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Jun; 1", 1973

Re the mention of your . existence, interests andaims in Radical Software (2,1) : if there is anythingmore about this Available from you I'd appreciate aCOPY (speaking of printed form's)O Pue to geographicaland cultural factors I -am standing pretty much outsidethose sorts od adventures� as a watcher but feel veryurgently to enormous possibilities in our presentmodiatechnology, for making palpable other niveahs of workingof the self, for acting in and ehhaping the environment,for extending the Mf and adding new qualitiestlo theinteraction between people and places (your- points 142especially) . Still all this is of courseAuch a matterof dormant possibilities (I do work as a TV producerand feel very heavily the dead hand of,literate l lrationalthinking) .So, whatever you have, 1 14 like to know! especiallyspecific hardware suggestions if, any,are for copying .It", hard to come by even basic tecjniques for, say,video synthetizing in my corner of the. ,globe and Twould es ecially appreciate hering of any feedbacy~(EEG etcy research made .

"RANDOM OR NOT :-_-_ HERE I 00173 11

Experience

Situations, vents, People ;some comrrion, some strange, yet all exist in their own time, space, mood .

Experiencea rejuxtaposition and awareness of these elements, as the ocean tidepounds against tile television screen . animals craze and couples sleep .baseball games and presidential speeches provide the background to aninformal visit with neighbors at home on saturday ni6ht . the wallpaperhanger hardly notices the time as the chef prepares deserts . operaticsolos blend with electronic drones and someone is either lost, worried,or sad, but its so hard to tell . a bellydancer undulates among leaveswaving in the breeze . basketballs bounce to the rhythm of the radio ona sunbathers beach, and stand back . here comes the band .

Not a statement ; just an

Experience

"RANDOM OR NOT ----- HERB I COLrE"created by

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20'-Ow DIAMETER 4V TRIACON - IVIDEO/AU010 DISPLAY DOME(NO SCALE)

INTERIOR SECTION A A

-l

INTERIOR REFLECTIVE PLAN .MA-RIX

CONTPOL SYSTEM

DIGITALCOMPUTER

AUDIO

VIC)EO

SYNTHESIZER ESYNT-iESIZERLIt

E.R.T. S. INFORMATIONRECI EVER-CONVERTER

SYSTEMS DIAGRAM FOR INTERSPECIES COMMUNICATIONS DISPLAY

Environetic Synthesis is both a con-cept, and a group engaged in projectsdirected toward actualizing the concept .Our starting point was the premise thatone's environment could be designed torespond to one's own physiology, such asthe brain waves (EEG) and muscle poten-tials (EMG), with video, audio and othersensory devices responding to the person .One could thereby interact with, and con-trol all the parameters of this environ-ment to meet the needs of the moment . bJesoon realized that this simple conceptapplied to communication, theater, dance,and new forms of video entertainment, andaccordingly, it has become a meeting groundfor people with diverse interests andbackgrounds to cork on group projectsaround this concept .

Another guiding principle is thatkiln, being part oi` a natural order, re-sl ;Ctnd',

to tf~c~ ord :̀rs a'tdK 1.1 P, n .q

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that this response

i s of -artisticvalue, scientific value, and often a com-bination of the two .

He thin, and most obvious prin-ci 411 e i b that the rop i d Bevel opmun t ofrr"11 f ~'chnologies provides new and dif-

ferent modes of expression for everyone .Computers, holography, 3-D techniques,man-machine interfacing and other tech-nologies, however, still are on largelyexploratory levels from the artist'sand layman's point of view, and theirfurther exploration promises interestingdevelopments . A current project of inter-est to us is videotape documentation ofon-going projects by innovators in art,science and technology for cassette andother sources, including reference andteaching libraries .

Another current project is resultingin the integration of dance with technol-ogies used in bio-medical engineering,physiopsychology, computer video graphicsand electronic music synthesis . By mon-itoring the dancer's EEG (electricalactivity from the muscles) by telemetry,the dance itself generates a mnsi cal --vi sual

envi rummont,

rather than thedancpr r p pon-!ing to rre-pr ograyaridmaterial .

Correspondence :Fnvironetic SynthesisPeter Cro%,., ! i - Richard Lovrenherg317 lest 92nd St .New York, N .Y . 10025

The Sourcewill be accepted through an . 4, 1980.An honorarium of $200 ani free precon-fcrence registration will be offered foreach paper accepted .For format requirements, contact Neal

K. Kaske, OCLC, Inc., 1125 KinnearRd ., Columbus, OH 43212.

Plotnik, Lee BeginNew Publishing JobsAmerican Libraries Editor Arthur

Plotnik and ALA Headquarters Librar-ian Joel Lee recently assumed additionalresponsibilities in the association's pub-lishing program.In addition to being AL editor, Plot-

nik is now editorial development direc-tor for general publishing services . Hewill concentrate on identifying and de-veloping new ways of serving the Libraryprofession through publication . Plotnikalso will deal with acquisitions andnew resources.

As associate editorial developmentofficer, Lee will contribute to the pub-lishing reference program. He alreadyis associate editor of the forthcomingALA World Encyclopedia of Libraryand Information Services, scheduled forpublication early in 1980 . He also willbe editor-in-chief of a new Who's Whoin Library and Information Services, adirectory to be published by K.G. Saurin cooperation with ALA.

0

oa~Mo~Peter Crown: Tending TV's Fireplace

by Laurel Crone Sneed

Television mqv be an "electmnicfireplace," according to author, profes-sor, and researcher Peter Crown. At themost recent North Carolina Film andVideo Festival, Crown shared his viewswith AL on everything from two-wayTV to video production in libraries.From 1973 to 1975 Crown, a soft-

spoken man in his mid-thirties, was re-search coordinator for WNET's televi-sion laboratory in New York . There heinitiated a study of television watch-ing which culminated in his productionof a video documentary, The Tube andEye . At WNET, Crown also introducedan experimental system in which bio-electric impulses from the human bodyinteract directly with a video synthe-sizer and other video equipment.For three years Crown, who has a

Ph.D . in physiological psychology, wasa visiting assistant professor of televi-sion at Hampshire College in Amherst,Mass . He taught a studio production

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course in experimental television and aresearch course on TV viewer response.Crown received a National ScienceFoundation grant to explore adole.-centand adult response to TV through elec-troencephalogram monitoring of brainwaves. He has several video productionsto his credit and has published and lec-tured extensively .The following is an edited version of

Crown's talk with Mediatmosphere col-umnist Laurel Crone Sneed.

Q: Could you explain the term fortelevision you have coined, "the elec-tronic fireplace?"A: The term "electronic fireplace"

comes from the idea of the leasurablefeeling of gazing into the replace orinto the campfire. It's a relaxing thingthat has been common to everyday lifethroughout history. And there's no con-tent . It's just the activity of watchingthe fire and feeling the warmth . Veryoften it's a quiet contemplative time .The reason I apply it to television is thatI think, to a large extent, people watchtelevision to help relax.

In our culture today, relaxing Ishard . There's a feeling that you shouldbe doing, accomplishing, creating . Sit-ting doing nothing is not very accept-able, but sitting watching television is .Certainly not for all of television, butfor some of it, people don't care muchwhat's on the screen . They prefer some-thing without a lot of information . Thescreen is bright, and you can sit thereand look at it. That s the "electronicfireplace."Q: Do you distinguish between broad-

cast or network television and otherkinds of video experiences?A: Yes, I do . First of all, I make a

distinction between the three commer-cial networks and PBS in that the PBSviewer is less inclined to watch a showfor the fireplace effect. The commercialnetworks work better for the fireplacephenomenon-even with the commer-cials. The reason is a lot of the com-mercial network programminhas lessinformation . For example, in-watchinga one-half hour sitcom or very simplestory, you don't have to think. Whereaswith a lot of PBS productions, you have

Laurel Crone Snood Is an Instructional de-signer and a writer on media topics .

AMERICAN LIBRARIES

Peter Crown explains his theories to an awed film festival audience .to put out a little hit to enjoy them.And then, there is video, as op!xosed

to television . By video, I mean work thathas been dome by independents, byartists-things that you might see in agallery, nrucemn or your home, but noton broadcast TV. Cenerally, these kindsof productiom are watched by peoplewith a special interest, so their fireplaceeffect wouldn't he as strong . The 'elec-tronic fmplace" is not what I think ishappening all of the time . You have toconsider all of the variables : the contentof tire. show, how it looks and sounds,how the viewer feels, and what theviewer's needs am . In terms of specificresearch dovurnenting the fireplace phe-nometron, the- 11172 surgeon general'sstudy on ti-levision frntnd that, to a largeextent, people feel they watch televi-sion for relaxation, ahead of informationand entertainment .

TV, Reading, and Brain WavesQ: Do the electroencephalogram

brain wave monitoring experimentsyou've done support the hypothesis thatwatching television produces a hypnot-ic, sedated kind of state?A: Yes, they do . They show a differ-

ence in brain function between readingand watching TV. The size of the TVscreen is very small compared to pe-ripheral vision, which is 180 degrees .So when you watch TV, your eyes don'tmove much at all . This helps with therelaxation response . The research wedid where people watched a half hourof television and read Time magazinefor half an hour showed a difference inbrain activity-and the difference was asyou might predict : reading showed amore activated brain wave state thandid watching television, which produced

SEPTEMBER 1979

a less activated brain response.() : So research showed that brain

activity shut down when watching cer-tain kinds of television?A: It's not that it shut down; it was

just at a lower level . If you imagine thewhole spectrum from deep sleep to thegreatest kind of excitement and involve-ment, you can say that television is afew notches below reading . But youcan't say the brain waves showed thatthe person watching television was azombie.Q: Do we know how receptive to in-

formation people are when they are inthe deep seep end of the spectrum?A : We don't know . Anthat's the

next research that should be done . Dr .Dan Anderson at the Psychology Depart.merit of the University of Massachusettsat Amherst has videotaped kids watch-ing TV. He found that rather frequent-ly, the children would lapse into a kindof blank stare. Their heads and shoul-ders would slouch forward, their mouthsand jaws would drop open, and theywould seem to be mesmerized. Theywere also much less aware of otherthings going on around them . If kidshave a glazed look in their eyes, is itpossible that they could still be listen-ing, absorbing, or remembering? Theanswer is, the research remains to bedone .Q : I get the general impression that

you're very pro-television-that you seeit having enormous potential . Can yougive some examples that give you hopefor what TV can be?A: The future requires a look at the

distribution system. Television is be-coming home video . The networks willprobably continue to go for the largeaudiences, which makes you suspect

that things might not change an awfullot . On the other hand, there are otherdistribution systems which allow you toreach smaller audiences. These includecable, home videocassettes, and video-discs just now on the market . This givesme hope for reaching more esotericmarkets in the same way that the rec-ord industry appeals to all differentkinds of tastes .Q: A lot of people are speculating on

what the home video market and fu-ture media picture are going to be . Whatare your projections?A: PBS predicts that by 1990, rather

than buying a television set, you'll buyan IVT, an Integrated Video Terminal .This is a home electronic center whichincludes television, high quality audio,stereo, radio, possibly a small computer,and possibly a videotape recorder builtright in . All this electronic equipmentwill be packaged into one terminal.That's part of the technology future forhome video .Home videocassettes and home video-

discs have a new market . Right nowthere are approximately 800,000 homevideo recorders ; the videodisc market isstill unknown . The success or failure ofboth videotapes and videodiscs will de-pend on the kinds of software that willbe available . In other words, if the ma-terial that's available on a videodisc isinteresting and good to enough people,it will become widespread just like rec-ords are now .

Home Video and UbrariesQ: Home video is based on the as-

sumption that people are going to wantto make choices about programming andbecome very involved with the experl-ence of watching television . But t}rereseems to be pretty compelling evidencethat

relax ;watch television primarily

to relax ; they are probably habituatedto the passive nature of the experience .The expectation that pcople will wantto make programmed choices seems con-tradictory to what we know the experi-ence of watching television to be.A : I guess I'm hopeful that because

of the new distribution marketing po-tential, production values and the kindsof things you'll be able to buy will beinteresting enough so people will beable to watch them with alertness andconcentration .Q : But if people are so conditioned

to watching commercial TV for the fire-place effect, what is their incentive togo out and buy more programming?A: My impression is that by and

large, people are not entirely satisfiedwith broadcast television, even thoughthey do watch it . So their incentive tobuy is to find something better. Anotherthing is that there, are going to be new

493

BBIP is a quarterly guide to discount booksfrom remainder and publishing houses .Beginning with issue six, Title and AuthorSections will be published separately . EachSection, $?5 . Both Sections, $45 . Samplecopies are available from PIERIAN PRESS5000 Washtenaw, Ann Arbor, MI 48104

The Sourceforms and styles of software . For exam-ple, now if you like jazz or rock androll, you can go out and buy a recordby your favorite group . The record in-dustry feels that if and when the video-disc is widespread, instead (of buyingthe audiodisc) you'll buy the videodiscbecause it'll have superior audio instereo . You'll be able to see the group,and maybe it will do some very creativevisual things that'll enhance the musicand create a new kind of experience .Q: Many libraries around the coun-

try have video collections or are gettinginto video and other forms of media.What role do you see for the public anduniversi library in regard to videosoftwareA: For me the role of the library is

that of a resources center, and that ma-jor resource is books. I'm happy to seemore progressive libraries expandingtheir collections to films, slides, andvideotapes . It's a way of attracting peo-ple to the library-maybe if video is thedraw, they'll start to get interested inbooks while they are there .Q : Do you think video hardware

should be a resource libraries provide?A: I think having production equip-

ment is OK for internal purposes-to de-velop programs, to instruct new person-nel, or to develop tapes to be used for

the community. But in general, I don'tthink it would be a good idea for librar-ies to get into production . Number one,they're more resource centers for infor-mation than centers for producing in-formation . I don't think a library shouldbe a print shop, and I don't think itshould be a production studio . Anotherreason is that it's just so expensive andso difficult to make good TV. There's afeeling that all you need is a camera,a recorder, and an editing deck to makegreat video ; it's just not that easy .Q: I asked that question because it

seems people should have access to themost rudimentary tools of video pro-duction, since we are bombarded t1crilywith the output of those tools . I'm won-dering if you see any place in societywhere that should exist .A : The access should and does exist .

Many states have state-funded pro-grams that make video equipment avail-able to artists and independents . Itmight turn out that in certain communi-ties, the library is the perfect place forvideo equipment access . In fact, thatdid happen in South Hadley, Mass.,where Mt. Holyoke College is . TheMassachusetts State Council on the Artshad a video artist-in-residence at thelibrary for six months, and the libraryprovided equipment . The artist helped

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people who came to the library makevideotapes . But an important point isthat the library didn't have to do italone, It had outside herp.

What are some videotapes whichdeal with the subject of videotape andtelevision?A: Electronic Arts has some very in-

teresting sampler tapes that are intro-ductions to video and video art . Theyshow samples of the work of many dif-ferent artists . One of these is calledVideo, The New Wave; another is calledReport '74 from WHET. These tapesare good introductions .Q : Oil(! last question . What are some

of the projects that you are involvedwith right now?A: I'm presently tom()leting a video-

art show with a local PBS station,WGBY in Springfield, Massachusetts .And I'm consulting on it Fiber Optic In-teractive ('.emlntuttity .(:olninmunicationsSystem in Japan . l ;vcry borne has a TVset, .1 microphone, a catnera, and asmall computer terminal-it's a two-waysystem which will allow people to par-ticipate direct]y in cominimity decisionmaking from tlucir homes.Q: Is it like (111131:, the two-way

video system being tried out in Ohio?A: It's six years ahead of QUBE.

QUBE can only handle limited feed-back from the viewer, whereas the Ja-pan system can handle much more so-phisticated conversatimial interaction .

SELECTED RESOURCESChina In Books: A Basic Bibliogra-

Ay in Western Language was tompeins,

l df.) y Norman h: . Tunis, David L . Perkins,and Justine Pinto of California StateUniversity/Northridge, to support thenew courses on China being offered inAmerican high schools and colleges .Some 4,(1 .50 old and new titles are ar-ranged under 21 general topics . The ap-pendix identifies 181 basic titles whichthe authors believe should be held byeven the smallest library . The 238-pagebibliography is feau- th in the, Founda-tions in Library and Information Sci-ence series, edited by Robert I) . Stneart .$35 from JAI Press, 1'013 1678, 321 W.Greenwich Ave., Greenwich, CT 06830(0-89232-071-0, 77-24396) .

Conference organizers may findjust what they need to know in Success-ful Conference and Convention Plan-ning, by Rolwrt If . Drain and Neil Oak-ley . Topics include planning, promotion,transportation, accommodation, speak-ers, and family programs . Budget sheets,events charts, menus, and contracts dotthe 205 pages . $14.95 from QualityBooks, Inc ., 400 Anthony Trail, North-

SEPTEMBER 1979

brook, 1L 60062 (0-07-082609-9, 78-001033-7) .

The Mental Health Materials Cen-ter, it nonprofit edticatioltal agencybased ill New York, has files of morethan 30,000 printed works and 500 au-diovisuals on mental health and familylife education . From these, experts se-lected, described, and evaluated 855items in two volumes totaling some1,500 pages . The materials are de-signed to serve "everyone concernedwith the study of human behavior" andprovoke thought and discussion .The Selective (:little to Publications

for Mental Ilealth and Family Life Ed-ucation, edited by Ilal Rifken, is $37(t1-8379-5001-5, 78-71071) . The Selec-tive. Guide to Audiovisuals for MentalIlcalth and Family-Life Education, ed-ited by Jack Ncher, is $27 (0-8379-5101-1, 78-71072) . $58.10 for the set,from Marquis Academic Media, MarquisWho's Who, 200 East Ohio St., Room5617, Chicago, IL 60611.

Directory of Learning Resourcesfor Reading, 1979-80, purports to bethe first nationwide listing of learningand funding sources of special instruc-,tional programs for children and adultswith reading learning disabilities . Edi-tor Carl J . Buehler provides an over-view of current trends and issues, con-cise summaries of federal reading im-provement programs, and a list of majorreading organizations, including theirpublications and executive directors .The 266-page work is indexed by or-ganization and state . $39.50 from theBureau of Business Practice, Inc., 24Rope Ferry Rd., Waterford, CT 06385 .Two companion volumes, Directory

of Learning Disabilities and Directory ofSpecial Education for the Handicapped,are scheduled for release soon ; each willbe $39.50 .

I & R In the 19809 is the topic of thelead article in the first issue (spring1979) of Information and Referral: Thefournal of the Alliance of Informationand Referral Systems. Edited by AlvinL . Sallee, a social work professor atNew Mexico State University/Las Cru-ces, the journal is published three timesa year-spring, summer, and fall . $12from AIRS, POB 10705, Phoenix, AZ85064.

Beginning documents librariansand their colleagues in nondepositorylibraries may increase understanding oftheir field with From Press to People:Collecting and Using U.S . GovernmentPublications. Author Yuri Nakata ex-plains documents publishing,proceduresand their effects on library handling of

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