Sums & Differences, 1978
Video (black-and-white, stereo sound); 8:00 min.
Three black-and-white video cameras, Dave Jones prototype modules (analog-to-digital converter, digital-to-analog converter, bit switch, video switch/sequencer, output amplifier) and Serge audio modules
The basis of this “sound/image construct,” recorded in real time, are three black-and-white still images: a keyboard, a flute, and an African drum. These motifs are altered through digitalization, solarization, and interframe switching. As they alternate, the images are accompanied acoustically by simple tonal routines of the instruments shown – little sequences of sound on the keyboard, some drum beats, a brief trill of the flute. The solarization effect of the images changes with the sounds. The work intensifies as it progresses, and images and sounds succeed one another ever more rapidly until a melody of the three instruments emerges. The frequency of the video images continues to increase, with the result that the images pulsate ever more quickly until they gradually overlay one another, producing a cinematographic effect through interferences. Parallel to this, the audio frequency of the melody rises until fundamental tones form, lasting several seconds. At this point, the three still images overlap one another in strips. The higher the keynote incrementally soars, the narrower the vertical strips become until all three motifs, superimposed line by line, create an overall image. Further manipulation of the signals causes the sound to change into new tones. After a number of transformations the image plane divides into vertical fields, in which segments of the three base motifs can be seen, corresponding to the tonal sequences. Together the modulated sounds and the increasing bands of images multiply to produce a kind of double moiré in which the composite image has become an abstract ‘machine’ or music box.
Quasha, George and Charles Stein. An Art of Limina: Gary Hill’s Works and Writings. Barcelona: Ediciones Polígrafa, 2009, p. 593.
“Video by Videomakers 1979: Gary Hill,” Experimental Television Center, Binghamton, New York, April 5, 1979.
“CAPS Video Festival: 1978 – 79,” Media Study/Buffalo, Buffalo, New York, June 5 and 6, 1979.
“Meet the Makers: Gary Hill,” Donnell Library, New York Public Library, New York, New York, June 14, 1979.
Group exhibition. “Projects Video XXVIII,” Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York, August 7 – September 18, 1979.
“New York Video,” Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, Germany, July 7 – August 2, 1981.
Solo exhibition. Center for Media Art, The American Center, Paris, France, December 13 – 15, 1983.
“Gary Hill Selected Videography,” JISC Plaza Video and International Cultural Community Services, Tokyo, Japan, March 16, 1984.
Solo exhibition. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York, May 24 – June 15, 1986.
2e Semaine Internationale de Vidéo, Saint-Gervais Genève, Geneva, Switzerland, November 16 – 21, 1987.
Solo screening. Espace lyonnais d’art contemporain (ELAC), Lyon, France, July 26 and September 27, 1988.
Vidéoformes 89: Festival de la Création Vidéo, Clermont-Ferrand, France, April 20 – 29, 1989.
Solo exhibition. “OTHERWORDSANDIMAGES,” Video Galleriet, Huset, Denmark and Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark, April 20 – May 13, 1990.
"Impakt: Festival voor Experimentele Kunst," Utrecht, Holland, May 23 – 26, 1991.
“Gary Hill: Selected Videotapes 1978 – 1990,” Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, June 7 – August 28, 1994.
“Gary Hill,” (travelling exhibition organized by Riksutställningar, Stockholm, Sweden) Moderna Museet, Spårvagnshallarna, Stockholm, Sweden, February 4 – April 17, 1995; Museet for samtidskunst, Oslo, Norway, April 26 - May 21, 1995; Helsingin Taidehalli, Helsinki, Finland, June 29 - July 30, 1995; Bildmuseet, Umeå, Sweden, September 3 - October 15, 1995, Jönköpings läns museum, Jönköping, Sweden, October 22 - November 15, 1995; Göteborgs Konstmuseum, Göteborg, Sweden, November 15, 1995 - January 14, 1996.
“Gary Hill: O lugar do outro/where the other takes place,” Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 1 – 6, 1997 (not the full run of the exhibition); Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil, October 3 – November 2, 1997.
Solo exhibition. Center for Contemporary Images, Saint-Gervais Genève, Geneva, Switzerland, September 9, 10, 1998.
“Gary Hill: Video Works,” NTT InterCommunication Center, Tokyo, Japan, February 16 – March 31, 1999.
Solo exhibition. Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires, Argentina, May 17 – June 4, 2000 (May 24, 2000 screening).
Solo exhibition. Museo Caraffa, Córdoba, Argentina, July 7 – 30, 2000 (July 8, 2000 screening).
“Hill(scape),” Extra Microwave Media Art Festival (organized by Videotage), Hong Kong Space Museum Lecture Hall, Hong Kong, January 14 – 31, 2001 (January 21 screening).
“l’écriture vidéophage – les bandes vidéo de Gary Hill,” La Compagnie, Marseille, France, May 1 – 31, 2001 (May 1 and 3 screenings).
“Gary Hill: Selected Works,” Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, Germany, November 10, 2001 – March 10, 2002. Travelled to: Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbon, Portugal, October 10, 2002 – January 12, 2003.
“Tune (In))) Santa Fe,” Santa Fe Art Institute, Santa Fe, New Mexico, July 17, 2004.
“L’oeil-moteur: Art optique et art cinétique, 1950 – 1975,” Musée d’art Moderne et contemporain de Strasbourg, France, May 13 – September 25, 2005.
“Videographies – The Early Decades,” EMST (The National Museum of Contemporary Art), Athens, Greece, July 13 – December 31, 2005.
“The Expanded Eye,” Kunsthaus Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, June 16 – September 3, 2006.
“Sensory Overload: Light, Motion, Sound and Optical Art since 1945,” Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, August 1 – November 9, 2008.
"Gary Hill: Momentombs," Suwon Art Museum, Suwon, Korea, November 26, 2019 — March 6, 2020.
"Sums & Differences | Gary Hill, Steina and Woody Vasulka," LÁ Art Museum, Hveragerði, Iceland, September 17 – December 18, 2022.
"Sums & Differences | Gary Hill, Steina and Woody Vasulka," House of the Arts, Brno, Czech Republic, December 13, 2023 — March 3, 2024.
"Gary Hil: A Question of Perception," Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, November 30, 2024 - March 16, 2025.
New York State Projects: Video XXVIII. Program notes. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1979, unpaginated.
“CAPS Video Festival: 1978 – 79.” Media Study/Buffalo (June-August 1979), p. 4.
Williams, Janis Croft. “CAPS Video: Wegman, Hill, Kolpan, Lucier.” Afterimage 7, 4 (November 1979), p. 4.
Oeuvres vidéo de Gary Hill en sa présence. Center for Media Art. Program notes. Paris: American Center, 1983, unpaginated.
Furlong, Lucinda. "A Manner of Speaking: An Interview with Gary Hill." Afterimage 10, 8 (March 1983), pp. 10, 11.
Hanhardt, John G. and Gary Hill. Gary Hill. The New American Filmmakers Series 30. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1986, unpaginated.
2e Semaine Internationale de Vidéo. Geneva: Saint-Gervais Genève, 1987, p. 125.
Vidéoformes '89: Festival de la Création Vidéo. Clermont-Ferrand, France: Festival de la Création Vidéo, 1989, p. 12.
IMPAKT: festival voor experimentele kunst. Program notes. Utrecht: Cultuurcentrum Ekko, 1991, p. 15.
Sarrazin, Stephen. Chimaera Monographe No. 10 (Gary Hill). Montbéliard, France: Centre International de Création Vidéo Montbéliard, Belfort, 1992, pp. 22, 24, 48.
Thériault, Michèle. Gary Hill. Selected videotapes 1978 – 1990. Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario, 1994, unpaginated.
Gary Hill: Tall Ships, Clover. Stockholm: Riksutställningar, 1995, pp. 48, 57.
Klangskulpturen – Augenmusik: Grenzgange zwischen Musik und Plastik im 20. Jahrhundert. Koblenz: Städtische Museen Koblenz, Ludwigmuseum im Deutschherrenhaus, 1995, p. 88.
Dantas, Marcello. Gary Hill: O lugar do outro/where the other takes place. Rio de Janeiro: Magnetoscópio, 1997, pp. 69.
Gary Hill: Video Works. Tokyo: NTT InterCommunication Center, 1999, pp. 17, 18.
Morgan, Robert C., ed. Gary Hill. Baltimore: PAJ Books / The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000, pp. 66, 188 – 189.
Gary Hill en Argentina: textos, ensayos, dialogos. Buenos Aires: Centro Cultural Recoleta, 2000, p. 8.
Gary Hill: Instalaciones. Córdoba: Ediciones Museo Caraffa, 2000, p. 72.
Hill (scape): Gary Hill’s video screening, performance and installation exhibition. Program notes. Hong Kong: Videotage, 2001, p. 8.
Lageira, Jacinto. Des premiers mots aux derniers silences in Gary Hill: Around & About: A Performative View. Paris: Éditions du Regard, 2001, pp. 11, 32 – 33.
Gary Hill: Selected Works and catalogue raisonné. Wolfsburg: Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, 2002, pp. 40, 65, 69, 76.
Gary Hill: Resounding Arches / Archi Risonanti. (Catalogue and DVD.) Rome: Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali Soprintendenza archeologica di Roma, and Milan: Mondadori Electa S.p.A., 2005, pp. 23.
Quasha, George and Charles Stein. An Art of Limina: Gary Hill’s Works and Writings. Barcelona: Ediciones Polígrafa, 2009, pp. 24, 114, 115, 293.
Ramos, María Elena. Gary Hill. Caracas: Centro Cultural Chacao, 2009 (in Spanish), pp. 6.