Comments on: Inspiration: John Whitney’s 1972 Matrix III, Elegant Early Visuals

By: Lauran Bunker

Lauran Bunker — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 01:36:22 +0000

Hey There. I discovered your blog utilizing msn. This is a very well written article. Iâ€™ll be sure to bookmark it and come back to read far more of your helpful info. Thanks for the post. I will certainly return.

By: Matrix III « NAIT5

Matrix III « NAIT5 — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 14:07:40 +0000

[...] Resource: http://createdigitalmotion.com/ [...]

By: Generic Propecia

Generic Propecia — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:05:30 +0000

By: VJ Air

VJ Air — Sun, 31 May 2009 12:17:57 +0000

lovely work and some great recomendations, always good to learn what has come before us to get a greater sense of where we are now.

By: blair

blair — Fri, 29 May 2009 19:21:47 +0000

I’m a big fan of norman mclaren’s stuff for 40′s 50′s 60′s synesthesia visualists..namely synchromy ..john whitney’s stuff was always sort of boring/eyecandy (not representative of the music) for me (he also sort of admits that his work fell short of his expectations in his writings), although interesting in terms of process

see norman mclaren here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiJR1ET715M

By: Bearmod

Bearmod — Fri, 29 May 2009 18:37:29 +0000

I Love John Whitney's works! I spent a bit of time researching him earlier this year, also in the hopes of finding a DVD or some other high quality versions of his videos only to come upon this page:

http://www.awn.com/mag/issue2.5/2.5pages/2.5whitn…

It would be really awesome if they could get some funding to restore the originals and produce a DVD!

Btw, has anybody seen a picture of his original motion graphics machine made from the military guidance computers? The descriptions I've read sound amazing!

By: David

David — Fri, 29 May 2009 10:31:31 +0000

I like John Whitney, but James Whitney's Lapis is more exciting to me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXJEDUainX4

By: chris_in_london

chris_in_london — Fri, 29 May 2009 09:04:02 +0000

Great post – more visualists need to learn their history, and do some ‘abstract cinema’ learning. The ‘old masters’ set the bar very high, and i’ve yet to see much modern visualism that gets close to this stuff.

As mentioned by other posters, work by John and James Whitney, Jordan Belson, Hy Hirsh, Len Lye, Stan Brakhage and Pat O’Reilly should all be sought out.

The Centre For Visual Music (http://www.centerforvisualmusic.org/) has some good DVDs of new and old visual music/abstract cinema. Seeing some of this work on film is a must another level though – such intense, pure colour – it takes it to another level.

By: zach

zach — Fri, 29 May 2009 00:53:42 +0000

Those in nyc should check out the New York Public Library's Donnell Media Center, which has just moved to Lincoln Center. They have a massive collection of 16mm film including a wide selection of the Whitneys, Jordan Belson, etc. A projectionist will screen them in a private room if you make an appointment.

By: cat

cat — Thu, 28 May 2009 23:30:32 +0000

I'll throw Len Lye into the mix as someone to check out too, making films from the 20's onwards, and fantastic kinetic sculptures after recieving no funding for his films as there wasn't a market for art films in the uk at the time.
@massta 7months is nothing compared to some of these guys movies, hand painting every frame…
Some early films took years…
I also love http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berthold_Bartosch
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotte_Reiniger
Brackhage is ace too, but I started out hand animating 16mm so I've a soft spot for experimental film makers!
TBH I love youtube for this kind of stuff, when I started (pre internet guys!) I read about films in books and saw stills, but didnt see some of them until they appeared in torrents and then the internet. They're in the library's of art colleges but I didnt do a degree so never got to see them…