Anyone who’s seen a light show or Disney’s
“Fantasia” has witnessed the genre of art known as
visual music ““ and probably without knowing it.
Expanding the reach of visual music is precisely the goal of
“Abstraction and Visual Music: Contemporary Animation from
Los Angeles Artists,” to be screened by Melnitz Movies on
Feb. 28.
Unlike most types of film, the idea of visual music is not to
tell a story. Instead, it is meant to be an abstract experience
similar to listening to a piece of music. Some artists choose a
piece of music first, then create animation to complement it, while
others first create the animation and then find or compose their
own music to accompany the animation. Still others leave out music
altogether, intending to show rhythm in a completely visual
sense.
“Visual music is using the visual medium to make the same
structures that are so native to music. By using circles and
squares, colors and forms, you can have a composition that gives
the pleasure that a musical composition gives,” UCLA Theater,
Film & Television critical studies graduate student Victoria
Meng said.
Meng is also an intern at the iotaCenter, which Melnitz Movies
is collaborating with for Tuesday’s screening. The iotaCenter
is a nonprofit arts organization founded in 1994 that serves as a
study center for visual music, as well as a physical and online
community for artists.
“The genre of abstraction and visual music had previously
been considered a niche in areas such as video art and was spread
out among different disciplines,” said Larry Cuba, director
of the iotaCenter. “In creating the iotaCenter, we wanted to
say that it wasn’t a subgenre; that it was an art form unto
itself and one that needed a home base. It needed a place to
gather, preserve and disseminate artwork.”
Visual music is an art form with a history dating back to the
early 1700s, with the building of the ocular harpsichord by Father
Castel, a Jesuit monk. Above the harpsichord was a frame with 60
windows, each of which had a different colored glass pane and a
candle. Each window corresponded with a specific key so that when a
note was played, a corresponding flash of light would be seen.
“The color organ was basically the precursor to color
music experiments,” Meng said.
Since the color organ, the tools and methods used to create
visual animation have advanced and expanded considerably. This
progression is the subject of Vibeke Sorensen’s film
“NLoops,” which will be included at the Melnitz
screening among the work of other L.A. artists, many of whom will
participate in a panel discussion afterward.
“Technically, it integrates moving painting with abstract
computer animation, and aesthetically, it traverses the history of
animation,” Sorensen said.
Sorensen began with the idea of the zoetrope, a device popular
in the 19th century in which images revolve on a film strip inside
a cylinder so that, when viewed through a slit, they appear as a
single animated figure. She then extended the idea of the zoetrope
by using computer animation to make copies and attach them to each
other, so that everything appears as 3D waves of polyrhythms.
“When very simple rhythmic structures are translated into
3D space, they can arrive at new experiences of the temporal. The
possibilities of the initial structure are endless,” Sorensen
said.
Though Sorensen usually creates silent works, for
“NLoops” she first created the animation, then worked
with a composer to create music.
“In this film, the images and sound reinforce the same
idea, with strong synchronicities to each other,” she
said.
Sorensen refers to this type of relationship between animation
and music as “1 + 1 = 1.” Another approach is what she
calls “1 + 1 = 3,” in which the images and music each
have their own interior logic, and together their relationship
creates something new.
According to Sorensen, the experience of watching these films is
not simply about the relationship of images and music; instead, it
is meant to spark an experience.
“It is a fusing of the senses and so it is an experience
that transcends any other individual medium,” she said.
“We are meant to arrive at some deeper understanding about
the relationship between our senses and thinking because it sheds
light on how the mind and body work in relation to the universe. It
deals with the most fundamental relationship of the universe
““ the relationship of time and space.”
Meng agreed that the experience is one of a kind.
“This screening is an amazing opportunity because people
really need to see these films to understand the whole concept of
visual music,” Meng said. “Without seeing them, it is
impossible to imagine them, and after seeing them, it is impossible
to describe them; visual music is beyond language.”