{"id":7839,"date":"2018-09-12T16:55:44","date_gmt":"2018-09-12T16:55:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.saic.edu\/cate\/?p=7839"},"modified":"2025-01-10T09:47:29","modified_gmt":"2025-01-10T15:47:29","slug":"on-stan-vanderbeek","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/2018\/09\/12\/on-stan-vanderbeek\/","title":{"rendered":"On Stan VanDerBeek"},"content":{"rendered":"

Conversations at the Edge opens its Fall 2018 season this week with a program surveying the career of pioneering American media artist Stan VanDerBeek. Focusing on VanDerBeek’s computer graphics films, this program also coincides with an exhibition of the artist\u2019s work at <\/span>DOCUMENT<\/span><\/a>. For this post, we welcome SAIC student Sophie Jenkins<\/strong> (Dual MA, 2020), who has worked on the exhibition, to reflect on the history behind VanDerBeek’s most well-known computer-generated films <\/span>Poemfields<\/span><\/i>. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
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Stan VanDerBeek, still from Poemfield No. 7, 1967-68. Image courtesy DOCUMENT\/The Estate of Stan VanDerBeek.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

the artist-filmmaker today
\n<\/span><\/i>is caught between the age of realism and surrealism
\n<\/span><\/i>and is off on the journey beyond reality<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

— Stan VanDerBeek, \u201cInterview: Chapter One,\u201d <\/span>Film Culture<\/span><\/i> 25 (Winter 1964-65): 21.<\/span><\/p>\n

A pioneer in experimental filmmaking and computer animation, Stan VanDerBeek began his artistic career as a painter. During his early days as a student at Black Mountain College in Asheville, NC, VanDerBeek was greatly influenced by the practices and writings of poet M.C. Richards and composer John Cage. Their multidisciplinary work especially contributed to VanDerBeek\u2019s development as a multimedia artist and his interest in developing what <\/span>Gloria Sutton<\/span><\/a> calls an \u201cimage-based poetry language.\u201d In the 1950s and early 60s, VanDerBeek moved on from painting to produce zany collage films using stop-motion animation with altered clippings from magazines and newspapers. <\/span>Astral Man <\/span><\/i>(1958) and <\/span>Science Friction <\/span><\/i>(1959), both included in the <\/span>program<\/span><\/a>, are examples of these early films that helped establish VanDerBeek as a significant filmmaker in new-avant-garde American cinema.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Stan VanDerBeek, still from Science Friction, 1959. Image courtesy of Film Makers’ Cooperative.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the mid-1960s, VanDerBeek\u2019s growing interest in what would be defined by Gene Youngblood as \u201c<\/span>Expanded Cinema<\/span><\/a>\u201d led him to build a \u201cMovie-Drome\u201d in Stony Point, New York, as a laboratory for audiovisual performances that unconventionally juxtaposed images and texts. He meant for this experimental theater to function as a model for a new visual communications system and envisioned the immersive experience as a locus for the exchange of art and ideas. VanDerBeek\u2019s research into developing visual languages as ways of communication also led him to seek out expertise from individuals pioneering in the fields of film technology, digital media, and computers. In 1964, VanDerBeek began collaborating with computer scientist Ken Knowlton at AT&T\u2019s <\/span>Bell Labs<\/span><\/a> in Murray Hill, New Jersey.\u00a0Their joint project was facilitated by the artist\/engineer collective <\/span>E.A.T.<\/span><\/a> (Experiments in Art and Technology), co-founded by artist Robert Rauschenberg and Bell Labs engineer Billy Kl\u00fcver in 1966. Trained as a physicist, Knowlton had worked in the Labs\u2019 Techniques Research Department since 1962 where he developed many innovative computer graphic programming languages, including BEFLIX (short for \u201cBell Labs Flicks\u201d). Knowlton conceived BEFLIX in 1963. From 1966-69, VanDerBeek and Knowlton used BEFLIX with an IBM 7094 computer and punch cards to to construct a series of eight computer-generated animated films titled <\/span>Poemfields<\/span><\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Still image from Stan VanDerBeek: The Computer Generation (1972), a TV short directed by John Musilli and Stan Vanderbeek.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Multilayered moving images of abstracted colors, visuals, texts, and sounds, VanDerBeek\u2019s <\/span>Poemfields<\/span><\/i> are empowered by the computer\u2019s ability to generate text on a screen. Introduced to him by Knowlton, this was a novel and enlightening technique for VanDerBeek and became critical to his cinematic output. Evidence of VanDerBeek\u2019s early interest in manipulating the visuals of language, each <\/span>Poemfields<\/span><\/i> film combines the artist\u2019s own poetry with a range of digital illustrations. VanDerBeek originally created the films in black-and-white, with color added later by filmmakers Robert Brown and Frank Olvey.\u00a0He worked with John Cage and musician Paul Motian to develop soundtracks. Four films from the series (<\/span>Poemfield N<\/span><\/i>os. <\/span><\/em>1, 2, 5<\/span><\/i>, and <\/span>7<\/span><\/i>) are part of the CATE program.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Stan VanDerBeek, still from Poemfield No. 7, 1967-68. Image courtesy DOCUMENT\/The Estate of Stan VanDerBeek.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rather than employing on a camera to traditionally capture images, VanDerBeek made use of the computer as \u201can abstract notation system for making movies\u201d and saw film as raw data for \u201cimage storage and retrieval systems.\u201d VanDerBeek\u2019s multisensory approach to art-making and movie-making aligned with those neo-avant-garde strategies that challenged the primacy of the canvas and the predetermined trajectory of an artistic medium. A survey of VanDerBeek\u2019s films highlights VanDerBeek\u2019s contribution to the plurality of artistic and cinematic practices that has come to define contemporary filmmaking.<\/span><\/p>\n

For additional perspectives on VanDerBeek\u2019s significance as an artist and filmmaker, visit <\/span>DOCUMENT<\/span><\/a> for the gallery\u2019s exhibition of VanDerBeek\u2019s multimedia work. The exhibition, <\/span>Poemfield<\/span><\/i>, will present a 16mm film installation of <\/span>Poemfield No. 7 <\/span><\/i>(1967-68), a digital projection of <\/span>Symmetricks <\/span><\/i>(1972), and a selection of framed works on paper (1973-83). The exhibition<\/span> will open on Friday, September 14.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Sophie Jenkins<\/strong> is in her second year of pursuing a Dual MA in Art History and Arts Administration and Policy at SAIC. During summer 2018 she worked as an intern at DOCUMENT and gathered research in preparation for the gallery\u2019s Stan VanDerBeek exhibition.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Conversations at the Edge opens its Fall 2018 season this week with a program surveying the career of pioneering American media artist Stan VanDerBeek. Focusing on VanDerBeek’s computer graphics films, this program also coincides with an exhibition of the artist\u2019s work at DOCUMENT. For this post, we welcome SAIC student Sophie Jenkins (Dual MA, 2020), […]<\/p>\n

Read More… from On Stan VanDerBeek<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":207,"featured_media":7849,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[137,175,872,561],"class_list":["post-7839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-23","tag-computer-graphics","tag-document-gallery","tag-essays","tag-stan-vanderbeek"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/207"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7839"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9769,"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7839\/revisions\/9769"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.saic.edu\/cate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}