Actually, you are the one who is ignorant, ThomasFMPayne. "In the late 1930s, John Whitney collaborated with his brother, James, on a series of abstract films. Their work, Five Film Exercises (1940-45) was awarded a prize for sound at the first International Experimental Film Competition in Belgium in 1949. Not only was their work visually stunning but it was underpinned by a fascination with Eastern philosophy, experimentation with hallucinogenic drugs and the works of Carl Jung."
Yeah, you have to love that early tape-based atonal electronic music. It seems very appropriate to this kind of animation, not to mention that it's of similar vintage (late '50s) by the sound of it. The murky sound quality of the 16mm print's optical soundtrack adds a lot of creepiness as well. I really like this film.
This is the in-between area, where thoughts are not fully formed, yet are beginning, shapes are not fully developed, yet are growing, and life is not fully developed, yet is gestating....this is that visual "twilight zone" between being and becoming..
It's criminal that James Whitney's films have never been released on Laserdisc, VHS, or any type of DVD/BluRay medium over the years! It's great to have it here on RU-vid, but, the audio and visual quality is poor. The people controlling James Whitney's catalog (no pun intended! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-TbV7loKp69s.html ) have allowed them to become museum relics.
Trippy stuff! It must've been the beginning of this psychedelia thing. Ya know? This is like where we used to hang out and all that. We did these ya know crazy things. And then we like ya know go on this trip where we could expand out minds. Next thing we notice, ya know, it was like, YEAH! And then ya know it was like, HEY! And then ya know is was like, WHOA!
idk but this maybe has something with mitosis/reversed-mitosis, exploded rockets colliding, maybe the title gravity's rainbow, atomic bomb causing cymatics i guess the uroboros (i know it's a name already) has sth to say too
GREATEST CINEMA EVER. JAMES WHITNEY IS THE MOST BRILLIANT & ACCOMPLISHED CINEMATIC MOVIE MAKER CRAFTSMAN IN HISTORY. THIS IS MOTION PICTURES TO THE HIGHEST EXTREME OF KINETIC KINESTHETIC BEAUTY & EXCITEMENT.
@ThomasFMPayne What people often fail to remember is that visuals like these are inspired by nature, dreams, the things you sometimes see when you close your eyes in the dark; they have always been difficult to express in art, which is why when successfully conveyed (especially in the days before computer-generated art), they look all the more effective and frightening - because people feel slightly familiar with them. Hallucinogens just open the eyes of some people who otherwise wouldn't have.
I love Experimental Film. I've read about this and his other films - now i finally see them. Thanks! The Whitney brothers were way ahead of their time and I'm pretty sure they created the machine that made that 2001 Space Odessy psychedelic sequence towards the end of the movie.
Always a pleasure to watch this video.. The analogue output adds such a great depth to the generative elements. Might have to find a way to recreate the effect.
@KlonoaKawaiiDesu I remember reading about this. It took like five years to make and they used an analogue computer, which they retrofitted from an anti-aircraft gun from either the Korean War or WWII. I know that doesn't really help, but god damn that's crazy isn't it?
So James and John Whitney are two different people? Strange that their names are so similar and they both made early experimental computer animations...
I've just seen The Beauty, up there in the Intelligible Realm, not a reflection, not a copy, it was there ! You don't need drugs unless you have a lack of imagination or are deeply bored. This was intense. Je suis tellement contente d'être tombée dessus ! Thank you, thank you !
As someone who is a practising artist, personally drugs don't help me at all! Trying to draw or paint anything decent on ecstasy or mushrooms is a nightmare. Sometimes you think that what you're drawing is good at the time but the next day it just looks like a horrible mess. Cannabis can help to produce some interesting results and I often get inspiration when I'm stoned but there's nothing magical about it. I disagree that the best art comes from being trolleyed on substances
@SkunkyMonky420 No it doesn't. Maybe in the field of music but not in the field of animation, which especially back then, was a very painstaking process.
if weed is what you bring to the table, weed is what you need. I don't. i want to free myself from drugs and alcohol when I create, I want my brain fresh. I want it to hurt. And when I discover something, i want to orgasm.
Why would you think he was smoking weed? The people who see MY vids think the same thing. Don't you think people can be creative and imaginative WITHOUT getting "high"? I'm not putting you down, and I'm not a hater, but a lot of very creative people have never even SEEN weed, much less smoked it.
Go to Wikipedia and you will find the answer. There are several "James Whitney" entries, but look for the video artist. Very painstaking analog process, for sure!
I honestly can't see the "beauty" of this. I'm not bitching or anything I'm just saying I don't really understand how to appreciate this stuff. Ha. My art teacher suggested I look this stuff up. It seems pretty cool though. Someone care to explain it to me, please? Ha ha, thanks.
TheGinz, while what you're suggesting is a nice thought, I must point out the complete lack of proof. Also, one could go so far as to say you're attributing human sentience to psylocibin mushrooms? Well what of Jaguars then? They've been proven to seek out and ingest them for their hallucinogenic effects, and yet no sentience. What gave rise to our current state was a complex series of interactions between us and our environment, yes, but over hundreds of thousands of years.
@movax420 I think it's pretty silly to assume that you can do stuff like this while high. All I want to do when I get high is eat cheezits and watch ninja warrior. Don't give credit to drugs, give credit to the artists.
