Synthetic Sound and Abstract Image

Abstract

THE IDEA of abstract images on film is not new. During the 'twenties, European attempts in music met with widespread notoriety but little success. Most of these attempts to create an abstract film art took the form of a visual accompaniment of colored geometric figures to a sound track of orchestra or solo instrument. At times, a mechanical translation of sound into light and color was utilized. It was apparently not recognized that image abstraction could not be successfully matched with the sound of combinations of known instruments, and that real abstractions would necessarily mean synthetic sound as well as picture. Where a direct mechanical translation of sound into image was avoided, the alternative of frame-by-frame animation was both primitive and unwieldy. Further, no sustained effort was made to study the psychological and physiological effects of dynamic colored images upon an audience. Several years ago, Messrs. James and John Whitney, in their search for a medium that would permit a more dynamic use of color than was possible with the material of graphic art, decided that film was the answer. After much research and experimentation in an improvised studio in Los Angeles, they found a means of creating controllable graphic images by a method other than hand animation. An adaptation of the standard optical printer, paper cutouts, pantographs, and color filters supplied the elements. Two or more shapes cut from opaque papers are ma ipulated one over the other with a diffused area of light underneath. Controlled manipulation is achieved by a pair of pantographs the primary points of which hold the cutouts while the secondary points are traced over a previously laid-out movement pattern. This carefully planned sequence is photographed frame by frame in black and white and, after development, is then placed in the projection side of a specially constructed optical printer. The camera side of the optical printer is loaded with Kodachrome. Through the use of color filters and the magnifying, reducing, inversion, and multiple-exposure possibilities of the optical printer it becomes possible to construct lengthy, complex, and multicolored compositions from a relatively simple source of carefully nimated thematic material. The sound track is also entirely synthetic and is made mechanically by linking together twelve pendulums of various lengths by means of a fine steel wire attached to an optical wedge. This optical wedge is caused to oscillate over a light slit by the motion of the pendulums, producing a variable-area type of sound track. The pendulums can be operated together in any combination, or separately. The frequency of each can be adjusted or tuned to conform to any existing scale or an assumed new scale by adjustment of a sliding weight. Through the choice of pendulum lengths and driven speeds the full range of audio frequencies can be recorded. No actual sound is involved in