CTL ELECTRONICS – Video Tools One, Summer ’72

CTL Electronics was started by Chi-Tien Lui on Murray Street in lower Manhattan in 1968. Lui, who came to the US from China as a 19 year old, was an electronics engineer, and his shop rapidly became the most important supplier of video equipment to the nascent New York video art scene. The first two issues of the catalog, from 1972 and 1973, have zine-like sections along the lines of Radical Software — like mini Whole Earth Catalogs for video freaks. Great photos and graphics — manifest video utopianism — and Portapak tips from some of the tech guys that made video art happen in the first place, including Shridhar Bapat and John Brumage, among others. http://www.ctlny.com/about/VideoTools1/VideoTools1.html