I focused this project on the “Poem Field” series done by Stan Vanderbeek and Ken Knowlton. Vanderbeek, whose education had been in art and architecture, and Knowlton, who was a programmer, were connected through the EAT or the Experiment Art and Technology organization to collaborate on a project.
Before their collaboration in the late 1960s, Knowlton had created an 8-bit graphic programming language called BEFLIX. This was the first program of its kind, and arranged grayscale pixels into a grid to create animations.
After Vanderbeek and Knowlton met, they worked on a series of projects from 1964-1968. It is said that their collaboration was difficult, and of the work they did, only some was completed through 1971. However, the work they did finish is fantastic. Specifically, Poem Field #2 is a perfect representation of a “computer generated acid trip.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4agEv3Nkcs
Their work introduced objects to the screen in blocks that allowed for patterns to be created through its interactions with other patterns. That is to say, this animation did not focus on the movement of objects but rather the accumulation of objects on the screen.
What I found interesting is this technique of how animation is created through the layering of images rather than trying to replicate motion. Poem Field is created using overlapping collages to create animation.
Although it seems very distant, this technology is still very relevant today. Sticking with the “acid trip” theme that Poem Field #2, the kind of graphics pioneered by Vanderbeek and Knowlton are replicated today in Electronic Dance Music or EDM. EDM artists are always using crazy graphics and lighting with their music creating new techniques just like Vanderbeek and Knowlton.
I also found this excerpt by Vanderbeek to relate to the video below on how EDM DJ’s are mapping lights to their body movements and music:
“Pictures can be thought of as an array of spots of different shades of gray. The computer keeps a complete “map” of the picture as the spots are turned on and off. The programmer instructs the system to “draw” lines, arcs, lettering. He can also invoke operations on entire areas with instructions for copying, shifting, transliterating, zooming, and dissolving and filling areas. [Stan VanDerBeek. “New Talent—The Computer” in Art in America, vol. 58 (1970) p. 91.]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wrc1c8g2FPk
More Information:
http://www.cinegraphic.net/article.php?story=20110806123405773
Thanks Shyam. Live visuals with music have been a big part of live performance for a long time, going back to at least the 1700s (here’s a patent from the 1800s for a device to make color music : https://patents.google.com/patent/US186298A/en?oq=#186298 ). The Grateful Dead re-popularized this with their liquid visuals in the 1970s : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWI3b-Y7KJA
What do you think makes this merging of image and sound so compelling to people? Is this something that you would like to pursue in your work?
I watched the “Computer Generated Acid Trip” video and the styles are still so prevalent today. It’s cool to see how things come back around. It’s cool to think about code being used by DJ’s in concerts! I hadn’t really thought about that before, but code could lend itself to creating some really fantastic concert effects.
It’s really cool to see how two mediums collide and create something that’s so popular today! Does their work affect any other industries besides music?
It’s really interesting to see the collaboration between art and computer science. I can see how their work has influenced EDM artists today because the patterns and visuals are very similar. It would be cool to learn about how Vanderbeek and Knowlton got together and what their inspirations were (how they got started doing these videos).
It was nice to see how you can Allen did a research on two types of animation that are almost the opposite of each other. When I think about animation I usually come across the idea of making objects to move like living things, but Vanderbeek and Knowlton’s work expanded my idea around the term “animation.” The connection between Poem Field and the current EDM visualization was interesting. I wonder why this type of animation, where simple objects are introduced and overlapped, is effective in visualizing sound.
It is interesting to see how the graphics have been continued by EDM artists and their practices. Do you know if the festival settings used today have evolved the programming in a significant way?
Great post! How do you think they got the idea to focus on the accumulation of objects rather than focusing on the movement of one object?
The video is super dizzy, with words overlapping each other and the music playing. I can imagine seeing something like this video on a different platform today. It is crazy that this was made in the 60s. Learning that Knowlton actually built his own programming language, I can tell that he was an expert with a lot of passion in this field. I hope he got a lot of recognition for his achievements back then, although it is unlikely.
Very cool! Do you know if the language he created is used today in any way?
http://www.electronicbeats.net/the-feed/code-generated-algorave-next-big-thing-dance-music/
https://www.revolvy.com/main/index.php?s=BEFLIX&item_type=topic
It is really interesting that they were able to create this art using only 8- bit software. You can see all the pixels and I can imagine it must have been harder to see because it was so close together. So it is good that they that added color. The fact that the computer he used to make this costs over 18 million in today’s money is insane. Because now you can do all this in a raspberry pi or a chrome book. So it gives me a crazy visual into how technology is rapidly expanding. Its nice to see how far we come with future software such as gibber.
Great post! I really like how Vanderbeek and Knowlton and focused on layering objects rather than their actual motions. I can see how you relate the “trippy” animation to today’s EDM.