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ac/dc (from the series Dog God)
ac/dc (from the series Dog God)
ac/dc (from the series Dog God)

ac/dc (from the series Dog God)

Artist (American, born Switzerland, born 1961)
Date1992 (printed 2013)
Mediumpigment print
DimensionsImage: 13 3/4 x 22 in. (34.9 x 55.9 cm)
Support: 16 x 23 15/16 in. (40.6 x 60.8 cm)
Mat: 24 × 30 in. (61 × 76.2 cm)
ClassificationsPhotograph
Credit LineGift of André Ruesch, 2013
Object number2013.28.1
DescriptionGrainy, black-and-white landscape and sky with large electrical tower and wires. The letters “ac” appear at the left of the tower and “dc” at the right of it, in lavender.
Text Entries
Originally made for the artist’s Master’s of Fine Arts exhibition at the University of New Mexico, this image shows his early use of video-captured images and computer drawing, which was then at a very rudimentary stage. The series, “Dog God,” also explores the flexibility and confusions of the English language.  
The image was originally made in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in preparation for the artist’s M.F.A. exhibition at the University of New Mexico. The work for this show is believed to be the first digitally printed photographs for a UNM exhibition. According to the artist, the images were captured with a full-size VHS-tape video camera and a NewTek Digi-View Gold frame  grabber, considered cutting-edge equipment at the time and able to digitize one frame from video footage. He then used Delux Paint III software on an Amiga computer.  The artist notes that at the time, single-lens reflex cameras were very expensive and Photoshop software was in its second iteration and very basic. The digital images with which he was working were so crude that he ended up manipulating each pixel individually. Because the artist is multi-lingual, he was especially attracted to the quirks of the English language and anagrams. He has some of the original prints from the M.F.A. show (these were printed at 14 x 18 ¾ in.) but the color has shifted. The artist and curator agreed that new prints would be the best way to represent this work and that a larger size than the originals would increase legibility and show the images to good effect.
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