High Voltage is constructed from footage James Whitney contributed to Belson for use in one of his Vortex concerts.
Japan's first computer generated animation
A two-minute computer animation of a fantastical centipede having a spot of bother with a mischievous segment.
John H. Whitney Sr. explains the graphic art potential of the computer and the methods and philosophy involved in his computer filmmaking. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2012.
"A film version of a videotape. In it my drawings are animated and colorized by using computers. Walter Wright and Richard Froeman were on the computers. John Godfrey helped with the video editing. I did the sound score. The original tape was done on 2" high-band color videotape, two computers, a Paik-Abe video-synthesizer, with studio chroma-keying and multi-generation video editing." A version of Computer Graphics #1, one of Emshwiller's very first video works.
A colorful collage, with a subtle ecology theme, made largely from footage from trial runs of programs used for many of the other films.
A ballet of squares and octagons in many forms, exhibiting a variety of geometric and sometimes sensuous interactions.
“The changing dots, ectoplasmic shapes and electronic music of L. Schwartz’s ‘Mutations’ which has been shot with the aid of computers and lasers, makes for an eye-catching view of the potentials of the new techniques.” – A. H. Weiler, N. Y. Times
“Apotheosis, which is developed from images made in the radiation treatment of human cancer, is the most beautiful and the most subtly textured work in computer animation I have seen.” – Roger Greenspun, N. Y. Times Award Foothills-1973.
Extended editing techniques based on Land’s experiments affect the viewer’s sensory perceptions.
An abstract computer-generated film. The image is of squares revolving in space around and through each other. Colors and forms multiply and divide against a beautiful symphonic score by George Kleinsinger.
In one of the first films to use computer animation, director Peter Foldès depicts one man’s descent into greed and gluttony.
Slow disintegration and aging of artists head, revealing underlying bone structure. Created using old picture-phone technology. New music added in 2013.
Filmmaker Richard Baily was offered a position at Robert Abel & Associates based on his work in this award-winning early computer animation film, made while a student at CalArts.
Short experimental video art by Barbara Sykes.
Sixteen 'objects', each consisting of one hundred points of light, perform a series of precisely choreographed rhythmic transformations. Accompanied by the sound of a Shakuhachi (the Japanese bamboo flute), the film is an exercise in the visual perception of motion and mathematical structure.
Short experimental animation.
3D animation test of a blob turning into a humanoid figure, performing ballet, and back to a blob again before zooming off into the distance.
Digital TV Dinner is a video art clip from 1979 created using the Bally Astrocade console game to generate unusual patterns. The Bally Astrocade was unique among cartridge games in that it was designed to allow users to change game cartridges with power-on. When pressing the reset button, it was possible to remove the cartridge from the system and induce various memory dump pattern sequences. Digital TV Dinner is a collection of these curious states of silicon epilepsy set to music composed and generated upon this same platform.
Two Space systematically explores symmetries used by Islamic artists to create abstract temple decorations. The two dimensional patterns, like the tile patterns of Islamic temples, are generated by performing a set of symmetry operations (translations, rotations, and reflections) upon a basic figure or tile. Two Space consists of twelve such patterns produced using each of nine different animating figures (12 x 9 = 108 total). Rendered in stark black and white, the patterns produce optical illusions of figure-ground reversal and afterimages of color. Gamelan music from the classical tradition of Java adds to the mesmerizing effect.