In his early years as a video artist, Alan Powell experiments with the techniques of video feedback processing. Holding a mirror diagonally across a video monitor, Powell turns and zooms the camera in accordance with music. The video signal is processed in negative to loop various gray tones, while the sound comes from a work ,"Metastaseis", by avant-garde composer and engineer, Iannis Xenakis, performed by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. The result of all the moving pieces--the revolutions of the camera, oozing visuals and whirring sound--is a psychedelic effect. Fluxus artists in the 1960s, including pioneer Nam June Paik, were among the first to show video feedback processing as a legitimate art technique as opposed to an error or undesirable noise. Video feedback artists Steina and Woody Vasulka would go on to form The Kitchen, the performance and experimental art institution where nineteen-year-old Powell had his first show.
