The computer is no arcanum. Like its predecessors, it will not take any responsibility off Man's shoulders. But it is a challenge to the artist to ask of the computer what he asks of other media. Even the computer has its reality, and no simulation can obscure that.

The rise of every new medium seems to be distinguished by the fact that seemingly everybody is trying to imitate the forerunner(s). The reason for this phenomenon may be the intention to compare the possibilities of the new medium with these of the traditional ones and finally outdo the latter. Whenever in the Arts a new medium appeared, something characteristical happened: The "old" media freed themselves with the rise of the new (and mostly faster ones) of the burden of representing reality - or, as they say in computer language, simulation of reality - and found their own, immanent realities. The development of Computer Arts in this respect is not at all different from the development of, say, photography or film. Dazzled by the fascination of the new techniques/technologies, we again occupy ourselves with the creation of images, the demarche of which is only too well known, and that would be no issue at all if just painted on canvas. It seemed that the fast calculating machines would promise new worlds to us. The computer artists' statements mostly show a euphoric high spirit concerning their tool, that seems to be linked to the hope for a better world. This is why so many works come along with esoteric titles and deal in or with promising phantasy landscapes where everything weightlessly floats towards infinity. Walt Disney and buddhistic illumination in a plastic box. (E. Fontanilles)

Technical background:

In this work, audio signals (Beat) were transposed into video signals and manually re-worked. A Fairlight computer with built-in video instrument was used. The music is by the group “Touch el Arab” (all computermusic, excepting one electric guitar).

Enrique Fontanilles, Spaniard, born in Barcelona 1951, living and working in Basel. From 1968 to 1973 training at the Schule für Gestaltung (Design School) in Basel, where he is active as a teacher for drawing and sketching since 1975. Extensive teaching activities besides his artistic activities in drawing, film, video and computer animation. 1978 lecturer at University of Cincinnati/Ohio. 1985 co-founder of the post-graduate class for Audio-visual Design in Basel (trying to combine traditional art forms and new media), since 1985 Head of the Baerwart-Schoolhouse, SfG Basel. In 1986, Enrique Fontanilles' first works with the computer are produced, mostly in connection with film and video. Participation at numerous video festivals in Switzerland and abroad (Videofestival Beograd 1986, Videofestival Basel 1987).