[00:00 - 00:24]
Dr. Tenhaaf presents as a white woman. Her greying hair is in a bob cut, she wears glasses, and a blue tank top or tank dress. The caption below her at the beginning of the video reads, “Electronic Media Artist & York University Professor Emeritus”.
Nell Tenhaaf: My name is Nell Tenhaaf and I’m an artist. I first got involved in Telidon in 1982 in Montreal, being the only person in Montreal, the only artist that I knew who was, using Telidon. My sponsor at the ODC, Mr. Montour, he set me up in an office on St. Catherine Street.
[00:25 - 00:26]
Caption: DOC = The Department of Communications
[00:27 - 00:57]
Grainy footage of rows upon rows of uniform computer components in white casing housed by a dark brown case. Each case has the approximate “footprint” of a 4 seater couch, and about the height of a standard door.
Each has a section of three identical columns, with a fourth blank panel at one or the other end. At the bottom and middle of the columns are what appear to be two computer screens stacked vertically with the white casing framing them. Above that are panels with black facings and some knobs. The camera does not adequately show what is at the very top, but the shape resembles stout cylinders, two on each column.
Nell Tenhaaf: It must have been a federal building of some kind. So it was like, this empty office with the big Telidon setup - the desk sized Norpak, and I worked there all by myself. It was very strange. It was a really, really strange experience. So that's always stuck with me and I'm, you know, thankful that I had that opportunity, but it was certainly weird. One word for Telidon, I certainly thought about this, uh, is choice, because that was my Telidon topic.
[00:58 - 01:06]
A copyright at the top of the artwork reads Nell Tenhaaf © 1984
Progressive single lines in a lilac coloured rectangle eventually show the drawing of a male-presenting figure. He is bare chested and wears a loincloth. Above him is the title, “ATLANTIS 6050BC”. Four smaller lilac rectangles read: Leisure 1. Fun 2. Games 3. Atlantis menu
The screen clears. Mirror images of the same figure are drawn at centre, facing each other, and quite close. Their front bent arms disappear behind each other.
Nell Tenhaaf: The idea of a sort of illusion of choice or manipulated choice, and the branching structure of the Telidon databases.
Text: Games we played. Choose 1. More Games 2. Other Leisure
[01:12 - 01:24]
A copyright at the top of the artwork reads Nell Tenhaaf © 1984
Three digitally rendered cherries with a leaf are framed in a rectangle at centre. Black text on a red background flanks the cherries.
Text reads: The richest household on the commune last year earned an income of $8,500 a fortune by Chinese standards. The Iucky husband and wife team that earned that sum made it by transporting produce and goods into the capital. They bought a truck to do the hauling. Choose: 1. More incentive 2. Jackpot
The text clears, and two identical cherries with a leaf appear on either side of the first.
Text: Choose: 1. More Incentive 2. Other Stability
Nell Tenhaaf: I used, for that purpose, to sort of like wind up at dead ends in these long, long branches of information. THe best thing about Telidon for me was the idea of something parallel to the art system.
[01:25 - 01:43]
A live human hand points to and gestures near a tv screen with a Telidon graphic. The graphic resembles a newspaper. The legible words on the newspaper are: ELECTRONIC TIMES, PAGE ONE JULY 1 ELECTRONIC “NEWSPAPERS” MAY BE A REALITY IN THE NOT TOO-DISTANT FUTURE.
The bottom left of the screen reads”more” on the right it reads “page 516”. A translucent CBC logo is layered over the bottom right corner of the full image. The camera pulls back. The hand is Nell’s. She has brown curly hair. She speaks to an unseen person or people.
Nell Tenhaaf: Showing something that was in the, you know, quote unquote, real world and not in a gallery, I thought was really exciting. And in 1984, I became part of a kind of public terminal experiment where the terminals were at the library at Sir George Williams University, later Concordia. And, um, this database included healthcare info. and the library database itself. And then, my project on the Cold War.
[02:00 - 02:09]
A copyright at the top of the artwork reads Nell Tenhaaf (c) 1985
A caption at the top reads: A few days later, an item on the CBC morning news caught my attention: Claims by the U S. Defence Dept. of “Star Wars” development in the U.S.S.R.
Below is an irregularly shaped brown mass. It has a few cracks along the edge. It is on a blue background, therefore it may be a coast line. At the bottom of the blue background is a shape that resembles a fist of a hand and the cuff of a red sleeve.
The brown mass reloads. One of the cracks has opened up and more of the blue background - or ocean - is visible. A caption at the top briefly reads: "Mr. Weinberger expressed frustration that the Soviets can go ahead with…”
Nell Tenhaaf: I disliked the fact that it was, uh, kind of resource intensive.
[02:22 - 02:43]
A copyright at the top of the artwork reads Nell Tenhaaf. A blue-green background appears. Shape by shape, the image loads, eventually recognisable as one large and one small pyramid. The blue-green terrain is uneven in front of the structures. A few white clouds dot the sky.
Text: The Pyramid of Cheops Or Great Pyramid, Giza Plateau, Egypt Knowledge is power. Ignorance is bliss Next page > …the Pyramid was designed to incorporate not only the π proportion but another constant
proportion, known in the Renaissance as the Golde Section and designed in modern times By the Greek letter Φ (phi) or 1.618 >
Nell Tenhaaf: I had to arrange this equipment usually from the Department of Communications every time or in another city I'd have to figure out who that person was. Very challenging and very complicated. Um, it did make me see what being an electronic media artist was all about. So it was a kind of great intro to that. The summary of InterAccess for me is 40 years of everything.
[02:44 - 03:06]
Grainy footage. Nell Tenhaaf sits in front of two cube-like computer monitors. She Has brown hair, a white shirt and dark pants. She holds one hand in the other and has an elbow propped on a desk. She has her legs crossed. There is a spikey plant in the background. After speaking, she turns to one of the monitors and types on a keyboard. The second monitor shows her work.
A STUDY OF POLARIZATION IN THREE PARTS US or THEM PRESS 1. PUBLIC OPINION, poll shows optimism 2. SOVIET MILITARY POWER, U.S. Defence Dept. briefings 3. PORTRAIT OF THEM, [two-letter illegible word] peace champions.
Nell Tenhaaf: Toronto Community Videotex. It was certainly called that at the time that I first became involved. I think the first thing was a Telidon workshop run by Bill Perry and Nina Beveridge. When I was approached about being in this exhibition, I just felt delight. It’s a throwback to a very exploratory time.
[Video description by Shauna Jean Doherty.]