News

iota News – Feb-April, 2010

April 12, 2010 J-Walt 0 Comment abstract animation, animation, artist, artists, experimental animation, information, live performance, lumia, music videos, news, synesthesia, visual music, vj, weekly

Clip of the Week
“iotaSalon: Performance and Q&A with J.Walt” (2010) by iotaCenter and J. Walt AdamcyzkWatch a clip from February 2010 iotaSalon at UCLA featuring J. Walt performing and creating wildly imaginative animation before a live audience. J. Walt also discusses the equipment and process involved in bringing “Spontaneous Fantasia” to life.

Site of the Week
USC’s John C. Hench Division of Animation and Digital ArtsVisit USC’s John C. Hench Division of Animation and Digital Arts and discover one of the most innovative animation programs in the world that prides itself on the multicultural and international approach to bringing innovative storytelling and experimentation to the field of animation. Chaired by the talented Sheila Sofian, DADA hosts a faculty of both independent and commercial animators and produces some of the most talented filmmakers.

Scratchpad

Artist of the Week
Hy HirshHy Hirsh (1911-1961) worked at Columbia Studios as editor, cameraman and still photographer from 1930-1936 in order to support himself while developing a reputation as an art photographer. He worked as a WPA photographer from 1936-37, eventually becoming official photographer for the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco. During this time he presented numerous one-man photography exhibitions. He began collaborating with Sidney Peterson and with Harry Smith as well as others like Frank Stauffacher, Jordan Belson, Patricia Marx and Larry Jordan. Hirsh began making his own abstract animation films in 1951, while still producing documentary films for American television.In 1955, Hirsh moved to Europe, working in Spain, Holland (at the puppet animation studio Dollywood), and France on advertising films, as well as producing photographs for Elle, Realities, Vanity Fair and other glossy magazines. His films Autumn Spectrum and Gyromorphosis received awards at the 1958 Brussels Exposition. In addition to these formal films, he also prepared multiple-projection shows with live jazz performances.

In 1961, he died suddenly of a heart attack. The presence of his films at the Creative Film Society in Los Angeles after 1965 proved a seminal influence on emerging filmmakers Pat O’Neill, William Moritz and Chick Strand.

The iotaWeekly – March 22-29, 2010

	Clip of the Week “Exploring Shifting Ground: Creative intersections between experimental animation and audio” (2009) by Bonnie Mitchell & Elainie LilliosWatch a clip from Bonnie Mitchell & Elainie Lillios’s lecture, “Exploring Shifting Ground…” delivered at SIGGRAPH 2009’s Visual Music Day. Mitchell and Lillios discuss the parallel components of visuals and sound as well as the making of their work “2BTextures” (2008), a work that was screened at the October 2009 iotaSalon.Bonnie Mitchell & Elainie Lillios’s discussion was one of many “Visual Music Talks” delivered by contemporary scholars, artists and composers including Pamela Taylor Turner, Brian Evans, Stephanie Maxwell, and Bret Battey.
	Site of the Week Society for Cinema and Media StudiesJust last week, the Society for Cinema and Media Studies celebrated their 50th Anniversary with their largest conference ever in Los Angeles, CA, with a number of talks from the international community of film scholars about the past and ever-changing future of the critical study of the moving image. Learn more about this exciting organization, become a member, and submit your scholarly works to Cinema Journal, the quarterly journal of SCMS published by the University of Texas.
	Artist of the Week Loie FullerLoie Fuller (1862-1928) began her theatrical career as a professional child actress and later choreographed and performed dances in burlesque (as a skirt dancer), vaudeville, and circus shows. An early free dance practitioner, Fuller developed her own natural movement and improvisation techniques. Fuller combined her choreography with silk costumes illuminated by multi-colored lighting of her own design. These modern dances brought her recognition, especially in Paris, where her work was considered a serious art form. Fuller eventually relocated to France, where she became the embodiment of the Art Nouveau movement.Her work attracted the attention, respect, and friendship of many French artists and scientists, including Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Auguste Rodin, Stéphane Mallarmé, and Marie Curie. Fuller held many patents related to stage lighting including chemical compounds for creating color gel and the use of chemical salts for luminescent lighting and garments. Fuller occasionally returned to America to stage performances by her students, the “Fullerets” or Muses, but spent the end of her life in Paris where she died of breast cancer in 1928. Her ashes are interred in the columbarium at the PÃ¨re Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

The iotaWeekly – March 15-21, 2010

Clip of the Week
“Night Fishing with Cormorants” (2009) by Betsy Kopmar
Music by The Headroom Project (Andreas Ecker)Watch a clip from Betsy Kopmar’s mesmerizing “Night Fishing with Cormorants”, a film that dances upon a white canvas with strokes of black and stamps of red through a unique synthesis of Japanese painting and literary influences with modern 3D animation techniques.“Night Fishing with Cormorants” was recently screened at the iotaSalon in January, SIGGRAPH 09, and will be shown at the upcoming Melbourne International Animation Festival in Australia.

For more information about the artist and her work, please visit her website, Eyefusion.

Site of the Week
LaseriumThough the recent run of Laserium in Hollywood has closed, the website lives on, showcasing a gallery of archival lasershow graphics and information about the history of Laserium.The site also hosts resources for students and hobbyists interested in broadening their knowledge about the past, present, and future of laser graphics.

The Dreamlife of Letters

Artist of the Week
Brian Kim StefansBorn in Rutherford, NJ, Brian Kim Stefans (1969-) is a poet, digital artist and animator who currently teaches in the English Department at UCLA.Attendees of the January iotaSalon at UCLA were treated to a screening of Stefans’ piece “The Dreamlife of Letters” (2006) as well as a peak of “Scriptor” also known as “Suicide in an Airplane (1919)” (2010) and a Q&A where Stefans discussed his background, work, and techniques.

If you missed the event, you can watch the Q&A on our YouTube Channel

For more information about Stefans and his work, please visit his website and his blog Free Space Comix.

The iotaWeekly – March 8-14, 2010

	Clip of the Week “2009 Punto y Raya Festival: Workshop for Kids” (2009) by Laboratorium, V. Sastre, and mad-actionsWatch a clip from the 2009 Punto y Raya Festival’s “Many Meters of Film” workshop for elementary school students led by Laboratorium and V. Sastre who spread the love of the dot and line with a simple camera set-up, a laptop, and artistic vision supplied by an energetic class with paper and paint.Start the clip from the beginning to see how the films were made or skip to 7:43 to see the finished works from the adolescent masters of abstract animation.
	Site of the Week Visual BandwidthA company on the cutting-edge of immersive cinema technology and presentation, Visual Bandwidth is a collective of independent engineering, creative and business consultants dedicated to creating the most innovative experiences in a wide array of immersive environments all across the globe.Past projects include Papalote Museo del Nino in Mexico City, the Autostadt in Wolfsburg, Germany, and The Hayden Planetarium in New York.
	Artist of the Week Bill AlvesBill Alves is a composer, writer, and video artist based in Southern California. He has written extensively for acoustic and electronic instruments and also worked in mixed media, including the integration of music and computer video, robot choreography, and web art. Thomson/Schirmer published his book Music of the Peoples of the World in 2005 and his other writings have appeared in numerous journals such as Perspectives of New Music, Computer Music Journal, SEAMUS Journal, and 1/1. From 1993-94 he was a Fulbright Senior Scholar Fellow in Indonesia. He is one of the organizers of MicroFest, the annual Southern California festival of new music in alternate tunings. He teaches at Harvey Mudd College of the Claremont Colleges in Southern California, where he also directs the American Gamelan Ensemble. His video work “Aleph” (2002) is available at the iotaCenter store.For more information about Bill Alves and his work, please visit his website.

The iotaWeekly – March 1-7, 2010

Clip of the Week
“Modulated Feedback, Particle Flow Rotations, and Archetypes of Dissolution: The Audio-Visual Composition ‘Mercurius'” (2009) by Bret Battey

Watch a clip from Bret Battey’s lecture, “Modulated Feedback…” delivered at SIGGRAPH 2009’s Visual Music Day, Battey discusses the making of his work “Mercurius” (2007) which was awarded First Prize at the 2007 Punto y Raya Festival.

Battey’s discussion was one of many “Visual Music Talks” delivered by contemporary scholars, artists and composers including Pamela Taylor Turner, Brian Evans, Stephanie Maxwell, and Bonnie Mitchell & Elainie Lillios.

Site of the Week
Phantom Galleries LA

Ever walk by a vacant building in Los Angeles and stop, amazed at the incredible art installation in the storefront window? Thank Phantom Galleries LA, brain child of Liza Simone who told the LA Times she wants to “engage the population that does not go to galleries.”

Get involved! PGLA works with property owners, artists, and volunteers to brighten up darkened corners and community minds. Check out the installations that are currently up at PGLA’s calendar.

Artist of the Week
Benton-C BainbridgeBenton-C Bainbridge is a Bronx artist who has made video as a painterly and performable medium for 25 years. His work has been shown on 5 continents in venues and events including SFMoMA (San Francisco), Hayden Planetarium (NYC), Lincoln Center, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington, D.C.), Teatro ColÃ³n CETC (Buenos Aires), EMPAC (Troy, NY), Sonic Light (Amsterdam), Dallas Video Festival, Madison Square Garden, Whitney Museum at Philip Morris, Museum of Modern Art, Eyebeam (NYC), CELCIT (Managua) and LUX2006 (Sevilla). Bainbridge is currently making video paintings, installations and performances with systems co-designed with fellow artists/technologists.For more information about Bainbridge and his work, please visit his website.

The iotaWeekly – February 22-28, 2010

Clip of the Week
“Slide Beside” from Slither (2002) by Jeffers EganWatch a clip from “Slide Beside,” one of five films collected on Jeffers Egan’s anthology, Slither, where “quicksilver tumors grow the quickest in the dark.”To learn more about Egan and his work, please visit his website.

Purchase “Slither” at The iotaStore.

Site of the Week
UC San Diego: Visual Arts Department Are you looking for a university program that’s on the cutting edge of visual art technique and technology or are you simply curious as to what kind of work the latest tech-savvy generation of Southern California visual artists are producing?Check out UCSD’s Visual Arts Department, home to over 900 different majors with direct access to the oldest arts research facility in the UC system, Center for Research in Computing and the Arts, an institution dedicated to new art forms rising out of the latest technologies.

Artist of the Week
John Whitney, Sr.

iotaCenter is proud to screen John Whitney’s “Arabesque” (1975) this Thursday, February 25th at UCLA as part of the iotaSalon: “The Computer in Abstraction.”

“From his earliest experiments with the medium of computer graphic systems, John Whitney Sr. has balanced a cutting edge use of technology with a strong sense of artistic control and integrity. Considered by many to be the ‘father of Computer Graphics,’ John Whitney, and the entire Whitney family, have successfully linked musical composition with experimental film and computer imaging. Since his recognized works in the first International Experimental Film Competition in Belgium, 1949, to his masterpiece Arabesque in 1975, John Whitney remained a true pioneer until his passing in 1996 at age 78. “–John Whitney Sr. Biographical Website

For more information about Whitney and his work, please visit the John Whitney Sr. Biographical Website, or

The iotaCenter Salon – Presented by The iotaCenter and UCLA Design | Media Art Department

The next iotaSalon will be held on February 25th in the Broad Art Center on campus, first floor at the EDA screening space. The theme for this screening is “The Computer Abstraction.” Join us!

For more information and program line up, please visit the iotaSalon: February 2010 page.

When: Thursday, February 25th, 2010, 7:30pm – 9:30pm
Where: UCLA Design | Media Art Department, 1st Floor Broad Art Center (EDA), Westwood, CA

Map and Directions

The iotaWeekly – February 16-21, 2010

Clip of the Week
“January 2010 iotaSalon Q&A with Brian Kim Stefans” (2009) by iotaCenterWatch a clip from the January 2010 iotaSalon: “Text & Speech,” featuring a Q&A with Brian Kim Stefans and an excerpt from his piece “Scriptor v. 0.2.”The salons have been proving very informative for the participants, as filmmakers are able to answer direct questions immediately after their work is shown to an audience.Â For those of you outside of LA that cannot make the iotaSalons in person, iotaCenter is doing our best to bring them to you with the taping and transcribing of the artist Q&A’s.

Discover more about our past salon programs, Q&A’s, and event photos at our new iotaSalons Main Page.

Note: Because of the wide interest in Stefans’ piece “Scriptor,” we will be repeating it at the February 25th iotaSalon: “The Computer in Abstraction.” This piece changes each time it is shown, the version we screen in February will be different from the one in January.

Site of the Week
The Rio Carnival 2010 Guide

Though the visual and kinetic feast that is this year’s Rio Carnival is winding down, you can still visit the Rio Carnival 2010 Guide where you can explore the samba schools and the samba parade’s fantastic floats and costumes from the comfort of your own home.

Also, be sure to check out the Boston Globe’s fantastic Rio Carnival 2010 photos.

Artist of the Week
Audri Phillips

Graduating from Carnegie-Mellon with a BFA, Audri Phillips has gone on to work in art direction, design, and animation on numerous music videos and feature films. One of her most recent personal films, “Floating Point” (2009), combined her unique abstract visuals with a poem she composed. “Floating Point” was recently screened as part of the January 2010 iota Salon, “Text and Speech.”

At the salon, Audri had the following to say about Floating Point, “I discovered in making the speech and trying to marry poetry in with visuals, is that if you’ve read the poem, you can space it out any way you want, and space it to be with the visuals. And it was very nice, just spacing the words out along the way, figuring out how much space to leave between the words and still carry the meaning through. And also not to have the words overpower the visuals, to somehow have the things have some kind of balance with each other.”

The iotaWeekly – February 8-14, 2010

Clip of the Week
“From Pythagoras to Pixels: The Ongoing Trajectory of Visual Music” (2009) by Pamela Taylor TurnerWatch a clip from Pamela Taylor Turner’s lecture “From Pythagoras to Pixels” delivered at SIGGRAPH 2009’s Visual Music Day.Turner’s fascinating overview of the history of visual music was one of many “Visual Music Talks” delivered by contemporary scholars, artists and composers including Brian Evans, Stephanie Maxwell, and Bonnie Mitchell & Elainie Lillios.

Site of the Week
Internet Archive

In these tough economic times, free content is always welcome. Visit the Internet Archive, an online library celebrating “universal access to all knowledge,” a store house of nearly 250,000 moving images, 74,000 concerts, 480,000 audio files, and 2 million texts…ALL FREE!

Explore the Archive’s section devoted to Arts & Music Videos, featuring VJ Loops, or the section dedicated to Animation & Cartoons, featuring the SIGGRAPH Electronic Theater.

Artist of the Week
Hans RichterGerman animator Hans Richter (1888-1976) began as a Cubist painter in Berlin. With artists Tristan Tzara and Jean Arp, he helped establish Dadaism in Zurich in 1916. Working in Germany with Viking Eggeling in the 1920s, he produced the short films RHYTHM 21 (1921), RHYTHM 23 (1923) and RHYTHM 25 (1925), as well as FILM STUDY (1926) and GHOSTS BEFORE BREAKFAST (1928). In the late 1920s and 1930s, Richter turned to advertising and lecturing before settling in New York in the 1940s and producing live-action experimental films. Between 1942 and 1957, he served as director of the Film Institute of the City College of New York.

The iotaWeekly – February 1-7, 2010

Clip of the Week
“Parallel” (2009) by Huckleberry LainWatch a clip from “Parallel” by Huckleberry Lain, “a journey of sound and image that will dazzle your senses. Raining colors pill out of the screen and electronic dreamy sounds fill the entire realm of perception.”

Site of the Week
WRO Art CenterSince 1989, The WRO Art Center in Wroclaw, Poland is the country’s leading institution dedicated to contemporary art, media, and technology. Aside from organizing the International Media Art Biennale, WRO has published a collection of the work JÓZEF Robakowski and continues to produce WIDOK: WRO Media Art Reader featuring a book of critical essays and work by artists like Viking Eggeling, Len Lye, Larry Cuba, and Hy Hirsh.In 1999, animation scholar Dr. William Moritz delivered a series of lectures on visual music at the WRO Art Center.

Let’s Make A Sandwich

Artist of the Week
Pat O’Neill“Pat O’Neill has been deeply involved in Los Angeles culture since the late 1960’s. A founding father of the city’s avant-garde film scene, an influential professor at CalArts and an optical effects pioneer, he is best known for his short works from the early 1960’s onwards which are highly graphic, layered and reflexive assemblages based on a mastery of optical printing techniques.In O’Neill’s films boundaries fade, narrative collapses and layers of imagery draw the viewer simultaneously towards and away from linear meaning. O’Neill has combined found footage with experimental montage and compositing techniques to create a graphic language that deals with how different, often disparate elements assembled together in the frame relate to one another. His innovative optical techniques anticipated our digital landscape well before its time.”–Lookout Mountain Studios

For more information about Pat O’Neill and his work, please visit his new website Lookout Mountain Studios