Art & Technology | |
- Digital Art - John Whitney |
It was the 1970ies that truly defined successful digital synthesis of sounds
and visuals in John Whitney's work. He had long abandoned the analog machine
in favor of digital, and by 1975 would no longer be coloring his films in post
production with the optical printer. The final film to see the use of this process
is what is considered by many to be his best. Arabesque, completed in 1975,
was funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and IBM sponsorship
(1965 - 69) starting at the UCLA Health Sciences Computing Center. It was the
climax to a creative period where such films as the Matrix series were completed.
For some Arabesque is considered "the seminal computer film" Set to
the music of Manoochelher Sadeghi, the film ran 7 minutes. It is an example
of the artist using the computer to produce synaesthetic works. But even before
artists used computers, synaesthesia
was a big thing amongst artists and musicians. Particularily Russian avantgarde
artists found synaesthetic forms to be the ultimate form of art. Synaesthesia
seems to have had its greatest days at the turn at the century and during the
first two decades of the 20th century but it continued to fascinate artists
untill nowadays.
John Whitney: Arabesque. 1975 |
Fig.: John Whitney: Arabesque. 1975 |
Arabesque,
completed in 1975, was funded by a grant from the National Endowment for
the Arts, and IBM sponsorship (1965 - 69) starting at the UCLA Health
Sciences Computing Center. It was the climax to a creative period where
such films as the Matrix series were completed. For some Arabesque is
considered "the seminal computer film" Set to the music of Manoochelher
Sadeghi, the film ran 7 minutes. It is an example of the artist perfecting
his art. The whirling, exotic flow of the music is in perfect synthesis
with the quasi- psychedelic blooming of colored forms. John Whitney had
balanced science with aesthetics, and defined the computer as a legitimate
medium for art. Watch
the Quicktime Video with
an excerpt of "Arabesque".
(Filesize 5.6 MBytes, download may take a while.) |