very similar to the Mac interface. The GEM UI attempted to be a clone of the Macintosh UI of the time. It was nowhere as sophisticated or complete, but it has similar menus, overlapping windows, icons for files and folders, drives on the desktop, drag and drop, exiting apps uses file-quit, and a trash icon. A few noticeable differences: Opening a folder always opens it in the same window rather than a new one, the trash icon is not a real folder, and drive icons must be manually added or removed. However, it was close enough the the Mac UI that Apple sued Digital Research.

1985: Microsoft's Windows for IBM PC released. Has tiled windows.

1985: Commodore releases the Amiga 1000 with Amiga Workbench (right). When the Amiga was first introduced in 1985 it was far ahead of its time with features such as multiple resolution high-color graphics, stereo sound, and pre-emptive multitasking that made it a great machine for multimedia applications and gaming.

1987: Apple introduces the Apple Macintosh II, the first colour Macintosh.
1987: Acorn releases "Arthur" for the Acorn computer, it is the basis for RISC OS. RISC OS 2 and 3 have a similar look, but an improved feel.

1990: Windows 3.0 released by Microsoft. Features: Program Manager shell. About this time Microsoft finally realized that the GUI was catching on. Functionally, the window management is not much different than version 2.x, however they took some steps to make it look fancier. Command buttons and the window controls now have a 3D look. However this 3Dnes did not extend to many other window controls.

1993: Microsoft releases the first version of Windows NT, their 32-bit OS. They give it the version number "3.1" and use the same user interface they do for regular Windows 3.1. Made available for Intel, Power PC, Alpha, and MIPS systems.

1995: Microsoft introduces Windows 95 on August 24th.

1997: Mac OS 8 is finally released. Selling 1.25 million copies in less than 2 weeks, it becomes the best-selling software in that period.

1998: Microsoft releases Windows 98. Features: Internet Explorer Web browser application takes over the role of the Windows shell, advertising right on the desktop, entire help system replaced by Internet Explorer.

Source: Toastytech

Bill Atkinson

2007-10-15T12:54:00.001+01:00

Bill Atkinson is a prominent designer and computer programmer, best known for his work on early Mac computers (original Mac system shown left). These are best known for being the first to use Graphical User Interfaces rather than code input interfaces (CLI).

Amongst his creations were MacPaint and the 'marching ants' selection tool. He was also the designer and implementer of HyperCard, a hypertext style system structured like a database of index cards for the Mac. It was used as a presentation method as well as an archiving system, and used a unique coding language that was more or less in readable English.

When Atkinson first started at Apple, he, along with his design team, were charged with creating applications for the Macintosh. Working on limited and restricted specifications (up to what computing power could handle at the time), it was suggested that these ought to be miniature metaphors, such as a calculator or a notepad, on the desktop (as with the control panel, right).

These work with restrictions a bit different to teletext. To start with, screen resolution is much larger, giving the opportunity to work with more intricate graphics. However the colour was limited to greyscale as opposed to teletext's 8-colour palette.
Above are some examples of the kind of icon he would create. The GUI layouts Atkinson would help to develop would become the industry standard, setting the benchmark for future developments, eventually used by other systems including the Windows OS.

Sources
Folklore.org
Wikipedia

Home made teletext

2007-10-15T12:31:00.001+01:00

Teletext, it would seem, is still very popular in Estonia. Tarmo Tanilsoo, the creator of this website which I have mentioned in an earlier post, has uploaded a video to YouTube. It contains some experiments he made in creating a home made teletext system, formatted in 'Pages from Ceefax' style:

Though experimental, this is really cool. I love the graph - maybe I could do something similar for results of my questionnaire?

Elsewhere, I found this site he also created. It is similar in navigation structure to the other mentioned site, but is in Estonian so I don't know what's going on most of the time. Seems like it also used an embedded Javascript code to navigate pages.

The Pixel is Power

Project summary

Festival site - work in progress

Futuresonic - site

Possible festivals

Teletext is Dead (Mark 2)

Futuresonic 2008 - festival web page

Digital switchover - Switzerland

Tunnel vision

Teletext is Dead?

Glitched teletext art

Last chance to see the thing!

See the thing (Again)!

E4 sting Work in Progress

Gordon Brown on Northern Rock

Weather forecast glitching

Channel 4 continuity

More glitch stills

Glitch stills

Digital glitching

Analogue glitching

Teletext art (ten million)

Subtitle subversion

Digital vs Analogue

Digital killed the analogue star

See the thing

Custom teletext art

Teleglitcher

Why digital is rubbish

Impossible game

Glitching

DeuxPix

Larsen Feedback

Misc. links

Teletext remote control icons

BBC interactive streaming/digital layouts

Interactive TV - subtitles

Weather Watch - part three

Digital teletext - audio

Teletext art - Flickr photos

Font specifications

TV glitching

Teletext art

More teletext humour

Super Mario Brothers recontextualised

ASCII Space Invaders

More glitching

ASCII Art - links

Paul Slocum/Cory Arcangel

Glitch browser

Befix - glitch art

ASCII/glitched Super Mario

More teletext related stories - December/Jan

Telegiffer - hi-res

More Teletextery

Pong Blogger

Ceefax.tv

Online teletext archiving - Digitiser

Teletext specifications - links

Breaking the barriers

Commercial teletext art

Weather Watch part 2

A modern teletext font

Various references

The Otowa ASCII game

Interview with Dirk Paesmans

Peecol - design with restriction

Weather Watch

Some more links

Presentation?

Some proposed chapter headings

Tele Giffer, a tribute to jodi

Index cards

Paramount Comedy teletext

Who broke my teletext?

Cory Arcangel

A teletext timeline

Digiworld - teletext archving

Selection of information

Artists/artworks and their relevance