The "Main Video Wall Exhibit" was commissioned by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame & Museum (Cleveland, Ohio) and Colossal Pictures (San Francisco) in December 1994 and was completed and installed for the museum opening, Labor Day 1995. The Cleveland Plain Dealer wrote about this work: "Though much of the Rock Hall is about artifacts the museum's centerpiece exhibit is a work of art".
Seven years later it is still seen daily by all museum visitors.

A permanent public art work, the installation was designed to utilize the grid of mortice frames created by the wall’s stacked video monitors to compliment the I.M.Pei architecture. The overall effect of the presentation is that of a videographic stained glass window. The piece was conceived, designed, directed by Stuart Cudlitz as both an episodic and historical documentary and a mural, a monumental video installation depicting sixty years of music. Eight segments were composed to inspire the museum audience to feel something unexpected and to perceive the artists and their work as personal and uniquely personifying their time in history; demonstrating the convergence of distinct musical forms and cultures. Specific performances, archives and documents were selected to exemplify Rock and Roll musical history as a mixture of complimentary and dissonant voices presented as a sequence of unique evocative theatrical moments.

The presentation is installed as a diptych of two side by side displays, each made of forty-eight stacked 27-inch video monitors (forming two 12 by 12-foot walls and 96 monitors). The eight featured performance sequences are displayed across the top 72 monitors. The bottom rows (12 monitors in each wall) are used as a contextual border treatment simultaneously displaying three documentaries, providing cultural context and historical counterpoint.

Each segment runs 2:30 minutes and is separated by ten second graphic interstitial transitions, which are digitally collaged from historical photographs and elements from various exhibits photographed specifically for this piece. The completed presentation contains 32 digital films that are structured to serve as both a documentary experience and a video mural. The total running time is twenty-three minutes and is programmed to continuously loop from end to start. The exhibit is presented as a quadraphonic mix with an additional mono mix installed at the exhibit hall entrance to best utilize the proxemic aspects of the building.

THE ROCK AND ROLL HALL OF FAME AND MUSEUM
MAIN VIDEO WALL EXHIBIT PRODUCTION CREDITS

DESIGNED, COMPOSED & DIRECTED BY STUART CUDLITZ
EDITED BY LILI CUNNINGHAM
SOUND DESIGN: DOUGLAS MURRAY
QUADRAPHONIC AUDIO/MUSIC MIX: SAM LEHMER
INTERSTITIAL PHOTOGRAPHY/DESIGN: PETER WILLIAMS
HISTORICAL PHOTOGRAPHY: ETHAN A. RUSSELL
PYROTECHNIC ELEMENTS: T. HUNTER MCCANN
CO-PRODUCERS FOR (COLOSSAL)PICTURES: LILI CUNNINGHAM
AND MEDIACONCRETE: STUART CUDLITZ

FOR VARITEL VIDEO

SENIOR EFFECTS EDITOR: CLIVE JENKINS
HENRY EFFECTS EDITOR: MICHAEL LOGAN
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER: BLAKE PADILLA
TECHNICAL PRODUCER: MICHAEL HOGAN

FOR (COLOSSAL)PICTURES

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER /SF: ROY KISSIN
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER /SF: AMY CAPEN
VIDEO WALL TECHNICAL CONSULTANT /SF: RALPH MILLER
LINE PRODUCER /NYC/SF: SHAWN CUDDY
HEAD OF RESEARCH /NYC: JESSICA BOGDAN
LINE PRODUCER /NYC: AINSLIE BINDER
CHIEF LIBRARIAN /NYC: LIZ SCHEINES

PRODUCTION FACILITIES PROVIDED BY (COLOSSAL)PICTURES
VARITEL VIDEO SF
AVID OFFLINE FACILITY PROVIDED BY SEE SPOTS RUN
VIDEO WALL TEST FACILITY PROVIDED BY AVTS
SOUND PRODUCTION FACILITY PROVIDED BY ZAENTZ FILM CENTER
AUDIO/MUSIC MIX FACILITY PROVIDED BY FANTASY RECORDS