https://vimeo.com/2355579
Prepare to Qualify, 2008
Prepare to Qualify is short video made on a circuit-bent Atari using Namco’s classic 1982 video game Pole Position as source material. For those unfamiliar, circuit-bending is the creative re-wiring (and short-circuiting) of low voltage electronic devices such as children’s toys and small digital synthesizers. Circuit bending is often used by artists to create new musical instruments and/or to generate new images and sounds.
The idea for the piece began with the question “Does breaking video game systems and playing with lo-fi electronics at the age of 28 really constitute art making?” In the video itself, a voice demands that a pixelated car “PREPARE TO QUALIFY”. As the light turns green, the car remains frozen in an ever changing sea of graphical hardware errors.
