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Absolut Panushka, Jan-Apr 1997.
Digital Daddy
Access to computers frequently meant limited hours on corporate-owned equipment at the mercy of programmers. In addition, each particular combination of program parameter and display screen seemed to contain severe limitations in shapes, colors and movements. Stan Vanderbeek and Lillian Schwartz both prepared computer graphics at Bell Labs using engineer Kenneth Knowlton's program. The results look astonishingly alike (grid mosaic patterns) although the two artists had distinctive styles before working with computers. (Vanderbeek animated collages of found images, for example.) John Whitney, perhaps the most important pioneer of computer graphics, realized while working in the aircraft industry during World War II that a bomb site contained primitive computer elements which plotted the trajectory of missiles to make sure they landed on target. After the war he bought such a bomb site as "war surplus" and modified it to plot and draw abstract figures that incrementally changed to produce animation. Whitney would spend the fifty remaining years of his life working in computer graphics, moving to the latest available models of computers and the most complex electronic display screens. His sons, John Jr., Michael and Mark, also created adventurous abstract computer-graphics works, including John Jr.'s slit-scan Byjina Flores, Michael's Binary Bit Patterns, and a wonderful collaborative triple-projection film with three side-by-side images. Mark also made Leonardo's Deluge, using computer graphics to bring to life images that expressed Leonardo da Vinci's frustration with the plight of man. (John Jr. went on to a career in commerical computer-graphic special effects, including the "sexy robot" for a Mick Jagger rock video.) John Whitney Sr.'s pioneer work on different systems led him to serious philosophical speculation about the nature of "harmony" as it applied to visual imagery as well as auditory patterns. This bore fruit in his book Digital Harmony, which contains a detailed analysis of his 1975 film Arabesque (for which computer artist Larry Cuba had been the programmer). For his final works, represented by the Moondrum series, John Whitney composed sound on an electronic "midi" keyboard simultaneously with abstract visual imagery (which he had to spend hundreds of hours, pre-programing the general parameters for colors, configurations and choreographic movement possibilities). The pieces appeared on the computer monitor with saturated, opaque blacks and colors; but much to Whitney's chagrin, they defied a satisfactory transfer to film or videotape. Moritz, William. "History of Experimental Animation." Website. Absolut Panushka, curated by Christine Panushka. (Jan-Apr 1997). |
