[00:00 - 00:16]
Paul Petro presents as a white man. His white hair is gathered in a bun or ponytail behind his neck. He wears wire framed glasses and a navy blue t-shirt. The caption below him at the beginning of the video reads, “Artist, Gallerist & Toronto Community Videotex Co-Founder” .
Paul Petro: Paul Petro. I'm a, a curator and gallerist. I own Paul Petro Contemporary Art here in Toronto. And I guess for the purpose of this interview, I get to say that I'm an artist as well.
[00:17 - 00:45]
Image: Fine, irregularly spaced vertical indigo lines run across a black background. A rectangle of the same colour appears slightly right and up from centre. The words, “MY MEDIA MYSELF” repeat in configurations in 13 rows spread across the indigo lines.
Paul Petro: As we wind back the clock, my history of affiliations, and I'll use the word plural affiliations, with InterAccess began with being a founding director of the organization and then also the general manager. I can remember an early accounts receivable being written in pencil on a napkin. It might have been funky, but it wasn't junky,
[00:46 - 00:52]
Live action: A male presenting person navigates through a large circuit board. The capacitors are about half his height.
Paul Petro: which is I think a way of just describing the whole atmosphere at the time. I first got involved with Telidon following my graduation from Glendon College.
[00:53 - 01:22]
Image: A 2-dimensional graphic: a screen with a keypad panel beside it. There is a floppy disk drive on the right. They sit on a red and white checked surface. A coiled cord loads coil by coil. It runs from the side of the screen. A keyboard appears over the end of the coil.
Paul Petro: I was there from 77 through 81, and then moved down to Queen Street West directly thereafter, and found myself at the Art Culture Resource Centre and at Trinity Square Video. And it all followed from there. One word that I would use to describe Telidon, it was really, quite frankly, mind blowing.
[01:23 - 02:02]
Paul Petro: Telidon was a window onto another world, and I, and I can think specifically about the medium itself and its inherent interactivity and the, the dawning conversations around telebanking, teleshopping, and all of that sort of sexy kind of promotional language that was being used for a completely new, medium that had great expectations, within the Government of Canada and the field trials that they were doing in conjunction with Bell Vista and also with what was then known as the Department of Communications. And that also pulled in external affairs.
Image: Two people look at a television screen with a keyboard in front of it. The glow of the TV highlights their silhouettes. The screen is filled with illegible green text and a graphic of a white man in a blue suit is at the top right. A third person appears in silhouette.
Image: The red sun sinks below the horizon and casts light on a purple body of water. Palm trees are in the foreground.
Text: The Great Winter Getaway… SEAT SALE $549
Image: A graphic of a grey building with pillars in front of it. There is a “B” on the facing of the peaked roof. A coiled cord loads coil by coil. It runs from the side of the building towards us. A keyboard appears on top of it.
Text: HOME BANKING
Image: A red house with a two car garage. The house has a solar panel or a sky light, a chimney and shrubbery around the yard.
Text: The ‘Franklin' Our fabulous home can be yours to own with only an $8,000 down payment and $900 a month for 9 years or the rest of your life which ever comes first.
Image: Two stacked grey stereo receivers are labelled and priced.
Text: SHOP AT HOME A, $329.00 B, $460.00 Prices good until Saturday
Image: Three rows of four evenly spaced squares. Each square has an object in it. They are: a bell, a barking dog, a bomb with a lit fuse, an airplane. A teary eye, lightening, an explosion, a door handle with a keyhole, a ringing telephone, a horn, gun and TV.
Text: A visual substitute to sound.
Image: A labelled cross section of a heart.
Text: Basic Electrocardiography: Leads, Axes, Arrhythmias
Image: A labelled pelvic bone.
Text: Stress Fractures and Related Disorders of the pelvis. Apophysitis Osteitis Gluteus medius muscle Strain Osteitis pubis
Image: A grey haired man in a blue suit sits at a desk with a computer and keyboard on it.
Image: A close up of a red coiled wire.
Text: Overseas calls are getting less expensive. All the time. You can save half the cost of your call if you phone after ten o'clock on any night of the week.
Image: A film camera loads piece by piece
Text: QUALITY OPTICAL EQUIPMENT TO CAPTURE THE GREAT OUTDOORS
Image: A purple mushroom house sits in long blades of grass. Smoke wafts from the chimney.
Text: Once upon a time there was a small magical mushroom growing in the forest.
[02:03 - 02:23]
Paul Petro: And so all of a sudden I was thinking about all of those things and how they relate to each other, but at, at the most profound level, I was thinking about the computer itself, the holding power of the screen, and, the no turning back quality to it.
[02:24 - 02:33]
Paul Petro: When I think about it today, they all hold true. Well, we knew to some extent that it was a brave new world. This is new technology.
Text : Our coming of age is a constant state of being. The medium that you see here in front reflection of that state.
Image : A blue triangle points down and slightly to the right. Inside the triangle, on the right edge, is a darker blue texture. The triangle has a bright green border. A blue outline of a rectangle frames the image. The bright green turns blue. The darker blue texture resembles tall, densely packed buildings.
[02:34 - 02:44]
Paul Petro: I was very, focused on the social and psychological implications. And Canada, the Council grant helped furnish the time to think about those ideas.
[02:45 - 02:58]
Paul Petro: Specifically when I was approached to participate in the Telidon project, I have a kind of inclination towards being a custodian of history. And so I value gestures that help to keep that history alive for younger generations. InterAccess has been a really valuable organization for all of those years, and it’s a great reason to celebrate 40 years of an organization that you were so deeply involved in and very committed to.
Image: Fine, irregularly spaced vertical indigo lines run across a black background. A rectangle of the same colour appears slightly right and up from centre.
Text: I THOUGHT ABOUT WHAT I HAD DONE. THIRTY-FIVE PEOPLE MOMENTARILY INVOLVED IN MY ACTIONS.
Image: The words disappear. The fine lines in the rectangle disappear. An outline of the head and shoulders appear. The person has short blue hair. Their face and neck is drawn in red and their facial features are in yellow. They wear a green shirt.
Text: AND THEN I THOUGHT ABOUT MY GENERATION. AND HOW SPECIALIZED EVERYTHING HAS BECOME. AND MY MEDIA BECAME MYSELF.
Video description by Kat Germain.
