As we often suspected, [Björk] is quite the technical mastermind. In the video above, she teaches you about the ins and outs of her television. We think she’s making a strong bid as the next person to join Prototype This! Her hacking philosophy is the same as ours: “You shouldn’t let poets lie to you.”
@jjj: yes, because this was in 1988, which is how old this video is. (sorry elliot, though it’s still funny)
“you shouldn’t let poets lie to you” that’s pretty profound man
not just you ;)
Oh so that’s how a TV works… simply amazing at how in depth this was. Two thumbs up.
It’s incredibly dangerous to mess around inside CRTs if you don’t know what you are doing. There are huge capacitors in there and they can hold a charge even if the TV has been off for a while. When I was in high school, I was taking one apart and melted a screwdriver in half when I accidentally discharged one of the caps. I just put the cover back on and decided there were healthier things to investigate.
So THAT’s what you get when you add musical genius, icelandic heritage, and complete insanity.
I’m old now too, so she’s still hot. I think the crazy adds a few to the 10 point scale.
Please, someone slap the guy with the mic! Ever here of a lav mic? Or a real boom mic?
This looked like a real tv video was about to unfold, touch a open crt tv like that can kill you.
hah that was beautiful.
and to think… she had a child with a guy who’s art is tv.
Uh, Like, wow…
No,jjj, it’s not you.. she is hot but I can’t really tell why. But yet indeed she is :)
Funny video, but I don’t suggest people to do it like she did… those ‘streets’ can be really dangerous as someone already pointed out.
What you really have to worry about is the 2nd anode, the connection under that little suction cup on the actual tube itself. It holds around 1k volts for each inch of the screen. Do the simple math and a 36 inch screen becomes a box of tingly death. (TV repair is fun, but PLEASE leave it to us professionals.)
I like to think that she didn’t have a really inconsiderate mic guy. Rather, I think that was just a midget in a theremin equipped helmet collecting a sample for his extensive collection of world accents.
my friend shocked himself when we were working on my crt projector, and a couple days later i shocked myself on my dlp projector. video projection units are not to be trifled with…. also… dont let poets lie to you
lol… she had me on the floor… “like a little city, and this is an elevator”..
Wow, what a cool video for a couple reasons: one, she’s so hot; two, she’s got a curious mind and that makes her even hotter for a techno humaniod like me; three, she’s so hot; four, she discovered how she was belief stricken by a poet’s nonsense explanation of the world (tv’s hypnotize and control you) and she seeks out a better reality based explanation of how tvs actually work which makes her even hotter and wise intellectually; five, I guess I mentioned that she’s hot but it needs stating again. Anyone who gives up their faith and beliefs for reality is a better person.
Even if she was completely off in describing the deflection coil, I found that both beautiful and strangely relaxing.
LOL @ These tags:
tags: bjork sugarcubes
Messing around with a CRT is dangerous, especially when on, but i think that a more modern CRT would have a bleed circuit made for curious people. I made a ghetto Jacobs ladder with an old 12 inch black and white TV. It wasn’t the best of ideas but it is fun to watch a couple of coat hangers melt and the whole deal go up in flames. But her hotness and her curiosity makes up for poking the parts.
Hey m@, the sugarcubes was the name of the first band she played in, so while maybe funny, it’s actually mostly factual.
it’s a shame she disappeared into the void…seriously, wtf ever happened to bjork, anyway?
i think i love her, actually, thinking doesn’t come into it, i have a desire for her that needs quenching.
if She’d gotten shocked I think I’d have peed my pants. And Yeah, Back in the day she was sort of hot. But not now, Not by a long shot.
All this time I’ve been avoiding cameras because I thought they would steal my soul…gotta stop listening to poets…
At least she didn’t say it was magic anymore… that is quite endearing… and cute to the max… sure could shoot electron beams at her…
I gather that she is already hitched up… sigh… screen fades to black…
*sigh* As someone who had a big cruch on her (it appears it hasn’t gone away), and an electronics geek, this is double win for me! :)
The Sugarcubes wasn’t the first band she was in, BTW.
She’s still releasing albums and touring.
*sigh* As someone who had a big cruch on her (it appears it hasn’t gone away), and an electronics geek, this is double win for me! :)
The Sugarcubes wasn’t the first band she was in, BTW.
She’s still releasing albums and touring (a friend of mine had tea with her when she played here in Manchester earlier this year).
I woulda’ paid good money to see her get zapped by that flyback.
though, given the hair… maybe there were rehearsals, which means THERE’S A BLOOPER REEL!
I love this girl :]
THIS video is going directly to my “man brain” if you get my drift. Unfortunately, there’s a kind of sick tug of war going on in there. The electrons make her look attractive, but her mouth makes her sound like a cult leader.
lol very tech speek!XD
I must agree with Kamikasee, you must understand the dangers of the capacitors in a CRT. My uncle is a electrician and during one of his excursions into a TV cross a series of capacitors. There was enough kinetic force from the shock to throw my 170 pound uncle halfway across the room like the kid in Jurassic Park.
Those things store a ridiculously large amount of energy. Take caution.
I should move to Iceland. If all the girls are this naive I could be king!!!!
I am a stagehand, and normally it is a shitty job. Some time ago, however, I got to work her tour when it came to the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago. As I sat on a road case in the wings offstage, alone, watching Ghostigital, who sits next to me crosslegged and impish but Her Loveliness Herself. So, speaking as someone who has seen her up close while not on stage, yes. She is every bit as hot and wonderful as you might believe.
Hey, I’m only 23 and I still think she’s cute. Plus, imo, her music is neat. I’ll pop on homogenic every once in a while.
All the more reason to think she’s cool. :)
dahhh! NEVER touch the inside of a TV with your left hand!
that was pretty poetic the way she explained it. maybe h-a-d should start a comedy section and put things like this in it?
She’s super hot… But they call it a ‘Fly-Back’ transformer for a reason …
Bjork’s still alive & kickin’ … she was on her myspace yesterday & apparently has a new single http://www.myspace.com/bjork...
Anyone remember that swan costume she wore to some awards show ?
Bjoner
Ah, yes. We call it the “Suction Cup of Doom.”
Bjork’s music sounds like cats being neutered while awake.
it’s not just you. Björk is hot.
I got nervous when she popped the thing open and started touching around in there. televisions have huge capacitors. those things can KILL you! no joke. opening up a television and touching the circuitry is very dangerous!
Her hair looks like she already accidentally discharged a ground by touching it. That doesn’t stop me from hoping she’ll do it again every time I see this video.
and if you don’t like the sound of cats being neutered while awake, there’s something seriously wrong with you. You probably should mess with the inside of a CRT.
She was in a feature article in Wired last summer:
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/6.06/bjork.html
this was in an alex bagg video from the moma a long while back
You know, her poet friend had it right. Movies display 24 full, complete frames per second. Your brain gets to see a complete image; unlike TV and computers where you actually only see one dot at a time. Yes, only one dot is active at any given instant, so you brain has to create the image.
With movies, you internalize an external image, with TV the image IS internal. It’s as though it’s your own thought. It doesn’t just pass your normal filters, it’s created on the inside.
TV is the ultimate mind hack. It’s a Trojan horse virus, it’s a world that had been pulled over his eyes.
We don’t watch TV at home. We video tape a few shows and fast-forward through the commercials. It’s amazing how much LESS stuff I want to purchase and it’s really SADF how much I want to order pizza if I stop the FF too soon and get a glimpse of a pizza commercial.
Poets might be misunderstood, but they don’t lie.
She is kinda hot… and completely out of her gourd….
I always thought the boards looked like little cities too.
I, for one, welcome our new hot Icelandic technical mastermind overlords.
CAN’T SEE YOU, THERE’S A JACKASS AUDIO MAN AND HIS EQUIPMENT IN MY WAY.
Mhh. I think its only Danish poets we need be afraid of.
Is it me, or does she sound very Welsh near the end?
um evan, she hasnt disappeared into the void! she has been fairly active. she will not allow herself to be exploited as someones POP product though.Shes out there just under the surface of mainstream. I just saw her in atlanta a few months back and it was an awesome concert, hadnt seen her since ‘debut’ in berlin germany. ALL geeks should know bjorks ‘hyperballad’ video. its geeky goodness!
Being just a bit more curious and touching the secondary coil could have saved us all from some horrible music.
Sigh. Wondering about the relative cluelessness of Bjork vs people who think TVs contain “huge capacitors” that stay charged after the TV s off and contain “enough energy to throw a man across a room.” :-(
(the only cap that is famous for retaining charge is the tube itself. And that’s got a nice zap to it, thanks to the hefty voltage, but is hardly “huge” as capacitors go. And it’s your muscles contracting in response to being shocked that throws you across the room. The actual energy is pretty small (or it would be throwing your dead and charred body across the room :-) The power supply caps are pretty dangerous too, but they don’t USUALLY retain much charge once things are off.)
at 6:59 pm on Oct 20th, 2008 by jjj
i think that too! :D
@bjork and hot…. I just dont see it? you guys are joking right?
Oh my god, I HAVE BJORKS TABLE.
And she knits too! Is there anything Bjork can’t do?
She is HOT because she is moderately thin.
So do those furry caterpillars move around or just stay there above her eys?
//just kidding, love the bjork (resistance is phutile).
I guess I’m the only one that doesn’t find her terribly hot. She’s pretty cute, but there’s something about her that makes her none-too-attractive to me.
Also, I was fully expecting a Bjork-B-Q by the end of the video from her playing around the magic suction cup. Disappointing that this only appears to have happened before they were recording (as evidenced by her hair).
no she’s kind of hot, strangely though.
That’s cute as hell.
I love Bjork!
Though I did keep cringing when she was poking her finger around in there. Watch out Bjork…ZAP!
I don’t care if that’s the “scientifical” explanation of how a TV works. She’s still hawt.
Very hawt.
x_X wat?
lmao. That was awesome.
I have an old monitor that weighs about 75 pounts for a 21-incher. I want the metal out of it. Is it true to properly ground a monitor, you have to short the positive and the ground together until …?
Bjork cares about electrons. Thank god we have wires to “take care” of the electrons.
As others have pointed out, if you don’t know what you’re doing DO NOT open a CRT television. The capacitors in the EHT section hold their charge for a lot of time after the TV has been turned off. This stuff can kill, so beware.
pov
KUKL was her band before the sugarcubes (actually was the sugarcubes before a name and style change.). Fun stuff.
I am an electronics design engineer by profession
and would be happy to explain as well as giving safety advice on any aspect of electrical or electronic matters to her in person.
I am not surprised that they have all those banking problems in Iceland if none technical people think & spread information in that way!
I was kinda expecting her to touch one of the HT leads or a powercap and then Bang! Shame, would have amused me.
You can tell this video is old, because she says that everyone in Iceland is happy right now. Last I checked, their banking system is having a pretty bad meltdown.
Ever since that Chris Cunningham video :D
Her interest in learning is attractive.
Interesting conceptual speech on her part.
I always enjoy her learning process and analytical process that she chooses to share; unique and intriguing.
@everyone sane:
Yes, she really was damn hot (and still is despite her age).
@everyone else:
Shut up, she IS hot.
@evan:
“disappeared into the void”? What exactly are you talking about? Her latest album is from 2007 (the ones before from 2000, 2001, 2004, 2005), the three lastest singles came out this year and she has many live-performances all the time. Strange way of “disappearing”… ;)
BEWARE of capacitors when pulling apart your old TV. There’s a capacitor (or more) in there that can throw you across the room if you touch anything it’s connected to. Here’s an example of a smaller capacitor found in a camera. When I was young, I was taking apart a camera with built-in flash. I grabbed it with my hand on the circuit board and my hand immediately clenched up, squeezing the camera until the capacitor completely discharged. I even shook my hand as an immediate reaction but the capacitor had my hand clinging so tight that it wouldn’t let go. I could feel the charge running through my body. It was a very painful and traumatizing experience. I don’t even want to know what would happen with a television capacitor. (I did actually take an old television apart when I was young – thank God I didn’t touch the circuitry)..
I love you Bjork. Marry me.
LOL, what a buncha wimps, the caps hold some charge, but not enough to kill. Do TV’s come with warnings of lethal voltage? No they warn of “risk of shock”! Don’t you think the back of the TV would be covered in yellow and black LETHAL VOLTAGE STAY OUT OR YOU WILL DIE messages if that was the case?
I’ve poked around in tons of tvs, even gotten tickled up the arm by an anode that was on, and lots of tingles from touching the 110 v AC line accidentally. Wouldn’t want to touch a 200V main filter cap though. Keep one hand behind your back or in a pocket, that way you won’t hurt when you do something stupid. Two hands in is might not be wise if you have a heart condition! Discharge the big caps by putting a 1000 ohm 1/2 watt resistor across them unless you like sparks in which case use a screwdriver.
If you don’t believe me, go ahead and try to find cases of electrocution by TV. I think you’ll be hard-pressed to find any cases. Go ahead, poke around in your TV and have fun but keep your eyes open.
If you really like sparks, my friend and I had a TV and two butter knives and hooked them up to an AC cord, one wire on each knife secured and wrapped with black electrical tape as insulation. Then we plugged the knives in, and did some “surgery” on the TV. The deflection coil sparked beautifully! The electricity bill came to $650 that month, time to move anyway.
What a fucking moron!!
I can shmell her breath from here.
Hah, she sounds like my mom when she describes it as a “little city”. Very funny.
Yes it is just you! she is so nasty! she looks like she is half inbreed half animal. and to top that off she is frickin stupid as a bag of rocks.
she is retarded
“i remember being very scared to it” lol
Was anyone else just waiting for her to brush up against the wrong capacitor and go flying across the room? I cringed when she started pointing at the caps…. “it’s just elike eh city, this could be an eleva…” *KRZZAP*
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is it me or she is kinda hot?