Thursday, May 4, 2006, 6pm
- Larry Cuba, Calculated Movements (1985).
Decades before Hollywood CGI spectaculars, artists worked with computers to create an aesthetic specific to the machine. At IBM, Bell, and in their own home-built labs, they generated visionary spectacles from mathematical precision– stroboscopic patterns, kinetic rhythms, and volumetric illusions. Tonight’s program is a cross-section of films by these early pioneers — from John Whitney’s stunning, analog-computer-generated Catalog (1961) and the pulsating geometry of Lillian Schwartz’s Enigma (1972) to the dense digital metaphysics of John Stehura’s Cybernetik 5.3 (1965-69) and the allegorical characters of Peter Foldes’ Hunger (1973). Also on the program: Hummingbird (1967, Charles Csuri); Sunstone (1979, Ed Emshwiller); Calculated Movements (1985, Larry Cuba); Poemfield No. 5: Free Fall (1966, Stan VanDerBeek); Permutations (1968, John Whitney). 1961-1985, various directors, Canada/USA, ca. 64 min, 16mm.
[FRAY]
Tonight’s show is an instance of [FRAY], a distributed series of screenings, discussions, student initiated projects and a conference. [FRAY] traces intersecting hyperthreads of time, screen and code-based experimental New Media art hosted by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Department of Film, Video, and New Media.