Teletext is Dead (Mark 2)

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

Futuresonic 2008 - festival web page

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.
  

Teletext is Dead?

Following up the Teletext is Dead idea using DV imagery.

Last chance to see the thing!

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.

E4 sting Work in Progress

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:



Here's some quick snapshots of the current progress:

Gordon Brown on Northern Rock

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



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.

Subtitle subversion

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?

Presentation?

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.

Tele Giffer, a tribute to jodi

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

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.

Some ideas for projects

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.

Teletext in other formats

Been considering some of the possible ideas for final presentations with 11 weeks to go. Some I can see working better than others but for now I will continue collating info in this weblog.

The very first idea I came up with was the presentation of my research in the teletext format. This was met with doubt by tutors so the idea was put on the shelf for a while. However I have been considering a bit further how this could be made to work and have been coming around to the idea. Sure it would be restrictive, but that would be part of the project itself.

This has already been partly explored on the microsite with PixelText. This takes the form of a Flash piece with a few devices used by the format - fastext, numbered menus, flashing banner adverts etc. The microsite itself (right) has been formatted to be in the format, even if it isn't 'hardcore' remaining 100% faithful to the medium.

With the HTML format, as exhibited in the microsite main page, there are naturally problems. I could conceivably format this so as to stick to the 40x60 palette but the exact appearance in other browsers is not guaranteed. Also, different systems use different system fonts, rendering 'FixedSys' useless on browsers other than IE. I have resorted here to using Courier, another fixed-width font that is much more common and recognisable by most browsers. This obviously is not ideal in remaining faithful to the medium but is an adaptation for another format.

Thus may be evident another possible area to explore: re-contextualising teletext for other formats, maybe newer more 'modern' media. In the past, the format has been ported to BBC Micro and in recent years teletext has been formatted for a number of online browsers. I could take this one, or even two steps further, exploring what the format may possibly be like in forms such as mobile phone screens and even High Definition. The latter would open up a range of possibilities, including having a whole teletext hierarchy fit onto a single HDTV screen, highlighting the difference in resolution between the two to a new extreme.

Project directions

Based on research undertaken thus far, I have been considering more possible project directions.

> Teletext's role as a precursor to Interactive TV. Lessons learnt. Also - Interactive TVs debt to the Internet.
> Lost or forgotten elements of Teletext. Phone-in holidays, competitions, written correspondence etc. Has the Internet superseded these?
> Concentration on simplicity of content - look at artists that use minimal text/image to drive home their message, if there is one. Sparse forms of communication.
> How teletext may survive/develop - carried on by its successor- the Internet. Ceefax.tv. Also - interactive TV's role. Pay per view elements.
> Manipulation of the medium - eg. page 379 project, Moody. Use of teletext as an exponent for art. Strengths, weaknesses, case studies etc.

Considerations

Maybe I could widen the research project to encompass different types of pixel graphics produced by other media - namely early 8-bit computer games and the early Internet. By also bringing in aspects of the written/printed media I could draw up similarities and contrasts between the different methods of production.

Looking at some of the stuff by Jodi has inspired me to think of areas such as ASCII art, which has not been a widely used medium in teletext but is the same principle of using a basic character set. This article talks about the quest to code a font that reproduces the teletext font on the PC format. It seems the Minitel ASCII and the one used on computers are different despite containing, on the whole, much the same characters. The image to the left shows an Atom VDG (chip for early 1980s computers) character set. Note the strange pixel characters: these are similar to the ones used in Teletext to create images.

Some possible areas for exploration
Take the three mediums and explore the following criteria.

> Use of language. Visual and textual.
> Use of interaction. Methods of interaction - special devices. Remote controls, joypads, pucks etc.
> Format of medium itself. Teletext - televisions - compatibility. Device people are familiar with. Also don't have to purchase a new system
> Purpose and target audience. Reaching different parts of the world, individual services for regional areas. Different reasons in different areas but largely based on information provided by the TV channel.
> Longevity and popularity. Are they still around today?
> Medium as an information service

The main thing, it seems, is that the Internet has largely overtaken the purpose of teletext and, due to its advances in technology, has widened its scope. However Teletext remains much the same. Whilst the 'new age' of digital set top boxes has brought reduced loading times, the abundance of the net and its now relatively inexpensive access has contributed to teletext's reduction in popularity.

The original service as we know it will be phased out in the next few years in the UK with the switch to digital (digital teletext page from Teletext Ltd. screenshot shown right). In fact, teletext, along with early video games, has gained popularity from the Internet's spreading of these via emulation. Maybe this could be my closing statement.

Teletext - ITV Service

Teletext Ltd. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teletext_Ltd
Mb21.co.uk - http://teletext.mb21.co.uk/gallery/TeletextLtd/

Slightly confusingly, ITV's teletext service is called 'Teletext', though it was not the first teletext broadcast: this version started New Year's Day 1993, more than fifteen years after Ceefax began.

From my own experience, this service is more 'fun' than Ceefax, reflecting the brand values of the more modern independent channels it broadcasts on (ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5). This is reflected in the design of the pages, an example of which can be seen above right.

Incidentally, this seems to be from the opening day of broadcast. Characteristically, the service includes a lot more pixel art and little 'drawings' like the small horse rider in the shot to the left. There's less emphasis on clogging screens up with information as well.

In addition, Teletext being commercial, there is the capability to advertise. Colourfully painted adverts adorn the pages of the service. Though a little annoyingly placed on most pages, they are well presented (within the confines of the transmitter, at least). Whilst not exactly cutting edge, the graphics represent the early Internet and its text-heavy nature at the time. This screenshot is from 1995.

Finally, left is a technical page labelled only as a DBI status page. I am sure I will look into the technical side of the Teletext service in a coming post.

Teletext official site:
http://www.teletext.co.uk/

Interestingly, Teletext Holidays is one of the most popular services today's 'post-teletext' age. Perhaps this shows how much of a successful marketing tool Teletext proved. Also, potential customers have the option at their fingertips: they can order the holiday from their own home via Teletext using their telephone - a precursor to Internet communications and processes common today.

Ceefax

Ceefax Wikipedia entry - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceefax
History of Ceefax - http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/carlson/History/ceefax.htm

Ceefax, phonetic for 'See facts', is the BBC's Teletext service. Was the world's first teletext system. Went live in 1974 with thirty pages: compare to the hundreds today. Broadcast programmes (telesoftware) to BBC Micro from 1983 to 1989. Uses World System Teletext standard (was CEPT1).

The name "Teledata" was chosen and a patent application entitled "The Transmission of Alphanumeric Data by Television" was filed on Feb. 9, 1972 under the names of P. Rainger, I. Miller and F. Parker -- iml.jou.ufl.edu/Carlson/History/Ceefax.htm

There are television screenings of the service at set times in the week: these are becoming less common: in fact the BBC stopped the regular service long ago in favour of BBC News 24, whilst ITV ended their 'Nightscreen' transmissions in 2005. They are accompanied by a cheesy easy-listening tune and the pages tick over automatically. Meant for TVs without the Teletext decoder or for people who can't be bothered to lift their hands to get the remote. A screenshot to the left shows a typical screen from the service recorded on Christmas Day 1995. Note the cream background compared to the regular black colour.

The limited set of rolling pages shown on Pages from Ceefax (referred to as a "newsreel") are also accessible at any time of day via Ceefax page 152 (BBC1 or BBC2) on any analogue teletext television. -- en.wikipedia.org/Ceefax

BBC News 24 has seen a reduction in this service in recent times. There is now a television rather than text-based service so this usually screens in the early hours of the morning.

Ceefax on the Internet
http://www.ceefax.tv/

Ceefax.tv is an online version of the Ceefax service which can be accessed by entering the desired number into the Google-style search box much like the TV decoded one. One benefit of this service is that it's much quicker than the television service itself, which has to download to the receiver. A broadband connection is more efficient in handling the data due to its greater technology compatibility.

Preliminary research project

After some deliberation over the subject of my project, I have settled at this point on the televisual interactive interface that is Teletext. More specifically than this I have not decided as yet, but have identified the following ideas for areas of research:

> Relationship with modern technology. How Teletext became a precursor to the Internet as we know it today.
> Teletext today - BBCi, press the red button etc. Digital age of Teletext - will it die out as the analogue receivers are switched off one by one? Also, Teletext online.
> Influence on many aspects of the Internet - user correspondence, real-time up to date news, television listings, advertising - all prominent on the web today.
> Pixel art transmitted via Teletext. Relationship with ASCII art.
> Having fun. The reveal function to answer questions in your own time, or at least until the page ticks over. Bamboozle style text-based quiz games. Children's reveal area/guessing puzzles.
> Subtitles - accessibility. A precursor to audio description.

I will post some visuals based on this tomorrow and continue to do so for the next week or so.