After graduation, DeFanti moved to the University of Illinois, Chicago Circle. There he joined up with Dan Sandin and together they formed the "Circle Graphics Habitat" (today known as the "Electronic Visualization Laboratory", or EVL). Sandin had joined the university in 1971 and built the Sandin Image Processor, or IP. The IP was an analog computer which took two video inputs, mixed them, colored the results, and then re-created TV output. He described it as the video version of a Moog synthesizer.