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October 22, 2023

Interview: “Teletext Art is about more than nostalgia”, Creative Bloq

Following the success of a major fast food chain’s new teletext-inspired TV advertisement, I was asked to write a few words for art and design website Creative Bloq.

These interviews tend to represent the teletext-related stuff I’ve recently been throwing around in my mind. Since the Mega-Zine article is soon to go live at teletextart.co.uk, this one includes a bit about a zany icon in the top corner of the section, which is a memorable part of my teletext past.

June 1, 2023

Interview: Preserving Our Past, Pixel Addict Magazine

This month’s Pixel Addict Magazine includes a special feature on the preservation of computing and technology, including (amongst many other things) an interview with a certain tele(text) addict.

It’s been a while since my last one, so I’ve had the chance to remember cool “new” teletext-related stuff! For the very first time in print, I explain my (recently recovered) submissions to the Mega-Zine, and how I wasn’t even the first teletext artist in my family.

December 7, 2022

Teletext at Jaywick Martello Tower

Fellow pixel artist and podcaster Carl Attrill has been working with Jaywick Martello Tower to project teletext art onto the exterior of the venue.

I would describe the tower as TARDIS-like in that it’s much bigger on the inside than it seems from the outside. Hence, this probably requires more projection power than you think!

December 8, 2019

Binface’s teletext manifesto featured on ‘The Last Leg’

Count Binface’s teletext-ised election manifesto has been featured on the 6/12/19 edition of Channel 4’s late night talk show The Last Leg with Adam Hills.

I can’t claim credit for the policies, but I did convert them to teletext for Count B. You can read the whole thing on TEEFAX, or view the second video below for that full Pages From BINFAX experience.

December 1, 2019

Interview: Whatever Happened to Teletext? Daily Telegraph

Teletext is the subject of a new article by Tom Hoggins, writer of the Telegraph’s Retro Tech series.

Charting the fate of ‘the Internet of its time’, this excellent write-up features interviews with the legendary Mr Biffo and not-so-legendary Illarterate bloke. (You know, him off this website.)

November 18, 2019

Interview: Teletext’s Creative Legacy, WePresent

Craig Oldham at WePresent has written an article on the Internet’s role in the development of teletext art post-analogue switchoff.

Included is a gallery of artwork by myself and Steve Horsley, as well as some of my comments on how teletext art is a useful introduction to graphic design concepts. I suppose I just have to go and learn those concepts now, eh?

January 15, 2019

Illarterate’s ITAF 2013 artwork rebroadcast on YLE Text

YLE Text are currently rebroadcasting some of Illarterate’s artwork from the 2013 International Teletext Art Festival.

It is a little known fact, but the Finnish public service have been continuously hosting teletext art for a while now. The Museum of Teletext Art has been running since 2014, and to date has featured the work of dozens of teletext artists on page 805.

And over the last few weeks, Illarterate’s entries for the 2013 Teletext Art Festival have been on show once again, including includes Sweet Rockall, Good Times the ubiquitous Teletextart.

November 19, 2017

Illarterate @ Wigan Arts Festival 2017

A Wigan-themed ‘not Bamboozle’ quiz and exhibition of ‘The Lens’ teletext service for Wigan Arts Festival and ‘Bring Your Own Beamer Wigan’ at the Old Courts.

October 31, 2016

New article: Teletext Fest 2016 retrospective for Digitiser2000

Read it! Goujon John shall continue staring at you until you do so.

Can’t be swayed by his piercing gaze? Then perhaps you’ll be interested in this little run-down of events at the first Text Fest in Cambridge earlier this month. It’s more of an extended diary entry than a review, but that didn’t stop us all reading (watching?) Bridget Jones’ effort.

Disclaimer: the article linked below contains zero references to Bridget Jones. (Whoopee.)

May 31, 2016

New interview: ‘Not a silent titan’ for Mistigris

Ever wanted to know about those messages I send to my mistress via teletext? Or how on earth you can get away with printing lime green text on a magenta background? Or what the pixel artists of teletext’s heyday are doing now?

If you answered ‘no’ to all those questions, bear in mind I only typed that first paragraph for the purposes of shameless clickbait. I mean, hey – even the BBC are up to it now, so why shouldn’t I join in?

And anyway, weren’t all teletext headlines juicy, well-formatted clickbait of the 70s?

May 24, 2016

New article: Teletext at Republica Festival 2016

Whoever said teletext was a peculiarly British thing? Certainly not the enthusiastic fans I spoke to at Block Party Berlin earlier this month.

Alright, I’ll admit it was I that suggested the medium is only ‘understood’ by people here in the UK. But I was wrong, for Europe has an even greater appetite, were that even possible, for Videotext.

For proof, see my Block Party article at Transdiffusion. I promise it isn’t too long! And if you did indeed want a lengthier read… you can, er, go through it twice… I guess.

November 12, 2015

Teletext Dating @Small Cinema Liverpool

A selection of templates for a little Liverpool Small Cinema @TeletextDating project for BFI’s Love Film season.

A project harking back to teletext dating services popular in the UK during the 1980s and 1990s. European services still run phone dating services to this day – in fact in some cases they actually subsidise the whole teletext service.

July 24, 2015

Videotext Vixens – German chatline teletext art in 2015 (18+)

I wasn’t brave enough to add this to my portfolio, mostly because I created none of the pages…

June 1, 2015

Videotext Forever – 35 Years of ARD Text

Today, 1st June 2015, marks the 35th anniversary of German teletext service ARD Text. To celebrate its role…

May 8, 2008

Error Map of the UK

The most important parts of the United Kingdom mapped out in HTML. Best viewed via the images here,…

October 11, 2007

What are you staring at, chump?

Some early experiments with teletext art from late 2007 and early 2008, inspired by the VBI Microtel project.

Editing software is Cebra, which is what we all used for teletext art before the plethora of freely-available editors made available post-2014. It has a distinctive typeface (Courier?) that makes it easy to identify from screenshots alone.

I believe the raw teletext files are “lost media”, but these delightfully crunchy .gif images have survived the harshness of time. On the whole, they are edited image imports – Cebra is particularly good for this type of appropriation art.