Video

Written by Scott Collins, VR graphics by Frank Coleman. Excerpt from The Dark Art of BENTMEN, featuring performances from our most recent appearances, along with rare and previously unreleased footage, is an all-new, career-spanning retrospective. Watch The Dark Art of BENTMEN here: https://youtu.be/EG4dsaZrP3A

For Further Updates, Request Security Clearance at http://SecretAgentBand.com (c)(p) 2020 Secret Agent / Mi5 Recordings (Universal) All Rights Reserved Worldwide SECRET AGENT Buenos Aires International Airport Recorded at an undisclosed location. Mastered at The Cutting Room, NYC Music and Video by Mr. Big Special Agent John Chmaj - Flute Special Agent Robert Holmes - Guitar Special thanks to Field Agents Tim Lucas and Patrick Ermlich.

SECRET AGENT - Portofino Special Agent Duncan Kilburn - Sax Special Agent Jo Quail - Electronic Cello Special Agent Robert Holmes - Guitar All other instruments and video by Bureau Chief Frank Coleman Recorded at an undisclosed location. Mastered by John Ashton at Highwoods Audio, Woodstock, NY All footage shot handheld by Frank Coleman inside a VR environment, created with Tilt Brush and Oculus Medium. Transcript: What do you want from me, Colonel? The girl.... and right away! In my life of nightmares, Portofino really seems like a dream. Isn't it possible they may be sharper than we are? Now it's obvious they must have an informer... One of the three of us! I've got a job for you right away. In my life of nightmares, Portofino really seems like a dream. A dead traitor can be useful. She might be smarter than we think. That's just the kind of film I like - short and significant. For further updates, request Level 1 Security Clearance at http://SecretAgentBand.com (c)(p) 2020 Secret Agent / Mi5 Recordings (Universal Music Group) All Rights Reserved Worldwide

Music and Graphics by Frank Coleman. I took the largest print I could find of Jackson Pollock's "Summertime 9a," broke it out by color spectrum in Photoshop, exported the pieces as separate PNGs with transparent backgrounds, imported those into a virtual reality environment (Tilt Brush), built a “room” out of the pieces in 360 space, then did a fly-thru, in one unbroken five minute take, using Tilt Brush's handheld virtual camera, which saves it out as standard 720p video. So it's "shot on location" inside VR. The music came from an undeveloped song idea I wrote for Satellite Paradiso a few years ago. Everything you hear is me, multi-tracked, all from one keyboard. For more, visit http://frank-coleman.com

John Ashton formerly of The Psychedelic Furs brings his new band to the Iridium. Check out our VLOG Episode 1 an interview with John Ashton before the show. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gH1vN8vFoI Video and Audio produced by Lance McVickar for Iridium Live

John Ashton formerly of The Psychedelic Furs brings his new band to the Iridium. Check out our VLOG Episode 1 an interview with John Ashton before the show. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gH1vN8vFoI Video and Audio produced by Lance McVickar for Iridium Live

SATELLITE PARADISO - ANGELIC From the critically acclaimed first album. Buy it now on iTunes: http://apple.co/28R8UcI or Amazon: http://amzn.to/28UoO8H Fred Schreck - Vocals John Ashton - Guitars Paul Garisto - Drums Sara Lee - Bass Mars Williams - Sax Amanda Kramer - Keys Written, Arranged, Engineered & Produced By John Ashton Lyrics By Fred Schreck Mixed By Anthony Molina & John Ashton Mastered By Anthony Molina Video by Frank Coleman (c) 2014 Original Sound Recording (p) 2014 Super Anti Hero All Rights Reserved For more, visit http://SatelliteParadiso.com

SATELLITE PARADISO - TOUCH THE SKY From the critically acclaimed first album. Buy it now on iTunes: http://apple.co/28R8UcI or Amazon: http://amzn.to/28UoO8H Fred Schreck - Vocals. John Ashton - Guitars, Samples, Loops. Frank Coleman - Drums, Tablas, Piano. Gail Ann Dorsey - Bass. Duncan Kilburn - Sax. Jo Quail - Cello. Roger Morris - Additional Guitar. Written, Arranged, Produced and Engineered by John Ashton. Lyrics by Fred Schreck. Video by Dave Furneaux. Through the windows of a foreign train Look around Look around Destinations with unfamiliar names At the speed of sound Nowhere bound In the distance I see lighted signs Advertising the life I want to leave behind Looking forward to the other side Where no one can sell you Night falling and I see Apollo rise Hand into heaven Turn away with a heavy sigh How can I Touch the sky? I lay back in my seat and dream No way of knowing Where this foreign train is taking me Taking me Taking me Touch the sky (c) 2014 Interstellar Sound. Original Sound Recording (p) 2014 Super Anti Hero. All Rights Reserved. Satellite Paradiso is the new all-star music project from John Ashton, formerly of The Psychedelic Furs. Featuring past and present members of David Bowie; Iggy Pop; Killing Joke; Gang Of Four; Mercury Rev; X-Ray Spex; Lou Reed; The Ancients; The Bentmen and of course, The Psychedelic Furs... For more info, visit http://satelliteparadiso.com

Plight of the Planemo is the first of three songs in the story that is "Project Serpo" the debut EP from Jacksonville, FL based Surf Rock band The Surfer Novas.

BENTMEN are legendary and notorious for their apocalyptic live shows, a sonic and visual assault on the senses. Since 1983, BENTMEN have been thrilling and bewildering audiences with their intense tribal drumming, pyrotechnic guitars and mind-bending immersive theatrics. This special presentation, featuring performances from our most recent appearances, along with rare and previously unreleased footage, is an all-new, career-spanning retrospective. Edited by Frank Coleman with Bill Desmond (c) 2020 Sound Museum Records For more, visit bentmen.com BENTMEN Des - Lead Vocals Katherine Desmond - Keyboards, Guitar Crazy Eddie Nowik - Guitar Scott Collins - Guitar George Hall - Guitar Andrew Padua - Bass Geoff Chase - Drums Frank Coleman - Drums, Multimedia Paul Robicheau - Drums Chris Burbul - Backing Vocals, Crowd Agitation Officer Ross Kennedy - Crowd Agitation Officer Tracey Stark - Crowd Agitation Officer Alumni and co-conspirators: Woody Trenholm Reeves Gabrels Adrian Belew Dark Mark White Jeff Friedman Dave Tronzo Greg McMullen Keith "Kato" Martinelli Ken Winokur Larry Dersch Larry Harvey Matthew Gruenberg Patty Barkas Scott Getchell Tom Hall Cynthia von Buhler Leesa Coyne and many more

A compendium of classic Bentmen footage, assembled for a 20th anniversary tribute at the Boston Music Awards. Music: "Stress for Success" (Live) Photography by Michelle Forrestall, Franchot Lubin, Dave Gutt, Ted V. Mikels, many others. Video Editing by Frank Coleman. Bentmen: Des - lead vocals, words, hammer dulcimer, keyboards, programming, found objects Katherine Desmond - keyboards, guitar, guitar/synth, vocals Crazy Eddie Nowik - lead guitar George Hall - lead guitar Andrew Padua - bass Geoff Chase - drums Frank Coleman - drums, samples, interactive video, vocals Ross Kennedy - human prop, crowd agitation officer Alumni and co-conspirators: Reeves Gabrels Adrian Belew Dark Mark White TXP (Neil E. Graham) Scott Collins Larry Dersch Matt Gruenberg Greg McMullen Keith Martinelli Paul Robicheau Patty Barkas Tracey Stark Leesa Coyne Peter Choyce Scott Getchell Ken Winokur Woody Trenholm Tim Halle Bill T. Miller John Breglia Tiny Tim Genre: Rock, Weirdass. Hometown: Boston, MA. Record Label: Sound Museum (Indie) More: http://www.bentmen.com Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bentmen/104344652141 Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=45138426993

"Rumors Abound" by BENTMEN, recorded live at The Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, Dec. 6th, 2002. Part of the original rock opera, ULCER GULCH. Broke and broken, John falls in with an unruly pack of vagrants, whose antics place him under suspicion by the local constable. John narrowly escapes incarceration when a brawl erupts between the bums and the law over artistic differences. BENTMEN: Des - Lead Vocals Katherine Desmond - Keyboards, Guitar/Synth, Vocals Crazy Eddie Nowik - Lead Guitar Dark Mark White - Bass, Vocals Geoff Chase - Drums Frank Coleman - Drums, Vocals, Interactive Video Ross Kennedy - Human Prop Special Guest appearance by Peter Choyce. Cameras: Dave Gutt, Annette Narciso, Luka & Miranda Video Editing: Frank Coleman Audio Mix & Mastering: Geoff Chase Lighting: Lexi Kahn, Hub Sinnock Live Sound: Jack Younger Set Design & Fabrication: James Edwards and a cast of thousands from Mass Art More: http://www.bentmen.com Facebook Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bentmen/104344652141 Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=45138426993

THE LITTLE DRUMMER BOY by BENTMEN Produced, arranged and performed by Bill Desmond and Jeff Friedman Larry Dersch, Percussion Casey Desmond, age 4, Opening Prayer Recorded at The White Room, Boston Eric Masunaga, Engineer From the album "Gross Santa's Yuletide Favorites" (c)(p) 1990 Sound Museum Records Video by Frank Coleman with Bill Desmond for 21st Century Art http://www.21ca.com (c) 2011 All Rights Reserved http://www.bentmen.com

Killing Joke - Snakedance (Youth 'Rattlesnake Dub' Remix) from the album "Pylon" Visuals by Frank Coleman Created in Virtual Reality with Microdose VR A spontaneous music video I created in virtual reality with Microdose VR, inspired by meeting Youth at last week's double-header Killing Joke shows in NYC. I'm painting in mid-air, and the graphics bounce to the music in real time. The software has been in development for three years and only released for initial testing in the last few weeks. Ultimately, they'll license it to VJs for public performance, so consider this my audition reel. 😉

Elizabeth McGovern - The Truth (excerpt). The title track from her new album on Mi5/Universal. Video editing by Frank Coleman. Academy Award Nominee, Emmy and Golden Globe Nominee film actress Elizabeth McGovern (Downton Abbey, Ragtime, Ordinary People) is also an accomplished musician, singer and song writer. Mi5 Recordings (Universal Music Group) have signed Ms. McGovern to a distribution deal and this is the release of her new album "The Truth", produced by Grammy Award winning Guitarist/songwriter Kipper Eldridge (Sting, Gary Numan) and Ted Mason (former Modern English member, guitarist, multi genre producer - Pharrell Williams, Ne-Yo, Common, Mary J Blige, Jeff Beck, Cheb Khaled). Very Special thanks to the guest musicians on the Album include: Samuel L Jackson (The Suburbs), James Walsh (Cold Old World), Jake Morrel (The Truth), Barry Walsh (Accordian) and Smokey Hormel. // 7:30PM, Sunday night. My phone rings. “Hey, we need a music video for Elizabeth by 9AM tomorrow morning. She’s going on TV to promote the new Downton Abbey movie. The only problem is we don’t have any footage.” “That’s not your only problem. It’s 7:30, the night before.” “We know. All we have is four other videos she did previously. The production values are great, but they’re four completely different songs, each with completely different lyrics and tempos than this one. Can you help us?” “Sure. I can give you ONE HOUR. Put everything in a bag and send it to me. I’ll figure it out.” [Two hours later] “Here’s your video.” Elizabeth: “It’s absolutely incredible. I’m amazed.” 🙂 . . . . #DowntonAbbey #ElizabethMcGovern #Mi5 #FinalCut #MusicVideo #TheTruth #NinjaLife #VideoEditing

Orphans of the Storm - Sacred Mushroom of the Shaman Written, Recorded and Produced by William Desmond and Taylor Barefoot Remix and Video by Frank Coleman Created in Virtual Reality with MicrodoseVR William Desmond • Acoustic and electric hammered dulcimer, bass dulcimer, psaltery, keyboards, percussion and chants. Taylor Barefoot • Acoustic and electric guitars, keyboards and treatments, electric sitar, bass and percussion. Frank Coleman • Additional drums, percussion, loops, keyboards and treatments. Special guest Tony Levin • Bass (c)(p) 2019 Sound Museum Records

The nice people at Dyckman Electronics have a new Tama kit in their window, and they let me come in and blow off some steam from time to time. Nothing beats real drums, but I love all the different flavors of electronica, and Drum n Bass beats are massive fun for the drummer. Big fan of Jojo Mayer. Bear in mind, the kit is set up backwards for me (I play left-handed).

Interactive art environment from 1993 using Macromedia Director and QuickTime. Unplayable for many years, resurrected as a video. From 21st Century Art (http://21ca.com). Additional technical information: QTVR was still a year away. This played pretty smoothly at the time. It was one big quicktime movie with a companion lookup table that preloaded the next set of frames (depending on where you were and which direction you were headed) and blitted them to the screen. I'd turn direct-to-stage on, so it would write directly to the video buffer, then off again and swapped out the QT movie for the requisite JPEG destination keyframe for the next scene. This was released on a CD-ROM so it ran on whatever the recommended spec of the time was. Probably 4MB RAM. Lingo is still the best scripting language I ever used, in my opinion. It's simplicity and readability by "normal people" is what gave it it's power. Some languages are so powerful that nobody can use them. 😉 - FBC, NYC 2017

Killing Joke - Money is Not Our God (Babylon Dub by Youth) from the album "In Dub" Visuals by Frank Coleman Created in Virtual Reality with Microdose VR

Frank Coleman explains Nim, the game played in the film, "Last Year at Marienbad" (1961). The film is famous for its enigmatic narrative structure, in which time and space are fluid, with no certainty over what is happening to the characters, what they are remembering, and what they are imagining. Its dreamlike nature has both fascinated and baffled viewers; many have hailed the work as a masterpiece, although others have found it incomprehensible. Much like the game itself. Clips provided for education purposes. Read more about this great film and order it for yourself here: http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDCompare11/last-year-at-marienbad.htm

A deep dive into an incredible time capsule, in which your host finds hidden gems in the back pages of The Daily News from over 50 years ago. It begins with the discovery of a long-lost interview with director Alain Resnais, and quickly gets much, much darker as we get closer to the front page. Having the object in your hand allows for accidental discoveries that no suggestion algorithm could match. #NotFakeNews . . . . #History #Newspaper #World #UnitedStates #Resnais #Interview #Headlines #BostonStrangler #JFK #Oswald #Broadway #JulieNewmar #NYDailyNews #NewYork #Boston #Archive #Newsprint #LettersToTheEditor #AntiCommunism #FreedomOfSpeech

Designer / Director / Drummer Frank Coleman presents THE BRAIN DUMP, a mindbending new web series, available exclusively on #Patreon. (http://patreon.com/braindump/). This is Episode 01. The title is Happiness. You can help us make more episodes of The Brain Dump for as little as $1 per month. Visit http://patreon.com/braindump/ for more details.

Designer / Director / Drummer Frank Coleman presents THE BRAIN DUMP, a mindbending new web series, available exclusively on #Patreon. (http://patreon.com/braindump/). This is Episode 02. The title is The Future. You can help us make more episodes of The Brain Dump for as little as $1 per month. Visit http://patreon.com/braindump/ for more details. Compiled, Transformed and Edited by Frank Coleman for 21st Century Art and IntraVenous TeleVision FEATURING (in order of appearance) Arthur C. Clarke Rev. Ivan Stang Killing Joke Tomorrow's World (BBC TV) Zontar Hawkwind Ronald Reagan Mrs. Mouth The Young Gods Patti Smith The Women's March (2017) Dreams That Money Can Buy (1947) Just Imagine (1930) Gene Autry and The Phantom Empire (1935) Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots Flight of the Conchords Kraftwerk March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (1963) Motherboard The Deep Future: Crash Course Big History #10 Gaia - The Future of Politics Unknown - Cassaleggio Assoc. Visions of the Future - Michio Kaku Rubber Johnny - Aphex Twin The Man With The Rubber Head - Georges Méliès (1901) Boston Dynamics Sex Kittens Go To College (1960) Robot Theatre - Royale With Cheese Humans Need Not Apply Robocop (1987) The Master Mystery (1920) Kawasaki Good Times World (2016) Festo BionicOpter Target Earth (1954) Emak Bakia (Man Ray, 1926) Madonna The Human Robot (VPRO Backlight) Jordan Wolfson Eve, A.D. 2000! (Pathetone Weekly) Travel Galaxy by Hubble Space Unwind With The Sweeties Captain Hook Fantasia, The Gift From The Stars The Lost Saucer The Ding-A-Lings Shaye St. John For more info, visit 21ca.com Support The Brain Dump on Patreon!

Time for another trip to THE BRAIN DUMP, the mindbending new web series hosted by Frank Coleman on #Patreon. This is Episode 03. The theme is Good Intentions. FEATURING (in order of appearance) Purely Coincidental Half Drummer Paloma Blanca Hi There Pah Pah Good News Wakeup Dragon Cheer Leader Mars Opera Corey Feldman Misty Guy McBoingBoing Today Richard Simmons on 11 Radio On Bump 'n' Grind Heino Blab Sabbath Music Triggers Bollywood Beat Elvis in Dreamland Pryor's Place Caped Guy Baby Noodles Better Touch Kung-Fu Guru Steve Ballmer Horsey Kirk Martian Kidshow More More Gong Show Baby Upchuck Chicken Lady Squirrel Melts Leg Lifts Compiled, Transformed and Edited by Frank Coleman for 21st Century Art and IntraVenous TeleVision Special thanks to our patrons, without whom it might be possible, but it would not be worthwhile. Sue Anello Sarah Fimm Rob Knebel Pat Ludwig Roger Morris Tom Nickel Lindsey Nicklas Harry Pawluk Tom Semioli Mr. Shemp Anna Svahn Steve Van Natta Support The Brain Dump on Patreon! You can help us make more episodes of The Brain Dump for as little as $1 per month. Join us at http://patreon.com/braindump

THE BRAIN DUMP - Episode 04: VR/Drugs - 360°. The mindbending web series hosted by Frank Coleman on #Patreon. For best results, view with a VR headset. To see this episode in standard HD, visit: https://youtu.be/R_YQePGCxqg FEATURING (in order of appearance) Forbidden Transmission The Cage Potted Psalm Torbovision The Frog Ballet Spin Bay City Rollers Audience Stuart Whitman Lookalike Contest Gumby Moon Monster The Twonky Blortasia George Zucco, Come On Down High Firemen The Frog Again Everything is Terrible say Hello Use the Tapes My Mom's Not Home Right Now It's Showtime Drum Solo Colby's Place White Sale Someone Else's Lies Pleasant Dreams, Little Friend Apt Pupil Headsplitting What's With the Big Box? Great Time on Drugs Now I'm Seeing Ducks Super Chicken Doggie Positions Rod Serling for Radio Shack In The 21st Century, Everyone will Have Guitar-Shaped Spaceships J'accuse!, starring Mr. Potato Head Inflatable Undateable What's The Matter With You? Crack is Awesome Raggedy Ann Takes a Trip Let Your Inner Voices Decide I Heard Voices in the Mirror, Too Unlucky Marshmallow Salesman I'm Hungry A Whole Bowl Full Cops Are Listening Abe Vigoda Magic My Dream Begins to Take Shape Three Headed Repairman Get Out of the Car Now We Have a Surprise for You Peter Ustinov for Alien Life Forms The Right Port We'll Use VR Minor Adjustments Goodbye Reality A Tour of the Fourth Dimension - 360 Winter - Wherever You Are - 360 Eden - Drugs - 360 Your Disk Operating System Telly Savalas for The Sex Pistols Elmo Death Threats Let Me Be Your Master Everyone Loves Ding-a-ling Secos & Molhados Al Jarreau Speaking in Tongues Laura Dern WTF Marie Osmond DADA Jive Talkin' and Tennille The Young Ones Editorial Comment Electronic Highway Will Not Wait Forry Ackerman in Excelsis There is Only Now At a Bar, Confused Today in LSD Gumby Drum Solo Balloons and Gas Inflatable Love Bomb Junk Head What it Means to Obey Talk About Anything Turn Those Cameras Off Shaye St. John presents Washroom 2 Compiled, Transformed and/or Edited by Frank Coleman for 21st Century Art (21ca.com) and IntraVenous Television (ivtv.com) Special thanks to our patrons, without whom it might be possible, but it would not be worthwhile. Sue Anello John Chmaj Sarah Fimm Wade Gradia Rob Knebel Pat Ludwig Roger Morris Tom Nickel Lindsey Nicklas Harry Pawluk Tom Semioli Mr. Shemp Anna Svahn Steve Van Natta Rich Ward Support The Brain Dump on Patreon! You can help us make more episodes of The Brain Dump for as little as $1 per month. For more info, visit http://patreon.com/braindump

Heather 7 - Guitar, vocals Becky 7 - Bass, vocals Frankie 7 - Drums, vocals From the "Feelin' Lucky" EP, (c) 2005

In early 2016, I prepared a lecture for the Music Department at Cooperstown (NY) Central High School, my alma mater, and present excerpts here in chapterized form. The theme of this one is "The Story of a Gig."

Drummer Frank Coleman gives an examination of how to think about playing odd meters in a musical, aesthetically pleasing way. Topics include Take 5 (Brubeck), America is Waiting (Byrne/Eno), Tomorrow's World (Killing Joke), Tattooed Love Boys (Pretenders), Scatterbrain (Jeff Beck), 13/8, 5/4, 7/8, 9/8, 31/8, and nested rhythms.

Brian O'Neill - Lead guitar John Chmaj - Keyboards Kevin Foley - Lap Steel, effects Mike Rivard - Bass Frank Coleman - Drums Assistance from Scott Matalon and Karlo Takki. Recorded live while the band watched the movie with the sound off and improvised a score. Most of the musicians had just met for the first time five minutes before we started recording. Later, we went back and cut the video to fit the music. Included as an extra on the definitive CasaNegra DVD of the film (out of print). For fans of King Crimson, Ozric Tentacles, Pink Floyd.

Here's an excerpt from a talk I wrote for the Music Department at Cooperstown (NY) High School. The theme of this one is "Innovation is Unrecognizable." Cited along the way: Doug Englebart, Alan Kay, Apple, Xerox PARC and David Bowie.

Here's an excerpt from a talk I wrote for the Music Department at Cooperstown (NY) High School. The theme of this one is "Game Theory in Music" and features a previously unreleased video from The Bentmen.

NEUROTYPICAL. A film by Frank Coleman / Music by Will Sergeant. Coming Soon. Facebook page: http://on.fb.me/NgHz3n

Demo reel for director / editor Frank Coleman, comprising a small sample of recent video projects and a wide variety of roles. Portfolio site: http://www.21ca.com

Host Frank Coleman demonstrates more kitchen alchemy with tiny green globes of awesomeness. A 21st Century Art Production Home base: http://www.21ca.com Filmed with an iPhone 4. Edited in Final Cut Pro X Credits Footage: KO IDE PO SELU DOBIJE PO CELU (2010) Tigrova Mast, Dir. Theme Music: "Sabre Dance" - Les Baxter & His Orchestra

A blast from the past - a guided tour through my Code Library that I built for myself using Inspiration (http://inspiration.com), a deceptively simple visual organization program that maps well to the way my mind works. The code is Lingo (Macromedia / Adobe Director), circa 1996, (!) but the real point here is the way in which it's organized.

Demo video showing the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative website overhaul, circa 2010.

Early 2014. Large scale LED video wall installation. Driven by four Spinetix HMP200s. My job: make it work.

From 2000: An ambitious web / television convergence project, based on the best-selling book of the same name. The first website nominated for an Emmy Award. Also won a BAFTA, an Apple Design Award and two Webby Awards.

A demonstration of "Never Mind the Broderbunds, Here's 21CA" by Frank Coleman of 21st Century Art (1993). The first independent CD-ROM. Members: Frank Coleman, John Chmaj, Karlo Takki, Tim Halle, Scott Matalon, Micro Vard, Kevin Foley, Jon Golden, Andrew Woolf.

21st Century Art set out to create a multi-authored multimedia art "world" in 1994. Each member would design a geographical area of their choosing, and we'd all pitch in to build it. It was a sprawling concept to try to explain, especially in those pre-Internet days, and it was meant to be in the same vein as The Residents' CD-ROMs put out by Voyager, that were the pinnacle of multimedia art at the time (and today, unplayable). We put together this tongue-in-cheek travelogue demo and presented it to venture capitalists in NYC, who were, I suppose predictably, baffled. Most of the 3D animation was by Karlo Takki.

21st Century Art set out to create a multi-authored multimedia art "world" in 1994. Each member would design a geographical area of their choosing, and we'd all pitch in to build it. It was a sprawling concept to try to explain, especially in those pre-Internet days, and it was meant to be in the same vein as The Residents' CD-ROMs put out by Voyager, that were the pinnacle of multimedia art at the time (and today, unplayable). We put together this tongue-in-cheek travelogue demo and presented it to venture capitalists in NYC, who were, I suppose predictably, baffled. Most of the 3D animation was by Karlo Takki.

In 1992, we wired up a Mac to run Ovaltune, which converted the mouse's x/y position to MIDI notes while painting trails onscreen from imported graphics. You could link the graphics with specific sound banks, here on a Korg M1. It was the most pure example of my E=MC2 of Multimedia: "Any element of any kind of media can be used to change any other element of any other kind of media." Starts off as you might expect - angular, then morphs into... something else. In retrospect, it was the first iteration of the "musical paintbrush" seen in later products such as Kid Pix. We used it in live performance the following year.

IMPLANTS FOR SUCCESS from the CD-ROM compilation "Never Mind the Broderbunds, Here's 21CA" by 21st Century Art circa 1993 Script by John Chmaj Narration and assembly by Frank Coleman Graphics from various clip art libraries of the time A relic from the dawn of the interactive age, salvaged from a deteriorating VHS tape. Business as usual in 2010.

DISCOUNT HOUSE OF WORSHIP from the CD-ROM compilation "Never Mind the Broderbunds, Here's 21CA" by 21st Century Art circa 1993 Script by John Chmaj, Frank Coleman, Kevin Foley & Tim Halle Narration and assembly by Frank Coleman Graphics from various clip art libraries of the time A relic from the dawn of the interactive age, salvaged from a deteriorating VHS tape. Will quite possibly still piss people off in 2010.

from the CD-ROM compilation "Never Mind the Broderbunds, Here's 21CA" by 21st Century Art. Music by Blood Blister. Animation by Frank Coleman. Concept and Direction by Kevin Foley. Circa 1992. Kevin and I worked side by side putting this together after hours at the Kodak Multimedia Lab where we both worked in Lowell, MA. We were feeling our way with the new tools and technologies - 3-D Sketch, Adobe Premiere, etc., but I think we came up with something pure. I'm sorry it's our only such collaboration. Kevin died a few years later, and I miss him terribly. I've held him close in my heart every step along my subsequent journey into interactive multimedia art, trying to live up to his inspiration and vision.

From "Never Mind the Broderbunds, Here's 21CA" by 21st Century Art (1993). The first independent CD-ROM. Script by John Chmaj, Frank Coleman, Kevin Foley, Karlo Takki & Tim Halle. Narration, sound and assembly by Frank Coleman. Graphics from various clip art libraries of the time. Prescience? What prescience?

from the CD-ROM compilation "Never Mind the Broderbunds, Here's 21CA" by 21st Century Art. Concept and Animation by Karlo Takki. Circa 1993. 1st Prize Winner for Comedy at the 1994 International QuickTime Film Festival in San Francisco.

RETINABURN (1992) A "silent music video" I released in 1992, also billed as "the first interactive video for nightclubs." The idea is the visuals take on the mood of whatever music you play with it. This exploits an involuntary cognitive trick that our minds play on us when presented with two unrelated pieces of simultaneous media, which is to seek to make connections. I was working at Kodak in 1990 and after-hours, no-strings experimentation in the lab was encouraged. We got first crack at things like video cards that could output to VHS, and the Panasonic AG-1980, which made precision editing on S-VHS possible. Suddenly, the barrier to entry for making your own videos dropped to indie level and I was off like a shot. I'd also become obsessed with a PC fractal graphics program called Fractint, which allowed you to make your own, but even more importantly, "color cycle" and change palettes on the fly via keystrokes. Actual zooming animation wasn't available then, so I set out to make the most expressive thing I could with what I had. As such, it's one of the first videos to be made using computer graphics, and very much a product of its time, but somebody had to plant the flag. It got written up in Option and Psychotronic, which I was especially pleased about. "Ray Vonne" was a colleague of mine in California, Dana Muscato (RIP), a former exec at Enigma Records who took a liking to me and got it played at raves and so forth, which was our goal. My favorite story about this was when Dana was playing it for some techno impressario and his crew. One of the flunkies said something disparaging, and the boss replied, "Oh yeah? How many have YOU made?" He also said he thought it had a sense of humor. I wish I knew who that was. He got it. #TBT #LegacyProject

Ryk McIntyre - Words and Voice. Frank Coleman - Roland Juno 60, brush on cymbal, hand drum. Circa 1984. Video from "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari."

An artifact from the vaults, circa mid-80s. Guitarist Robert Holmes describes the first time he met drummer Frank Coleman.