In some ways Lost in Linear Valley is a tech-demo gone wonderfully wrong. JJ Stratford’s formal exploration of the LZX Video Synthesizer and the Fairlight Computer Video Instrument (CVI) resulted in a suite of 10 short experimental videos questioning obsolescence and early video aesthetics. At first glance, one could mistakenly take this work to be a study of dead-media fetishism. However, one watches this suite unfold into a delicate investigation of the limits of technology, and the potential those limits enable. Through the use of preset wipes and crude RGB color palettes, Stratford uncovers hidden potential in what otherwise would be considered a long-outmoded device for creative expression. In doing so, the typical subversive gesture of using obsolete technology that occurs within contemporary art is supplanted by an earnest exploration into a crucial link between early video aesthetics and current technologically inflected imagery.

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