John Whitney (2)

John Whitney was an inventor, composer and animator. He is considered as one of the main founders of computer animation. One of his first works in film was a movie of a lunar eclipse using a home made telescope. He spent some time in Paris and returned to America which is when a series of abstract films was created (Five Abstract Film Exercises) which one him the first prize and the Film International Experimental Film Competition in Germany. These films gained wonderful recognition which eventually led to a Solomon Guggenheim Fellowship, which allowed Whitney to study the composition of music combined with graphics. John then made an audio visual instrument which emitted sounds combined with a camera apparatus to capture and point light during the production of abstract design films.

Whitney's videos were very strange, I was very intrigued. I thought it was amazing how one image turned into another, but very slowly. I was very impressed when I found out how he began making videos like these a few decades ago, because according to me, these kinds of videos were made recently, no more than a decade ago. However, when I watched for too long, I found myself getting dizzy and nauseous and it felt like I was in a different dimension, under the influence of some illegal substance.