In the video, Electronic Linguistic, as a linguistic analogy that is emphasised in the title, Gary Hill presents the video medium in its elementary manifestations: light and sound phenomena and the energy they demonstrate.

The video image is represented by the animation of dots on the screen. The artist firstly emphasises the pixel, that is to say the smallest graphic unit, by the presentation of a single luminous dot against a black background. Then, from the smallest element to a full screen, alternating surges backward and forward, the image is presented as a propagation and outlines the electrical dimension of the signal acting upon the cathode ray tube. An oval shape with a dark centre enlarges the reference to light by evoking an electric light bulb. This activity of the pixels is accompanied by electronic music into which the strident sound of the start of video tapes penetrates, the 1000 Hertz, and the thunder linked to lightning, a natural electric phenomenon. The artist causes the viewer to enter into the heart of the substance with this visible illumination of bits, sound and reference to nature.

In Electronic Linguistic, Gary Hill does not define video language by recording or by a complex system of signs arranged by shots, framing, solarisation, superimposition, overlay, sound effects, editing, etc. but by the manipulation of electrical energy. The sequences and images in Sums and Differences (1978) are particularly representative of this conception. They are created by variation of the inflow of electricity regulated by a video raster analyser which determines the number of image cycles per second and the scanning of the screen and thus creates a language (horizontal bars, black zones, etc.). Gary Hill introduces a second relationship to linguistics, in the true sense of the term, by the creation of images determined by the formal properties of the signs of written language, in Picture Story in particular.

Thérèse Beyler