John Whitney "Catalog" 1961

[portabletiger]

The soundtrack is by Ornette Coleman. Whitney had a knack for picking great music for his animations.

[scherfilms]

as beautiful as ever

[steadfastcoward]

Whitney's work is the 'bible' for modern graphic art in animation. Fractals as a focus in animation did not truly take it's place until about the 1980s. Once the fractal 'took off' a lot of things became possible or easier but you can see the effect Whitney had when you watch You Tube for old network TV promes- ABC Movie Of The Week is a great example, A lot of great 'digital looking video was made this way.

I for one mourn the days when such creativity was a requirement, not an option.

[Devik666]

this music is disturbing me a bit lol

[VJChaotic]

If you like Whitney, then you may enjoy my stuff, too. My work & style are very much based on his ideas.

[VjArkiv]

Experimental

Vintage *!*

[vinceandlilly]

Amazing! I wish this kind of technique was still popular!

[diskochimp]

Half a century old, yet still beautiful / brilliant.

[Drwhofanindatardis]

This is impossible for 1961 you know. They couldn't even film things like this in colour, let alone animate computer graphics!

[JonasPlanck]

@Drwhofanindatardis Wrong. The optical line printing technology was a decade old, sometimes called dynamation, It involved the overlay of dozens of transparencies printed on plastic cells, which were often used as a primitive version of bluescreen rotoscoping in old films. What you see here is entirely optical, done with simple analog tricks over a light box using techniques like multiple exposure, slit-scan, kaliedoscopic mirroring, and careful frame by frame editing.

[brunoignaciogi]

0:00 f** you movie maker, you are more newest than this movie but you can add this transition effect

[MattTheSpratt]

3:35 I think you often have to

[beyondthesevoices]

Don't act like you can't do this on a computer, there's just a lot of lazy motion graphics floating around today.

[mushroomagical]

Stunning images and great music!

[Aros1989]

I respect evryoneone thats like this but when i see this and hear this sound. im dying inside. and i need to write about this crap to school! >:(

Well its good to know ppl think diffrent

[misscandyberlin]

This is amazing. Great job!

[powergirl901]

Just in the first couple minutes of this I detected the logo animation techniques for the TV networks. Wow, this is an amazing technique, much much better than anything that can be produced digitally. It hits you organically, that's why. I always knew that digital imaging, isn't. ...digi=crap.

[moxie96]

it looks like what we do on computers now but far more fluid...

[ryanwwebb]

where did you find this? I hate how all the films i want so badly are entirely inaccessible.

[birdsongofdetroit]

Apparently the music is by Tod Machover, titled Electric Études for Cello and Computer Generated Sounds. He was one of the IRCAM composers, which is the French electronic music institute right across the square from the Pompidou Centre.

[thiagoscalzo]

0:48 , Playstation III and PSP Os Background :-)

[tailendcharlie]

amazing stuff for 1961  looks cg

[Habbitbit]

via wikipedia: "The analogue computer Whitney used to create his most famous animations was built in the late 1950s by converting the mechanism of a World War II M-5 Antiaircraft Gun Director."...roughly sounds like a multi-planar camera, in which he'd use geometric cut templates to shoot overlays, then later augment via additional optical tricks & color filters.

[monikinina07]

el génesis de mi próposito de vivir¡¡¡¡

voya llorar de aqui se desprende todo,, ni los videos de vitalic está tan puros y artisticos,, de aqui saldrá todo¡¡¡

[erdavis7]

This is amazing... 1961.

[enamresuym]

golly! that's neat !

[Thrash0Jazz0Assassin]

what's the music?

[Thrash0Jazz0Assassin]

what's the music?

[OnlyVideoGuyOnEarth]

0:50 Is that the predecessor to the Playstation menu background?

[pravenza]

jeffhc88: you are a douchebag.

[flipflipflipputain]

"analog computer" indeed ;)

[shrek568]

HEY!! 0:49 sony plagiators!!

[P5YCHIATRIST]

Great sound

[SouthOCmixdown]

Impressive. Im guessing these types of images were not easily viewable 4mass consumption(ie. television, rock shows, high brow art shows). I mean, how in the hell do you even project an image like that?, without simply just filming it&showing them on a standard projector screen?,defeating the whole purpose? You could do something much more spectacular, just not as innovative/eye-catching, thru regular animation back then. What a fascinating time. Has anyone cleaned this stuff up for HD/BRdvd?

[jeffhc88]

crap

[marioaddict1]

0:49 looks like the ps3 background

[Robusto103]

the music is great!!!! what is it???

[johneymute]

i know that analogue computers consists of manny wheels,voltage para metrs and regulaters.

but how the hell do they generate graphics & sound.?

also if there,s no memory storage like tape or lp how will it ever calculate everything?????????

[SillyR0b]

@johneymute Analogue computer = relais and ferro-magnet memory, instead of transistors. ;)

[r41zcu4dr4d4d3E]

wspaniałe pierwszej połowy XX wieku awangarda jest bardziej nowoczesnych niż wszystkie inne rzeczy

素晴らしい 20 世紀アバンギャルドの前半任意の他のものよりもより現代です。

נפלא המחצית הראשונה של המאה העשרים אוונגרד הוא מודרני יותר מאשר כל דבר אחר

[TomMinderson]

I wonder if any psychedelic groups from the mid/late 60's used such techniques in music vids or stage backgrounds, rather than the standard "oil plate" techniques.

[soft93machine]

Fantastic example of Old New Media Arts. It is important in the digital age, not to forget our analog heritage.

[freeradicals]

Jeez does anyone know who does this music!!!!

[mccarthystuart]

Was the music originally

made for this video?

[shantiaum]

Analogue Video Synthesis is lush ;) Thanks for posting...

[unmedication]

The invention of screensavers...

[alainpatrick73]

There are two guys that claim that have made the music on this video. Can anyone give us a link of the original composer for this Music?

[gatolocojko]

i really loved it.

me encanto, la cago seco. maestro!

[pipefx64]

The music is amazing, who's it by?

[tamales458]

reminds me kraftwerk

[bunnybooties]

People in 1961 who viewed this probably thought, "This makes me want to turn on,tune in ,and drop out,drop acid,streak,have lots of casual sex,question society,rebel against the establishment,and run off to San Francisco and wear flowers in my hair!"lol

[Druffmaul]

1961 was a few years before all that, ya know. It was basically still 1950s culture. People in 1961 who viewed this probably said "Golly! That's neat!" =P

[xpez]

its still pretty neat.

[OnlyVideoGuyOnEarth]

@Druffmaul I still think it's cool haha.

[BurnRoddy]

Indeed.

[freqazoidiac]

Turn on tune in , Leary's slogan, was not a pop culture catch phrase in 1961, and most people who tried LSD at that point were a very small group of people, and mostly psychiatric patients.

[bunnybooties]

Thanks for the interesting replies!:) I was actually being fascetious! I know that the lsd flower power stuff didn't explode into the mainstream consciousness till the Summer of love in 1967 even tho there were pre-hippie beatniks back in the fifties using reefer and spouting radical poetry like Ginsberg's HOWL. It's intersting that lsd was used on mental patients back then as a form of therapy. I would be afraid it would make them even more crazy! lol :D

[dangerkoma]

This is the best use of a gun sight I have ever seen !!

[CosmoShidan]

Psychadelic!

[lemonlimestiv]

me too (with YOUR wife) lol

[CreativeCritisizm]

I enjoy playing this music when I'm in the bedroom making love to my wife.

[RabidRat88]

It's alright we know where you've been.

Welcome to the machine.

[peppermintsteamroom]

how is this real or possible? OMG

[michaelda94]

I have responded with my video, not to compare it with this work, but as a demonstration of how I am using digital technology to capture, edit and distribute an analog "event", in this case three simple LED toy spinning fans. This was shot on a cheap Nikon still camera, on video setting, in the darkness of my bathroom, and combined with a piece of music that I created on my MacIntosh. I hope you enjoy it. You can also turn down the sound and use it with any other music. Thank you for watching.

[pittapitta]

I'm home

[inufreak2]

Woh its really trippy

[nirvana2187]

This is awesome! Really beautiful. John Whitney was a genius! Thanks

[televisionforghosts]

Beautiful.

[Katlaw78]

this music makes me slightly increasingly somewhat very uncomfortable :-/

[BottomFloorBecky]

this + tripping = holy bajesus.

[holke79]

thanks Father !

[uklittleguy]

This is fascinating, truly pioneering work!!

[ThomasFMPayne]

I have responded with my video, not to compare it with this work, but as a demonstration of how I am using digital technology to capture, edit and distribute an analog "event", in this case three simple LED toy spinning fans. This was shot on a cheap Nikon still camera, on video setting, in the darkness of my bathroom, and combined with a piece of music that I created on my MacIntosh. I hope you enjoy it. You can also turn down the sound and use it with any other music. Thank you for watching.

[saintwinky29]

Hi Thomas, really liked what i saw, has some real potential! Thanks for posting

[AncilWayneSmith]

Gee,this was the year I was born! And they were doing this!! Incredible!

[roxonogueira]

can't believe people continue to say that that russian kitten is the first computer animated thing..

[YUKITIng00]

wonderful!!!

[toamaori]

0:56 Mac os x in 1966? lol analog graphics seem to have an organicness much like that of Analog Tape awesome :)

[cannedkitty]

is this the actual soundtrack or did the uploader add this music to it

[pannoni1]

Definately "Whitney" museum-worthy.

[leptadlo]

To vivach:

Thanks for Colleen´s. It reminded me of this marvellous feat, so I appended a link to your profile.

[aufsturz]

I-N-C-R-E-D-I-B-L-E !!!!

[BodyKnight]

Awesome video.

Analog demo with analog mechanical sort-of-calculator.

Ciao Tano...

[FelixDembinski]

This is very good stuff John Whitney should be knighted.

[DarkHeySoos]

I think it's more likely that digital technology will prove to be a shortcut to developing better analog technology. Analog is just about as "real time" as you can get, it just takes a shitload of knobs and dials to manipulate the electrical impulses. Whereas a digital system does most of the dial turning for you.

[kicirigo]

'in 1957Whitney acquired an army-surplus mechanical analogue computer-previously used as part f anti-aircraft gun system- adn rebuilt it to control the movements of a camera and lights...'

He was one of the first user of so called motion controlled rigs, widespreadly used in todays VFX industry

[Watcher3223]

The graphics at 48 seconds in reminds me of the backgrounds that Sony uses on the crossbar menu of their PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable systems.

Very cool how this kind of visualization was created several years before Sony thought of using it.

[d3p3ch3mod3]

yea, about half a century before ps3 even

[Watcher3223]

Or, rather, the Japanese PSX, which was the first device to use the Sony XMediaBar user interface.

[jeabo0adhd]

does analog do everything in realtime? it looks like it. i'm going into computer engineering and this could be our future along with digital computers!

[allgoodmatt]

artrageous. puts digital to shame, BUT we are getting better. yes, analog is cool but we can learn from it, and evolve digital vjing/processing to have these kind of fx. early work like this is crucial inspiration.

[danielthomas]

I would love to learn how these techniques were created. It's so compelling, largely because of my own biases about "computer animation." It's easy to forget there was a life before the microprocessor. Some really great art to be found here.

[StookieBill]

have a look at Gene Youngblood's 'expanded cinema'. you can get the whole thing as a pdf from 'UBUWEB', or for not too much money from Abe Books. amongst LOTS of other stuff, there's a description and photo of the whitneys' analogue computer printers.

[Salmagundiii]

Thanks for the tip, I bet that will be an interesting book/pdf to peruse. We take for granted now how cutting edge this stuff was.

[BrandonLori]

Thanks for putting this up! I've been looking for this for awhile!

[Meteotrance]

the animation en sensation of organique is awesome that's i really call art ^^

analogue technique is so magic.

[kub73158]

So good to see Whitney's works.

Real neat variety here and with suitable music.

[professordance]

the green dot swirl that happens 30 seconds into the video reminds me a lot of a video that was at the whitney museum this summer for the psychedelic art show. does anyone know if this is the same dude?

[popstar1964]

same guy.. i was hooked after seeing that exhibit too!

[steadfastcoward]

This is the most awe-inspiring graphic work of animation I've ever seen, INCLUDING CGI. I was stupified. Whitney's art is an experience of a lifetime. Thank you!

[indigoflow67]

Thank you very much! This is amazing!

[aliviaz]

thanks for posting this!!! Whitney is a big influence ever since seeing the Visual Music exhibition.

[BonerLips2]

Fucking Amazing

[stemcellfilms]

jesus something on theres like an acme vortex... I like it, check out what I do with video mixing

[viznut]

Really great stuff. Some months ago I was looking for Whitneys' movies on-line and found none, so thanks very much for sharing this pioneering piece of computer animation.

[sensed]

I really dont think that is computer animation. Its "just" optical tricks.

[pigpenthegreat]

Just because it doesn't use chips and whatnot like a modern day computer doesnt mean that its not a computer.

[feathermeal]

whats the music? his?

[kirbyfan95]

o_o... wtf?!?