W02_John Whitney
(Artist research)
Biographic data
John Whitney, Sr. was an U.S.American animation film maker, composer and inventor, popularly recognized as one of the fathers of computer animation.
From his first work with 8 mm film of a solar eclipse recorded with a home-made telescope, to the early innovative experiments with computer graphic systems, John Whitney Sr. has developed and deployed technology for artistic usage.
He was assisted by his family members in many projects which linked musical composition with experimental film and computer imaging. Since his recognized works in the first International Experimental Film Competition in Belgium, 1949, to his masterpiece Arabesque in 1975, John Whitney remained a true pioneer until his death in 1996. (http://dada.compart-bremen.de/item/agent/403)
| 1937-38 | Spent a year in Paris, studying twelve-tone composition under Rene Leibowitz. |
|---|---|
| 1939 | Returned to America and began to collaborate with his brother James on a series of abstract films. |
| 1940-45 | Their work, ‘Five Film Exercises’ was awarded the first prize at the First International Experimental Film Competition in Belgium in 1949. |
| 1948 | Awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. |
| 1950’s | Used his mechanical animation techniques to create sequences for television programs and commercials. |
| 1952 | Directed engineering films on guided missile projects. |
| 1958 | Animated title sequence from Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 film Vertigo, produced in collaboration with graphic designer Saul Bass. |
| 1960 | Founded ‘Motion Graphics Incorporated’, where he used his invention ‘The Mechanical Analogue Computer’ to create motion-picture and television title sequences and commercials. |
| 1961 | Compiled the ’Catalogue’ a compilation of various visual effects developed from his invention. |
| 1966 | Awarded the first artist-in-residence position by IBM. |
| 1970’s | Started being involved in digital processes, favoring it’s speed as compared to the analogue computer. |
| 1975 | Composed ‘Arabesque’ with psychedelic, blooming colour-forms, a highlight of his digital films. |
| 1980’s onwards | Compositions benefited from faster contemporary processors and his invention of an audio-visual composition program called the Whitney-Reed RDTD (Radius-Differential Theta Differential). |
| 1989 – 1995 | Works from this period such as ‘Moondrum’ used self-composed music and explored mystical or Native-American themes. |
Harmonic Progression In each of John's next five films [Permutations (1968), Osaka 1-2-3 (1971), Matrix I (1971), Matrix II (1971), Matrix III (1972), Arabesque (1975)], *he demonstrated the principle of "harmonic progression." For example, in Arabesque (programmed by Larry Cuba), Whitney experimented with the eccentricities of Islamic architecture, which, though ultimately harmonic, contain many characteristic reverse curves in its embellishments. Whitney also made three documentary films on the subject of digital harmony. In 1979 he completed Experiments in Motion Graphics. His 1973 Hex Demo for a lecture at Cranbrook was included on a laserdisc of his works issued by Pioneer in 1984.He also completed in 1993 A Personal Search for the Complementarity of Music and Visual Art* which is available through Pyramid Film and Video.
Artworks
- Arabesque (video)
- Catalog (video)
- With his computerized motion-control set-up, Whitney could produce a variety of innovative designs and metamorphoses of text and still images, which proved very successful in advertising and titling of commercial projects. By 1960 Whitney prepared a sample reel of these and other effects he could produce, and solicited work for his Motion Graphics, Inc. company. This company kept him so busy he did not have time to make personal films using the computerized motion-control set-up. His sample reel was artfully edited and ended with a lovely final image of a lissajous curve multiplied dozens of times, to appear twisting in waves, suggesting the time-lapse of a blossoming flower. The reel was released as Catalog and became a popular classic of 1960's psychedelica. (Source)
- Five Film Exercises
- Harmonic Progression: In each of John's next five films [Permutations (1968), Osaka 1-2-3 (1971), Matrix I (1971), Matrix II (1971), Matrix III (1972), Arabesque (1975)], *he demonstrated the principle of "harmonic progression." For example, in Arabesque (programmed by Larry Cuba), Whitney experimented with the eccentricities of Islamic architecture, which, though ultimately harmonic, contain many characteristic reverse curves in its embellishments. Whitney also made three documentary films on the subject of digital harmony. In 1979 he completed Experiments in Motion Graphics. His 1973 Hex Demo for a lecture at Cranbrook was included on a laserdisc of his works issued by Pioneer in 1984.He also completed in 1993 A Personal Search for the Complementarity of Music and Visual Art* which is available through Pyramid Film and Video. (Source)
- Experiments In Motion Graphics
- Moon Drum: “…Whitney continued to compose new visual-music pieces until his death in 1995. The Moon Drum series in 12 sections based on Native American ceremonial art was most notable.” (Source)
In the early 1960’s he built an analog computer from anti-missile detectors designed during WWII. A visualization of the results obtained by this complex mechanism resembles somehow the workings of a spirograph. This is noticeable in the first collection of experiments made by Whitney and his machine, published in 1961 in the form of a promotional reel titled “catalog”.
https://research.janbot.nl/post/141262475234/john-whitney-created-one-of-the-first
http://dada.compart-bremen.de/item/agent/403
Books and published work What books inspired them? What books have they written?
https://archive.org/details/DigitalHarmony_201611
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdYxJ85RSds&
John Whitney - Permutations (1968). / https://youtu.be/kdYxJ85RSds
Exhibitions Documentation, links, critics, comments about exhibitions related to the artist.
SIGGRAPH 1986: A Retrospective
- Arabesque, John Whitney (https://digitalartarchive.siggraph.org/exhibition/6098/) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnlQa74H7is&&feature=emb_title
Articles Articles, magazines, documentaries about the artist https://www.dataisnature.com/?p=2274 John Whitney in the context of the history of motion graphics: http://www.triplet3d.com/the-history-of-motion-graphics
Interview with artist David Em
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cP5Mj6ZvZJc&
“People writing about music for at least a century have been referring to music as the ‘engulfed cathedral‘, a kind of architecture; unfrozen or fluid architecture. Likewise, that's the same architecture we're gonna see [with computer generated animation], it's just no doubt it's visible — it can be made visible.”
Videos
- An Afternoon With John Whitney
- John Whitney: A Personal Search For the Complementarity of Music and Visual Art (1992)
Related artist: Oskar Fischinger
https://www.instagram.com/gandyworks/
Joshua Davis https://www.instagram.com/praystation/
https://www.transphormetic.com/Lumophore-II https://www.transphormetic.com/Cyclotone