Hallowennnnnn-media test

Drawing class this week was based around halloween seeing as it was the next day! So I had fun filming lots of spooky pumpkins, but what I really loved was the flicker of the candle and how it added movement through out the hole pumpkin. I wanted to exploit that movement so I basically turned the contrast to max and got rid of any colour so I created a weird black and white ghost that looked like he was moving and transforming when it was actually the light inside. I added a texture to the back of the video and I felt the video lacked any depth and this (cushion being moved) added a nice deep purple texture and extra movement going in the opposite direction of the candle. 

I sourced the sound from freesound.org

(I cant remember the audio clip, I will put up the source once I find the exact audio clip link)

Music video- Daniel and Lewis

As part of my pre-production I wanted to make a music video as I feel that a music video is just one of many ways that you can visual music. Music videos are more representational of the works and artist but the visuals have to reflect the mood, tone, tempo and composition of the song. Two local artists Daniel and Lewis are keen to have a music video make for their new song "Im done" which is about breaking up with someone. I have been in talks with them for quite a while but getting a date that was suitable for all of us posed a problem. Hopefully a date will be set soon but for now, I am just running wild with ideas and storyboards. I will upload my sketches at some point but here a few videos that I have and want to take inspiration from

What I liked about this video was the simple black screen (done in green screen) even though it was simple, I found it gave a very isolated and lonely feeling which is the vibe that I would like to convey in my music video. I also really like the speed and lights that are projected on the walls of the bedroom. I will probably go out and film some footage at night for some media tests to try out some different ideas.

When I heard about that song and the meanings behind it my mind went straight to the old abandoned hospital outside Dundee. I have never been there myself but I have seen a lot of people go and take pictures there and I believe it would be quite symbolic of the feeling of torn apart and the heartbroken feeling would be represented in the derelict building.

William Moritz

I've been reading up a lot about William Moritz recently. The film historian whom specialized in visual music sadly passed away in 2004.  I was reading up about similarities in the way moving visuals and music are composed. I found an interesting quote from one of his articles:

"Just as many different techniques create moving images, so do many different instruments create musical sounds. Images (ie colors, form, materials, juxtapositions and contrasts etc.) and sounds (ie. tones, melodies, rhythms, orchestral colors, harmonies and counterpoints) function the same in different media"

(This also backs up what I was talking about a few days ago when I was talking about the beardyman video)

He also developed his theories on visual music in the 70's which encased "the desire to create a moving abstract image as fluid and harmonic as auditory music". His theories is what I believe captures the entire essence of visual music.

He wrote over 100 articles as well as chapters and program notes. I have found many of his articles very useful. Here are just a few that I have read and have helped me to learn more about visual music and to source more information and artists in this area.

http://www.awn.com/articles/profiles/lifetime-animation-glamorous-dr-william-moritz

http://www.awn.com/mag/issue2.1/articles/moritz2.1.html

http://www.awn.com/mag/issue1.2/articles1.2/moritz1.2.html

http://www.awn.com/mag/issue2.5/2.5pages/2.5moritzwhitney.html

http://www.awn.com/mag/issue3.6/3.6pages/3.6moritzfilms.html

http://www.awn.com/mag/issue1.7/articles/moritz1.7.html

Just before Mortiz died, he donated all of his work to the center of visual music, which is based in Los Angeles and if I had enough money, I would be right over there. The website http://www.centerforvisualmusic.org/ has been another great site to go on, find articles for my research proposal which is due in the middle of December. It is a great website to find information to then go away and research things further.

Netia Jones

After my experience with Netia Jones at Les Illuminations I wasn't too keen on looking into her further as a video artist. But then I thought she is a current artist in my field and it would be silly not to find out everything about current artists so that I when I finish uni I have a better knowledge of my peers.


So I've talked quite in depth about her recent work but lets take a look back at what else she has done. The problem I had with finding things to reference was that her work was mostly live. Although on her website she has a list of her portfolio, it would of been really nice to have seen her work for myself.

From what I've taken from her portfolio is that she works a lot in installation and live work  but after looking through trying to find things to watch, all I can think of was my own experience as Les Illuminations.

This is her website for you to have a look at. http://netiajones.com/theatre.htm

I might add that she is also part of this company: http://lightmap.net/LIGHTMAP%20INTERACTIVE%20VIDEO.htm

Textured songs

Ive been listening to quite a lot of songs, varied in everything you can think of, from old jazz to songs like these:

I LOVE the introduction to this song, it is full of texture, layers, movement, tone, rhythm. The introduction has really inspired me to create something quite textural in the way of a video for the introduction. I've also been really inspired by how Beardyman's video "monkey jazz" has been created. During the song, as Beardyman builds up the song he uses visual cues like hats of sunglasses to distinguish between each layers of the song. He also uses colour in the background to distinguish the different layers as well as hand gestures, movement of the videos that copy the movement of the song. Even better when the sound is defused, the images too become fuzzed to further represent how the song is working. The graphical style that has been applied to the overall video ties everything in so well. I cant describe enough how much I really love this video due to the way the video has added so much to the music and it stimulates both the ear and the ear. You can appreciate so much more as to how a song like that has to be built up in layers and the technicality put into it.

Here it is in all its glory for you to make your own mind up!

Illuminations - My review

So I talked a little bit about Les Illuminations before I left to go see it, but I am back andddd to be in all honesty, I was quite disappointed, and that's putting it mildly.

Ok so I arrive early so I can go along to the artists talk. Which I thought would be really good to learn how its done, her inspirations etc. She ended up talking more about the composer than what she was doing. She said that it is all live and that she "starts with nothing to show and endings with nothing to show". Which obviously isnt true, she must have SOMETHING at the beginning like a collection of footage that she will piece together and all the text ready. She said that she was going to use text to literally translate what the opera singing was singing (it was sung in french). I was interested at how she was going to display the text without it being distracting and still being able to see/ use the visuals.

So after an hour of amazing playing by the Scottish ensemble which I thoroughly enjoyed, it was time for the grand finale. Now, I am trying to be critical and talk analytically of her work in this part..but it will be very very hard. What was presented in front of us was a shambles of huge block text on top of stock footage looking visuals. Let me break it down a bit more;

The text was THEE worst aspect of the whole show. Instead of just maybe incorporating a few key words to give the essence of what the opera singer was talking about, but it was laid out in block form covering the entire screen. The worst thing was, was that she had not even taken into consideration the fact that the audience sat 4ft below the stage to the half of the words were unreadable from the Scottish ensemble. What really annoyed me about the text was that it wasn't even essential. I found myself having to choose between whether I wanted to try and concentrate on reading the text or watching and engaging the the opera singers vivid, exciting and animation voice which I believe conveyed what he was singing about on its on.

What Netia created with the text was a DISTRACTION. She said herself that she wanted to "compliment" "enhance" all these good words but what she did was create a distractions which totally defeated the purpose of her being there.

NOW, on to the Visuals. I have no idea if she took the visuals herself. I would hope and presume so but even if she did, they lacked originality and creativity. It's everything I have learned to run away from as a student; the footsteps in the sand, awful transitional layers, trees in the wind etc. I just honestly don't understand how on earth she has been doing this for 10 years.

So could she have done a better job if this was put together with more thought before the performance? Im not sure, as they musicians are playing live then there is a chance of the timing being off and they would have to be constantly watching to stay on time.

The concept of live visuals to live music is a great idea but I think this particular show was a bit disappointing  I was expecting more, but maybe where I do go from here is turn my disappointment into opportunity. It shows that there is a gap in the market for something new and fresh, its just no one has found the right balance between live and prepared work.

I shall come back and have a look at more of Netia's work and see if maybe this is just a one off slump but not now, Ive had enough for now.

Illuminations!

Real excited for tonight, I am going to the Caird hall to watch "Illuminations", its right up my street in relations to my honours project. Its the scottish ensemble, sounds boring? kinda, BUT this is no normal show; video artist Netia Jones is creating a live video design to go along with the music! Here is a short video to explain more, I will blog later tonight/tomorrow morning to tell you my thoughts etc. Also there is a talk before the show with the artist which I will be attending so maybe I will get to talk to the video artists, that would be great!

Aim and Objectives

Aim

To explore the relationship between music and visuals and how the combination creates a greater aesthetic than the two separate and based on the research, create a suitable outcome, then experiment with the addition of video editing to enhance the final outcome to its maximum potential.

Objectives

Examine and evaluate how other artist have explored the combination of the two senses and the different medium techniques that are used to interpret/enhance music

Improve editing skills so that raw footage can be professionally arranged and displayed to its maximum potential of submersion.

Demonstrate understanding through practical based research into how the eye and ear can be stimulated at the same time thus more engaging.

Produce and evaluate a unique video inspired and underpinned by the research and development process.

channel 4 day

After a very early start on yesterday afternoon, the day started off with registration and a free goodie bag. Glynn and Carol are the head of 4talent but Glynn did the most of the talking. He went through what channel four is about, how they work etc. It was very good information to know. He then went on to talk about all the different jobs which you can do in channel 4. He told us about more of the "office based" jobs and how that was a good place to start to get into the industry and to work yourself up. 

  We then had a talk from Colin Macdonald who has got the first games related job for channel 4. He is the commissioning editor games. He is originally from Dundee and talked about how he got to where he is now. The best information that I took away from Colin was that while he was at university he spent all his free time travelling up and down the country for events, shows etc while all his friends played games and got drunk. It shows that you shouldnt just do the bare minimum but if you really want something you have to sacrifice a lot of your time not just 9-5

   After the talks we then went on to the first part of the workshop. I was very disappointed by this point. I was in the green screening workshop and the task was basically to do the very very very basic stage of green screen. So for the first half we went round getting footage and filming on the green screen. I felt a bit let down at this part, and all of the people that I spoke to felt the same. There is a million tutorials on how to green screen so if you really wanted to learn the basics its so easy to do so. The cameras that we used were so ridiculously old, they did that job yes but the library really needs some new cameras.

 So after the free lunch (best part of the whole day) we had the second half of the work shop. Seeing as there was only one guy to look after/ help 26 odd people and only an hour to finish the task it was basically impossible. Out of the whole class only 3 videos actually got completed as just about everyone else could even get the footage off the camera on to the computer and when they did they had no idea what to do with it. The only reason Catriona and I got the video finished was because we already knew exactly what to do and had to work really fast. They showed our work at the end to everyone and to be honest it was a bit embarrassing, yes its really good for an hours work but it doesn't really showcase us as artists very well.

   So the end of the day was Glynn talking more about how to focus on the industry. Then the last talk was from Paul Farley who is the CEO of Tag Games, It was very interesting hearing about how he got to where he is now.

To summarize:

The day was mostly a waste of time, I was really looking forward to getting to talk to people and learning new things and it wasnt as great as made out to be.What really annoys me is that because I study at abertay and the event was at abertay, the two guest speakers were about games!!! Wheres people to talk about advertisements, their branding, marketing, things that they also do?! Sadly there was none of that and the guy who took the green screen workshop doesnt actually work for channel four as I tried to ask him about his personal experience= didnt get very far. 

There was more film crew/presenters than actually people than people working in our fields at channel 4. We were herded around like sheep, lost both our breaks and our lunch was cut short because of people talking too long. We were constantly told to be quite so they could film, a camera was being flashed in your face all during the workshop so it was hard to concentrate. This day probably shouldnt have been a day but maybe 2 days so you could have had longer in the workshop. What would have been better in the workshop is that the person running it, showed his work, how he learned, how he got to where he is now, his style, etc and that would have been more worth while.

Here is a picture of one of the talk and the video that Catriona and myself created in the workshop

Standing doing the dishes one day...

So here I was doing the dishes and the washing machine was on, they way our kitchen is laid out, the washing machine is under the drying board for the sink so very close. Then it started going onto a high fast spin and the water in my basin starting to produce really cool, water waves and patterns and it was like a light bulb going off in my head! why not try and put things onto the washing machine to make movement! Right so I get to it and grab the first thing I think of... salt. So I pull my washing machine and cover the entire top with a layer of salt.

What happen, did not happen like this....no way near it, but it did kind of do the transitions a little bit...

So here I am making an awful job at trying to make the salt move, the only kind of cool thing is I drew squiggles in the salt and the movement of the washing machine evened it out. But over all the salt test was a little bit of a fail. I will have to come back to it and try the washing machine with different things, maybe go back and play with water and that seemed to work pretty well....

THENNNNN

I whipped out the hoover to get rid of the mess that I had created and what happened was just so amazing!

It just looked so so amazing, it was like little tiny sand dunes in the sahara desert and the hoover was creating these amazing "sand storms" and cool patterns.

John Cage

After having talked to my mentor David he mentioned John Cage and the prepared piano, to which I have came back and done some further research.

John cage was the person who coined the name "prepared piano" and was the person that made it famous. John would add objects into the piano to make alter the pianos sound.

What I find really interesting with this technique is that he is creating an art form of the piano by adding things into it. He has created a visual picture of how the music has been changed. I would love to have a try at this but first... I would need a piano...

Week 4 Pitch!

Well the first pitch is over and done with, I am quite pleased how it went and the feed back that I go but before I go into more detail, here is the link to my presentation for you to take a look:

http://prezi.com/pdlo2znmf9of/present/?auth_key=cpolopz&follow=8lhnjpqlcrgw#4

I wanted my presentation to be clear, precise but not boring to look at. I wanted to be clear on three key points, and I would expand on them in the presentation. The three key areas was "what" "why" and "how".

Firstly starting off with "What", in this area I talked about what I am wanting to do for my honours project, what inspired me and what I have been looking at for the past four weeks. I talked about my experimental video that was part of a module for third year. The video that I created last year was a visual representation of what you feel when you hear loud music. I then went on to explain that I want to expand on this idea and more specifically, visualising music. The key areas that I have been looking at currently were colour theory, the history of visual music and different types of techniques that current artists have been experimenting with. For example, animation, performance art, film, cymatics, electronic software, physics and music videos etc. The noticeable difference that I noticed in the different techniques was that they where split into two different categories, art that literally visualised music or art that  enhances and creativity expresses music.

 Then I went onto "Why" so why do I want to do this project. I explained that out of all three years is was the only module that I really really felt motivated, inspired and passionate about. I have so much more to experiment and explore within this domain. It will also give me a year to see if this is really where I want to take my life/career. I also explained that it will improve my editing skills as I have been working in only final cut pro so I need to learn and be confident in using after effects. This project will also help me build up my portfolio for jobs once I finish university.


Finally I went onto "How". This is where I went into talking about how I was going to go about doing my projects. As we are only 4 weeks in I have mostly been focusing on reading books, doing small experimental media tests and doing extensive research on my domain. I also am planning to start doing weekly video blogs, which sums up what I have learned/found out and my thoughts on my development so far. In these video blogs I plan to put into practise what I have learned during the week from after effects and incorporate this in my weekly blog. I also plan to do an extensive amount of media tests experimenting with different styles and techniques. I then showed some of the tests that I have already done.



The feedback I got was great. Belinda, David and Lyle. They all really liked my presentation and was very impressed with the way I presented my work. David seemed to ask most of the questions, he asked what area I was particularly interested in to which I explained that I was particularly interested in colour theory, the psychology behind colour and emotions and shooting in film as aposed to animation, performance art, VJing etc. But I will be doing some media test with each technique just so do some trials. He also asked me about my third year video and why I put the drum in a volcano. He also made it out that i had taken my film and twisted it into representing music and why did I do it. I explained that before the volcano I did many media tests with out the volcano and the film had no narrative, context and story. I said that I felt it really effected the final outcome of the video and by adding some context to the film it gave a narrative to the film and was easier to understand. I also explain that I did not twist my film the way he insinuated and that I simply edited it so that the visuals and sound were in sync so that the viewer was not confused. I think he was just trying to get me to justify why I did what I did but I answered all of his questions. Belinda was very interested in my domain as she was very impressed with my 3rd year video so has a lot of belief in my project. She said she was very excited to see what I was going to do with this project



In summary I am very pleased with how my presentation went and will keep on going with my project as no one seemed to give me any ideas as to what to do, I think they are quite happy to let me keep going in the direction that I am.

Pitch Presentation- 1st-3rd years

Well I took a little group of 1st-3rd years to talk over their modules with them. They still really need to get into the swing of things, but seem to be going in the right direction

Lewis Taylor:

Although he had been ill he had made a good start to his modules. He is particularly interested in mountain biking so hopefully because it is something he is passionate about he will be more motivated. He already had some interesting idea to do with his personal project module with is great seeing as his group hasn't even met up yet so I think he will have a good impute with his ideas that he has already been thinking about. Lewis has two modules that involve film, he is wanting use mountain biking as a theme for both but was not sure if this was allowed. I gave some ideas that maybe instead of the physical mountain biking itself maybe experiment with making a film that explore the emotions, feelings, environment that enhances the mountain biking experience.

Sophie McMorrin:

For her 3D illustration module, she was struggling to come up with a book for her project. Like her at in 2nd year I was not a keen reader so I suggested on trying to focus on the fact that she is going to have to read, I suggested that she could maybe think about books that she was made to read in high school. For typography, she was unsure about her interactive piece as coding is not her forte, I suggested that she just worked with buttons as they are effective, add the interactive element but does not demand code. All in all Sophie has made a good start, she has to have more confidence in her ideas and just run with them.

Wayne Allen:

For entertainment design, Wayne had some good ideas for his game but there was very little research to show where he got his ideas from, current games that has inspired him, art styles etc. For his 3D illustration, Wayne wants to do an alien scene, I think it should turn out well as long as he doesn't do a direct copy and put his artist impute it should be great.


Billie Thompson:

Billie had very little to say or show, I am not sure if this was because it was her first time pitching or that she hasn't done that much. Because she was still quite unsure I couldn't give much creative input to help her. She had about 3 pages of sketches for the whole 4 modules which isnt a very good start. She really needs to lock down her ideas and get a move on with it or she will struggle to get good outcomes as she will be rushed



All in all, they have made a good start to this year, the one thing I would say is the lack of research. It is so important to have researched what you want to do, look at things to inspire yourself and fill your sketchbooks. It looks good if you have a good researched idea with lots of concept development because if you have that to back you up and your final product doesn't turn out the way you want it, you at least have illustrations and ideas of how it could have looked.

Leopold Survage

I've been reading up about Leopold Survage and his "Colored Rhythm" work. Its really interesting  due to the era that Survage was in. Survage was a painter but he was restricted by the canvas in which he painted on. In music, there is no limit to space, it is free, no limits unlike the edge of a canvas, the painter has to stop.

I read this from this article by Samuel Putnam entitled " Leopld Survage and the spatial problem in painting ". (can be found from here : http://rhythmiclight.com/books/TheGlisteningBridge.pdf).

What I am finding out more and more is how similar music and moving visuals are. Through characteristics like colour, form, rhythm, movement, harmony, repetition, dynamics. The list goes on and on. What Survage did was he created a huge array of paintings that he intended to animate, these paintings played one after one  so that you could see a beautiful array of free flowing colours, as free as music, clashing, colliding and bursting of the page. Survage solved his problem of space but unfortunately he could never see the final outcome due to the war. Thanks to youtube, someone has put all of Survages paintings together and we can really understand what Survage wanted to express. 

When I watch the video I kind of feel like I'm watching a bird be freed for the very first time. You can see the freedom that Survage must have felt when he was finally no longer restricted to a canvas.

Textures in video- idea

Ive been looking quite a lot into textural videos, and one that particularly inspired/motivated me was this fine member-

 I absolutely love this video! I love how he uses visual cues like a hats, shoes, sunglasses and colours in the background so the viewer can easily distinguish between the different parts of the song. I love how for example when the sound is defused, the visuals go blurred to visualize that and the movement shows how the sound is moving. Take a look at it and be amazed, its brilliant!

I would really like to try something like this as a media test. My video from last year was in "imagination will take you everywhere" It was in an installation of  TV screens and that is the way it was presented, but with lots of different videos too. My idea was if I had all 7 and each screen visualized different parts of the music. For example, when a sound is quite, the visual cue for that sound would be on a small screen and when it gets louder it would slide on to a big screen. I want it to look like all 7 videos are connected, when really they are not.

Extension of drawing class week 2

Ok so a Little while ago I talked posted some pictures from a creative drawing class of scarfs/materials/textures. I just want to expand on that as I was thinking about some kind of installation art to do with textures to mimic the textures in music. Then while watching back the footage that I took on that day I had an idea for a final piece. It would be an installation piece with lots of wonder scarfs hanging from a pole. Then there would be fans placed all around the scarfs and then (I know know technically how it would work) but the fans would be timed to go along with the music and create a spectacular dancing installation that represented the music in a more natural way than just programming visuals from audio. Think it would be quite a cool idea, maybe I will give it a wee test out later!

SO EXCITED!

Got an email for channel 4 to say that I had successfully got into the Talent4 event that is taking place a the Hannah Maclure centre in Dundee. I am so so happy! The classes are based on a first come first serve basis so I will be there extra early to make sure that I get the Film (green screen and image capture) class as that is the one that interests me. I feel that it would help so much in my final project and talking to people in my creative field that have jobs with channel four will just be amazing! Its on the 17th of this month so once finished I will be giving an extensive blog about my day, what I learned and what I can do to further myself. Once again ... SO EXCITED!

Timeline

I was browsing the history of where visual music came from and I found this really good page that has a full timeline, it will help me understand the development much easier and I can pull significant people from the list and experiment with techniques that they tried and tested.You can find this timeline from: http://rhythmiclight.com/archives/timeline.html

1743	Bertrand Castel, a Jesuit priest and mathematician designed and constructed a model of the first "color organ", a stringed musical instrument combined with moving transparent and colored tapes. It related seven colors to the seven whole notes of the occidental musical scale (Peacock 1988, pp.399-401; Graves 1951, p.411; Wagler 1974, p.162, Popper 1968, p. 156).
1789	Erasmus Darwin suggested producing visual music by projecting light from oil lamps through colored glass (Peacock 1988, p.401).
1844	D. D. Jameson published his pamphlet, Colour-Music, in which he described a system of notation for the new art form and an apparatus that he probably based on Darwin's idea. His instrument filtered light through liquids of various colors and reflected it off of metal plates onto a wall (Peacock 1988, p.401; Popper 1968, p.157).
1869-73	Frederic Kastner invented the pyrophone and the 'singing lamp'. These instruments used gas jets which opened into crystal tubes to create both sounds and images (Popper 1968, p.157).
1877	Bainbridge Bishop, who was interested in the concept of ‘painting music’, constructed a device that sat on top of an organ, allowing light to be projected onto a small screen as a piece of music was being performed on the organ. He was influenced by Chevreul and Field. His projections used daylight at first and then an electric arc (Peacock 1988, p.401; Popper 1968, p.157).
1893	Alexander Wallace Rimington patented his Colour-Organ. He later (1911) described it in his book Colour-Music: The Art of Mobile Colour (Peacock 1988, pp.401-2; Kushner 1990, p.105; Popper 1968, p.157).
1895	William Schooling published an article describing an instrument that used vacuum tubes of various shapes. A keyboard was used to activate individual tubes and their current was controlled by a pedal to vary illumination (Peacock 1988, p.401).
1899	The physicist Albert Michelson predicted that there would develop a color art analogous to that of music in which the performer would play colors of the spectrum in any succession or combination (Wagler 1974, p. 162; Birren 1961, p.165).
1909	Kandinsky began painting in a non-representational style (Holtzman 1994, p.72).
1909-13	Arnold Schonberg created his musical drama Die Gluckliche Hand (The Happy Hand) which contained a light storm, created by projecting colored light (Gerstner 1986, p.165).
1911	Scriabin, the Russian composer, composed Prometheus, the Poem of Fire, for which he devised an accompaniment of changing colored lights (Graves, 1951 p.411; Gerstner 1986, p.165). It called for instrumentation like that described by Rimington. (Peacock 1988, p.402).
1912-14	Leopold Survage created a series of colored plates, the Colored Rhythm series, to be used in producing an abstract animation (Russett and Starr 1988, p.35).
1912	Alexander Hector designed an instrument to directly associate sound and color (Peacock 1988, p.403).
1914	Kandinsky created the abstract musical drama The Yellow Sound in which the main actor is the color yellow (Gerstner 1986, p. 166).
1915	Modest Altschuler and Preston S. Millar developed the Chromola to accompany a Carnegie Hall performance of Scriabin's symphony (Peacock 1988, p.403).
1919-24	Viking Eggeling produced Diagonal-Symphonie, the first purely abstract film, in Berlin. It was a continuous sequence of abstract images that evolved and transformed (Graves 1951, p.413; Holtzman 1994, p.188).
1919	Hans Richter made scroll-pictures. He collaborated with Eggeling. They were inspired by Chinese scrolls and ideograms (deGuthmann 1974, p.8; Holtzman 1994, p.188).
1919	Mary Halcock-Greenewalt demonstrated Sarabet, which used variations in luminosity to parallel nuances in music. She patented a notational system for performance as well (Peacock 1988, p.404).
1920	Vladimir Baranoff-Rossine gave his first optophonic concert in Moscow based on theories contained in Alexander Laszlo's Die Farblichtmusik (Color-light music) (Gerstner 1986, p.165)."
1921	Walter Ruttmann's short Lichtspel Opus I (Lightplay Opus 1) was shown in Frankfort, Germany in what is thought to be the first screening ever of an abstract film for a general audience (Russett and Starr 1988, p.40; Duchting 1997, p.40).
1922	Thomas Wilfred began giving Clavilux concerts in the United States, Canada, and Europe (Malina 1974, p. 64; Pelligrino 1983, pp.5-6; Peacock 1988, pp.404-405).
1923	Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack, while studying at the Bauhaus, discovered that by using bulbs of different color, shadow shows could be enhanced in ways that related to music (Peacock 1988, p.404; Duchting 1997, p.40).
1926	Wilfred collaborated in a presentation of Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade with the Philadelphia orchestra under the direction of Leopold Stokowski (Peacock 1988, p. 405).
1927-31	Oskar Fischinger’s Studies 5 through 12 were shown in theatres throughout Europe, the United States, and Japan (Russett and Starr 1988, p.57).
1930	Moholy-Nagy’s Lichtrequisit (Light-Space Modulator) was shown at the International Building Exhibition in Paris (Moholy-Nagy 1970, p.148).
1930s	George Hall built the Musichrome. It used eight keys to control two sets of four colors each (Peacock 1988, p.405).
1931	Morgan Russell and Stanton Macdonald-Wright, abstract painters, experimented with a kinetic light machine as a way of animating their synchromies (Kushner 1990, p.109).
1939	John and James Whitney produced Twenty-Four Variations, their first abstract film (Whitney 1980, p.225).
1941-57	Harry Smith produced his early animated films, including images batiked directly onto film and optically printed images (Igliori 1996, p.30).
1953	Gordon Pask and McKinnonWood demonstrated the first of their Musicolour machines at Cambridge (Pask in Reichardt 1971, p. 77).
1957-59	Jordon Belson collaborated with composer Henry Jacobs on theVortex Concerts in which moving visual abstractions were projected on the dome of the Morrison Planetarium in San Francisco while electronic music was played (Youngblood 1970, pp. 157-177; Igliori 1986, p.269).
1958	Imagination, Mary Ellen Bute’s collage of effects from her earlier abstract films, was broadcast on the Steve Allen show.
1958	Edgar Varese composed Poeme Electronique to be part of a sound and light environment created in collaboration with the architect LeCorbusier, for demonstration at the Brussels World’s Fair. Light images were projected on the walls of the pavilion while music moved in sweeping arcs through the pavilion. No attempt was made to synchronize the light and music (Pelligrino 1983, p.12; Gerstner 1988, p.167).
1968	Frank J. Malina founded the journal Leonardo.
1968	Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey was released. It included The Stargate Corridor sequence, supervised by Douglas Trumbull and based on slit-scan devices developed by John Whitney (Youngblood, pp. 151-156).
1969	Nam June Paik’s composition The Medium Is the Medium was broadcast by WGBH in Boston (Youngblood 1970, p.306).
1970	Karl Gerstner, working with Klaus Thomas of IBM Stuttgart, produced a computer program to drive a plotter to produce his Color Signs (Gerstner 1986, p.130).
1973-79	Harold Cohen developed AARON, a program to make knowledge of drawing and visual composition explicit (Holtzman 1994, pp. 179-188).
1974-79	Laurie Spiegel at Bell Labs created VAMPIRE (Video and Music Program for Interactive Realtime Exploration/Experimentation), which included a few computer animation routines by Ken Knowlton as well as music routines from the GROOVE computer music system created by Max Mathews, et al.
1980	John Whitney published Digital Harmony, which included detailed descriptions of some of his films and a listing of computer code that could be run on Apple IIs and similar computers.
1982	The first historically accurate performance of Kandinsky’s The Yellow Sound, took place in New York (Gerstner 1986, p.166).
1990	Brian Evans produced his Color Study #7, in which he explored temporal color relationships, applying a tension-release theory to color balancing (Evans 1990; Holtzman 1994, pp.189-90).
1997	Lisa Lehman and Fred Collopy produced a lumia interpreting Celtic fiddler Eileen Ivers’ studio jam, Blue Groove.
1998	Basil Twist's Symphonie Fantastique, featuring abstract puppets inspired by Kandinsky and Fischinger and moving to Berlioz’s composition of the same name, premiered in New York.
1999	The thirtieth anniversary of Sancy Cohen’s Bindu was celebrated in San Francisco at what turned into something of a “music visualization” summit. Present for the day were Sandy Cohen (host), Fred Collopy, Larry Cuba, Scott Draves, Jeff Hoekman, Greg Jalbert, Stephen Malinowski, Bernard Mont-Reynaud, Ron Pellegrino, Andrew Schloss, and David Tristram.
1999	Merce Cunningham’s dancers presented the New York premier of Biped at the New York State Theatre. The piece included animated design by Shelley Eshkar and Paul Kaiser and a score by Gavin Bryars.
2000	A two videotape compilation of pieces by members of the Iota Discussion Group was produced. The liner notes are available.
2003	The ninth edition of the Sonic Acts festival in Amsterdam, under the name Sonic Light, brought together both classic abstract films and contemporary artists working with visual music. Organized by Joost Rekveld, the speakers included Larry Cuba, Chris Casady, Michael Scroggins, Pascal Rousseau, Peter Stasny, Benton Bainbridge, Golan Levin and Fred Collopy, among others. The evenings were given over to live performances done by some of them and many others including Sue Costabile, Don Ritter, and Effects.
2003	The San Francisco Performance Cinema Symposium, organized by Henry Warwick, took place on September 27th at the Dimension 7 gallery. Presentations and performances were made by Scott Arford, Tommy Becker, Bello Benishauer, Greg Bowman, Kit Clayton, Fred Collopy, criticalartware, Caterina Davinio, Stefan G., Lynn Marie Kirby, Pheobe Legere, Christina McPhee, Sunit Parekh, Shirley Shor, Henry Warwick, and Gregor White among others.
2003	Sonic-Vision, a light show produced by 19 animators with creative direction by Chris Harvey and music selected by Moby, premiered in New York’s Hayden Planetarium on October 3rd.
2004	Sons et Lumieres: The History of Sound in the 20th Century, at the Pompidou Center in Paris, exhibited two of Wilfred’s Lumias, Baranoff-Rossine’s Piano Optophone, a restoration of one of Stanton MacDonald-Wright’s machines, and films, paintings, photographs, and music by dozens of visual music pioneers.

Week 2 drawing class

This week for our class drawing class it was my turn with a fellow classmate to make the still life set up, as we where both interesting in video and photography we decided to make a moving set up. We used a multitude of textures, materials etc and used a fan to get movement out of them. Realistically we needed more than one fan but we had to work with what we had. I took multiple videos and still images, trying to capture the movement of the materials. I have the raw footage that still needs edited and I am going to use the footage I took to use for tutorials to expand my knowledge on after effects as previously I have only used final cut pro so I think it would be an advantage to have experience in both. So for now here is so imagery of our set up, videos will follow soon!

Oskar Fischinger

A genuine pioneer in this field. I don't even know where to begin there is so much to talk about him!