Via Wiley Wiggins’ blog, I’ve learned that Doc Baily passed away in April. Doc is perhaps best known for the breathtaking visuals he created to represent the sentient planet in Steven Soderbergh’s film Solaris, which were generated at extremely high resolution–for film, remember–in Spore, the software he wrote. I was very moved by Solaris and inspired by the cinematography and the visuals to push my own nascent work. Watch some video of Doc’s work, especially this clip from Xtacism by Doc Baily and John Buchanan, 2005, and many more. Here are some screenshots of Doc’s work I particularly like, which link on to the galleries on imagesavant.com. Read Doc’s words and those of his colleagues on friends on the Center for Visual Music’s memorial page.

For participatory art in a similar vein, I highly recommend Spot Draves’ Electric Sheep, which is (much more than) a beautiful, abstract screensaver.

I’m sad to report that composer and artist Nam June Paik died Sunday evening January 29 at his home in Miami. The funeral will be this Friday here in New York; information at the Nam June Paik Website. Contributions can be sent to Electronic Arts Intermix, the nonprofit arts organization devoted to digital art and interactive media. (via Tom and extremeNY

Paik was born in South Korea and went on to become a ground-breaking composer, electronic musician, video and media artist. Probably no 20th Century artist had as profound an impact on the medium of video, from magnetic experiments on TVs to constructing video sculptures and influential video synthesizers, all of us who work in video and motion graphics as an artist medium owe a debt to Mr. Paik.

Condolences to his family, friends, and all the artists in many media he’s touched over the years.