- State: published
Calculations: Pioneers of Computer Animation | August 13, 2009
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In an effort to enlighten both art and technology, artists worked with computers to create an aesthetic specific to the machine decades before Hollywood CGI spectaculars. At IBM, Bell, and in their own home-built labs, they generated visionary spectacles from mathematical precision--complex abstractions, stroboscopic patterns, kinetic rhythms, and volumetric illusions. Tonight’s program is an introduction to these early pioneers and a cross-section of some of their finest works. iota is working with local venue Echo Park Film Center, in conjunction with Chicago-based artist Jodie Mack and Amy Beste to bring you this program. This event has (unfortunately) occurred in the past. To see photos, scroll below to our Flickr slideshow! |
 Jade Leaf (1985) Joanna Priestley  Arabesque (1975) John Whitney  Hummingbird (1967) Charles Csuri  Calculated Movements (1985) Larry Cuba  Cubicomp Tests (ca. 1984) Jules Engel and Joanna Priestley |
Currently, the schedule includes: Hummingbird (1967) - Charles Csuri [In Hummingbird], Csuri expanded his notion of object transformation to include the morphing of human faces and animals ... Csuri’s early fragmentation animations foreshadowed morphing technology. However, the artist, more interested in modern art than photographic realism, used the time-honored artistic relationship between form and abstraction to accomplish the seamless morphing transition between the forms. -- OSU's College of the Arts, Charles A. Csuri Project Permutations (1968) - John Whitney In Permutations, each point moves at a different speed and moves in a direction independent according to natural laws' quite as valid as those of Pythagoras, while moving in their circular field. Their action produces a phenomenon more or less equivalent to the musical harmonies. When the points reach certain relationships (harmonic) numerical to other parameters of the equation, they form elementary figures."- John Whitney Binary Bit Patterns (1969) - Michael Whitney Utilises a 'game of life' program to create a symmetrical pattern of small dots and crosses, like a Persian carpet design. The centre orientation of this film echoes a preoccupation with the mandala image and the interest in Eastern meditative philosophy which is seen in the work of the whole family. -- Malcolm LeGrice, Computer Art as Film Art Pixillation (1970) - Lillian Schwartz "With computer-produced images and Moog-synthesized sound Pixillation is in a sense an introduction to the electronics lab. But its forms are always handsome, its colors bright and appealing, its rhythms complex and inventive." - Roger Greenspun, NY Times Matrix I (1971) - John Whitney [Whitney] finds in the computer an instrument through which he can relatively quickly compose more complicated imagery than he could easily execute by hand, and in his later films — Osaka, the Matrix series, and Arabesque — he has explored theoretical musical and mathematic issues like harmonics and the relationship between certain architectonic, ornamental motifs and the gestures or transformations implied by their variations. -- William Moritz, "Non-Objective Film: The Second Generation" Arabesque (1975) - John Whitney In Arabesque, Whitney used a combination of computer and oscillograph to create a series of transforming sine waves and parabolic curves that compliment Manoochelher Sadeghi’s exotic Persian Santur soundtrack. It’s notable the Whitney was influenced by patterns in Islamic architecture, their symmetry and modulation being analogous to temporal patterns in complex musical motifs. -- Paul Prudence, Data Is Nature Programming by Larry Cuba Sunstone (1979) - Ed Emshwiller A film version of computer animation done using a digital paint program at New York Institute of Technology. Originally released as a videotape. Cubicomp Tests (ca. 1984) - Jules Engel and Joanna Priestley Tests done at Cal Arts in the mid-1980’s, using the Cubicomp Polycad 10 IBM system, an early system that consisted of “Geometric modeling with flat shaded rendering on a PC ... a real nuts and bolts under-the-bonnet kind of system. The nature of the input, logical, procedural thinking and the mental frame of mind this demanded, was a million miles removed from the fresh, spirited, spontaneous kind of output one struggled to attain.” --- David Atkinson, 1998 Jade Leaf (1985) - Joanna Priestley Jade Leaf is an abstract computer painting that was inspired by botanical forms. It was the first computer animated film made at California Institute of the Arts. "Jade Leaf takes the concrete, natural image of a leaf and turns it into geometric abstraction. A traditional piano piece accompanies this block of images, as they turn and twist and eventually become a leaf again." -Maxine Beach, Webster University Journal “Priestley’s abstract painting has a wonderful graphic flow, not completely geometric, yet not completely organic.” -Phil Borsos, NW Film and Video Festival Juror. Calculated Movements (1985) - Larry Cuba Algorithmically-generated choreography of geometric form. What’s the relationship between mathematical structure, visual perception and music? "I thought I was watching a transmission from another galaxy." –– Jordan Belson Interior (1985) - Jules Engel An early computer-generated work in which Engel demonstrates a distinctively Cubist approach. In an abstracted architectural image, Engel returns to his common visual motif of the more static “frame” with shifting patterns inside, continuously evoking the confines of the filmic viewing space. Derived from Priestley and Engel’s Cubicomp tests. Incidents (1987) - John Adamczyk (J-Walt) Recurrents (1987) - John Adamczyk (J-Walt) Two early computer animation films from John Adamczyk, known as J-Walt, while a student at Cal Arts in the mid-80's. About Recurrents, J-Walt says "I started to explore fractals and the Mandelbrot set soon after I read about them in A.K. Dewdney's article in the August, 1985 issue of Scientific American. The concept of infinite recursion is still fascinating to me: The deeper you look, the more complicated the forms become. Philip Brazer approached me with music that he thought would work with my images. His music sets these fractals in a haunting, floating stasis that I never want to leave." When: Thursday, August 13, 2009, 8pm Where: Echo Park Film Center, 1200 N. Alvarado (at Sunset) in Los Angeles Map and Directions For more information, email info@iotacenter.org Click the Play button below to see photos of this event!
Click here to leave the site and see the full set in Flickr, with descriptions |
nice post
Posted by
Anonymous User
at
2010-08-06 13:55
This is very nice article and very informative
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Posted by
Anonymous User
at
2010-10-25 12:14
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