And Now for a Commercial Break

Gitane Catch… 1961. Production La Comète. Dir. André Sarrut et Jacques Asséo

Where would the advertising World be without animation ? That is obviously a question to be turned around too, each having fed and nurtured their forms reciprocally throughout their long collaboration. The communication and advertising agencies of today are more or less tightly linked with design and animation studios. Their history is a fascinating perspective on how animation has developed and may help pinpoint a particular shift from what was initially pure character driven cartoon animation to the more graphic design informed domain of motion graphics which seems to have taken hold as the dominant force in the advertising World of today.
After a return visit to the exhibition in Paris, ‘La Pub s’anime’, (Animated Ads), I wanted to jot down a few key moments along with the people that paved the way towards our present day marketing World. This is obviously a focus on the history in France but the question begs : How did advertising and animation develop in other developing countries ?

Gitanes La logique de Toto 1926. Robert Lortac & André Payen

** 1918 - 35 **

Robert Collard (1884 - 1973),often named Robert Lortac, sets up Europe’s first animation studio in Montrouge in 1919. The studio is reputed to have created quantitatively the greatest number of animated films in France and remained active up until 1945. Amongst the first 15 employees, a certain Raymond Savignac who was already a well known poster artist of the era. To begin with, animated ads were informed by graphic design and the poster format. Illustration and typographic elements were often taken from existing poster ads and animated, finishing off with a fitting slogan and the name of the product.

Gitanes La logique de Toto 1926. Robert Lortac & André Payen

** 1936 **

Animated ads were first screened as intervals for the cinema, however ad agencies wanted to keep people in the cinema during the breaks. Enter the cartoon character and storytelling. From this point on commercials become closely tied to
traditional cartoons and develop into saga long commercials that entice as entertain the public.

Paul Grimault (1905 - 1994) and André Sarrut ( ) set up Les Gemeaux production house. However….

** 1950 - 68 **

….in 1952, after misunderstandings, the two associates split and Paul Grimault opens, Les Films Paul Grimault and André Sarrut starts his own studio, La Comète, with animator Jacques Asséo.

In the fifties, France develops as a consumer society and the budget for ad agencies doubles. Consequently their is a mushrooming of production houses, some of which dedicate their activities purely to creating commercials. This is the case for Sarrut’s La Comète which made more than 2000 commercial films exporting 80% of their output and became the most important film company for animated commercials in Europe at the time.

Air Wick Pour ceux qui ont du nez 1955. André Sarrut & Jacques Asséo

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>>>Watch Gitane Bleue

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Gitane Bleue 1958. André Sarrut & Jacques Asséo

Total Oil 1958. André Sarrut

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In 1953, Jacques Forgeot (1923-1969) opens Les Cinéastres Associaciés and employs some of France’s and indeed Europe’s leading animators : Raoul Franco, Etienne Rajk (1904-1976), Paul Casalini (1933 - ) and the Bettiol brothers. Not forgetting Alexandre Alexeieff (1901-1982) who had just come back from a passage in Amercia and had already a rich and innovative background in working for commercials.

Le Parisien Concourt 1960. Production Jean Mineur. Dir. Raoul Franco

EDF/GDF. Eau Chaude 1961. Production Jean Mineur. Dir. Raoul Franco

** 1970 **

Remains a minor period with struggling output due to high costs, competition from television ads and a return to live action.

** 1980 **

This is a major period of technological change - the arrival of digital imaging and the development of 3D. Exmachina becomes the third largest production house in special effects in the World. The likes of Pierre Coffin (1967..), Pascal Vuong (1960..) and the H5 Collective push forward the form and major production houses such as TBWA and Buf set up business specializing in CGI visual effects and animation.

Restore L’homme moteur synthétique 1984. Agence Hautefeuille. Dir. Jerzy Kular

>>> Watch a selection of French animated ads
>>> 1950’s Commercials
>>> Animated Logos

 

Don’t Forget…

…..animation is not all about characters and gags. Experimental expression has always been a way forward.

>>> Mr Amidi points out
>>> Colour is the Keyboard
- Essay on the link between music and the visual arts.

 

The Origins of French Animation

The Film Library (BiFi) is the main center for documents on movies in France and it has become a personal place of refuge amongst the plethora of historical information at hand. There is no single document, to my knowledge, that attempts to trace the development of motion graphics from its origins. A virgin landscape lies before me, which makes research in the subject problematic yet stimulating. What has become undoubtedly important though in my research, is the fact that motion graphics is directly linked with film and animation history, especially in terms of technique, and this gives plenty of scope for sifting out key people and perspectives that may have played a part in the development of the discipline.
This month, the Film Library is presenting a retrospective on French animation, from its origins up to 1940. There will be screenings of some of the first ever animations with Emile Reynaud, finishing off with Paul Grimault’s essential work in the genre. I highly recommend to anyone interested in animation history, and who may find themselves in Paris this month, to take hold of this rare opportunity.

>>> More Info Here (in French).

 

Animated Logos

Constance. 1957

Unique innovators within the realm of animation, Alexandre Alexeieff and his partner Claire Parker are notably given attention for the distinct films created with their ‘pin screen’ technique. Night on Bald Mountain, The Nose and Pictures at an Exhibition are rare and beautifully poetic examples of this technique which was invented by Alexeieff and developed as a means for visual expression all throughout his career.

Alexeieff was indeed a tireless mind when it came to innovation and with each work he always attempted to push the medium and try out new perspectives. This can be clearly seen within his lesser known commercial work which took off after the War. It was working for large companies such as L’Oréal, Evian, Esso and Nescafe that Alexeieff and Parker could invest in experimentation which led to various innovative techniques. “Totalised Animation” is a procedure that entails long exposures of objects. Alexeieff created a system of pendulums that enabled him to plot precise oscillated forms which he then filmed using his totalisation technique. Superimposing frames and adding projected text in the final composite brought about unique effects that can be seen in his work for Nescafe and the film company Cocinor, both made in 1957.

Cent Pour Cent. 1957

Cocinor. 1957

There was a growing trend from the forties onwards towards making ’synthetic images’ and Alexeieff seems to be historically well placed as amongst one of the protagonists, if not precursors of this method. Interestingly, others working within this field were to be found in America, (Alexeieff being in Paris), with the Whitney Brothers leading the work towards computer assisted images in the Seventies. Alexeieff and Parker will most probably be remembered foremost as artists with their fiercely independent and uniquely animated films. Their commercial work however was not merely just a means to finance their films, it was also a possibility to expand and innovate - a common trend of the advertising World of today. Advertising as a means to sponsor artists and push the boundaries of technological as well as aesthetic expression.

 

TV Broadcast Design

Although the advent of broadcast television in 1936 promised a new medium for visual creativity in design terms, it wasn’t until the fifties that broadcasting companies began to think seriously about the possibilities. Indeed when the BBC set up their service in 1936, design for the screen was still very much in an embryonic period, its gestation held amid the art World. The Second World War had also put broadcast on hold and it wasn’t until 1946 that the box was turned on again with a swift demand from households for interesting and entertaining content.
In 1954, the BBC recruited its first graphic designer, John Sewell and a department was set up under his management. This was of course a considerable move for a television company at the time. Little can be found on John Sewell’s work for the BBC, at least for the moment nothing leads to more than a paragraph in most instances. He is clearly noted though for the 1950’s BBC screen graphics and was also a budding amateur film maker.

After this first initiative by the BBC, two people were to have a profound and long standing impact on TV broadcast design : Bernard Lodge and Martin Lambie-Nairn. Bernard Lodge was the title sequence creator behind the classic BBC science fiction series ‘Doctor Who’. The famous time travelling Doctor defied time and space in his adventures into other Worlds and it appears that it was these very dimensions that Bernard Lodge wanted to explore and express in the opening titles. In 1963, the series went on air and Lodge’s unmistakable feed back ‘growl’ effect, along with Ron Grainer’s chilling electronic composition, made for a brilliantly effective opener which has engraved every child’s memory ever since. Bernard Lodge went on to create further titles for the series and in 1973 eventually changed the ‘howl’ effect with the slit-scan technique which had first been used in Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Most TV graphics prior to Doctor Who were static channel identities or simple animated pres (presentation screens) for certain programs. It wasn’t until the 1970’s that TV channels began to incorporate moving graphics as part of their brand identity albeit with rather simplified results. This all changed though with the arrival of a new channel in 1982 which brought with it to the forefront the designer Martin Lambie-Nairn. Martin Lambie-Nairn had already his years of experience with the BBC and LWT (London Weekend Television), however it was with his creation of Channel Four’s 3D animated logo that TV identities were to really take off and spark a real cause for experiment with movement and form as a means for branding on the box. Today, the graphic presentation of a channel as well as it’s content has become an increasingly fertile field for motion graphics with a wide range of innovative ideas.

>>> An interesting online collection.

 

Rhythm in Motion

Rhythm in Motion
Part 2 of a 3 Part Essay on Music and Motion.
>>> PART 1 Read Here
……………………………………………………………..

The artistic developments in search of a ‘visual music’ took on a whole new realm for experimentation once the technological possibilities of movement were available. Film as a medium for expression amongst the early avant-gardes was a natural progression and in releasing the painting from its static state of the canvass, artists were given the means for spatial as well as rhythmic manipulation of their ideas. In line with this major evolution in the visual field, once again sound and music was to play a large part in influencing the artists’ visual palette.

In the Language of Vision, first published in 1944, Gyorgy Kepes writes, ‘The invention of the motion picture opened the way to a hitherto undreamed scope and flexibility of rhythmic organisation.’ (pg. 58 Dover Edition 1995). He continues with an analogy to music, quoting from a number of musical theorists on composition and making a direct link with the plastic qualities of color, tone, value, texture, form etc. with melody, counterpoint and rhythm. The shared temporal quality of motion picture and music had obviously been noted well before Kepes’ observations, however as he states himself, ‘The new possibilities of the synchronization of the temporal and spatial structure of the vision are, however, still barely touched upon.’

Early foundations though in these ‘possibilities’ had been experimented with, and one of the first purely graphical films with music still surviving today is Walter Ruttmann’s ‘Light Play Opus Nr. 1’, completed in 1921. It used colour painted directly on to the film stock, making use of tone and hue upon simplistic graphic forms that repeat in light synchronisation to an orchestrated music. Ruttman had gone to great lengths to indicate precise colour information on the musical score itself as an aid to the musicians. Although repetitive and rudimentary, the film had been a painstakingly difficult and complex creation for its time. It should be given more attention than it receives and stands as a brilliant example of the direction in which many would follow. It has been well documented that this particular piece had a decisive effect on a certain young compatriot who was to take the idea of painting music in motion as his life long creative quest, Oskar Fischinger. Fischinger had met Ruttman at the premier for Opus 1 and it is at this point that the influence as indeed the inspiration took its hold on the young artist. The work of Fishinger is a weighty subject and has been carefully documented by the late William Moritz of which a good number of his writings can be read on line. What is clear about Fishinger and his work, is that he remains, albeit with unfortunately modest recognition to this day, an historic cornerstone in the industry of the moving image. He helped develop new perspectives and was an inspiration for a generation of artists to come.

Oskar Fischinger with his ‘Sound Scrolls’

That first generation of artists to arise and draw upon these new perspectives in motion and sound comprised of Norman Mclaren, Len Lye, Harry Smith, Jordan Belson and the brothers John and James Whitney. All, except the Whitney brothers were to begin with painting directly on to film as a means to create and all were to work in strict syncopation with music. And a new style of music was to take hold, that of Jazz. It is interesting to note here, as a short parenthesis, how jazz became a huge influence not only on the avant-garde but also in creating strong ties with the modernist movement in general. The rise of graphic design saw it’s use for many an album cover from Columbia Records with designer Alex Steinweiss and Jim Flora to Reid Miles for Blue Note and David Stone Martin for Verve. This of course marks the beginnings of a strong tie between the two mediums of music and graphic design which were to develop in a sort of harmonic symbiosis and continue right up to the present day. Classical music on the other hand had already undergone huge developments in the early twentieth century. Arnold Schönberg, the father of modern music had exploded the traditional form of scale and compositional form, his developments having an enormous effect on the beginnings of abstract painting with notably Kandinsky at the helm. Jazz, however, brought with it a completely new dimension and a new energy that excited many visual artists working in the film medium. Jazz had rhythm, from rag time to swing, be-bop to improvisation and this quality alone was to inspire a colourful visual palette for decades to come.

Len Lye’s ‘Colour Box’ title screen. 1935

A notable early work that epitomises this marriage and a sense of true experimentation between the two mediums is Len Lye’s extraordinary 1935 work, ‘Colour Box’. It is a mix of jazz and African rhythm, ‘La Belle Créole’ which is visually interpreted by myriad colours of pure graphic rhythm. The creation was one of the first really successful, as well as critically acclaimed pieces of early moving abstract works. What is striking in ‘Colour Box’, is the complex and dynamic spectacle that meets the eye. The explosion of colour conjures fascination leaving the imagination to swell yet the rhythmic syncopated style that is coordinated with the music keeps the attention focused. Even the juxtaposition of the music’s composition is cleverly interpreted in the visual continuity of the film. The pure abstract quality may be nerving for your average passer-by and for some the film has little to offer than it’s enlightened technique of painting directly onto film. However, the technique was indeed an interesting new perspective and one that developed into what became known as ‘cameraless animation’. The visual with the sonic had therefore come a step closer and the possibility for the artist to paint directly in sync with the musical composition became a reality.

Harry Smith. Copyright Brian Graham. 1988

Ten years on from ‘Colour Box’, Harry Smith must take claim as the first video disc jockey of modern times. It’s the mid Forties and Smith projects his early abstract works in a west coast jazz club, Bop City. Whilst the musicians perform live improvisation, Smith modulates his images on the fly using a multi-speed projector. Harry Smith was a prolific artist and had made at least seven films alone, which were dedicated to Dizzie Gillespie’s music. Inspired by the occult and eastern philosophy, as were many of his colleagues of the time, he often spoke of his films in terms of synesthesia much like Kandinsky, searching for an ultimate relationship between colour and sound.

John & James Whitney. Lapis 1963-1966.
Copyright Estate of John and James Whitney

Two other West Coast artists, John and James Whitney also shared a fascination with eastern philosophies. John, being perhaps the better known of the two for his groundbreaking work in computer graphics and his presence in the film industry. They both had met with Oskar Fischinger at a gallery in 1939. Although the encounter could be seen as a motive for developing in line with Fishinger’s work, they eventually went on to pursue a much more intricately detailed and purely electronic view of what visual music could be. This came with John’s innovations in new technologies culminating in the creation of ‘Variations’ and two ‘Film Exercises’. John had invented a pendulum system, which enabled him to compose electronic sounds in tight synchronisation with the visual. He later went on to construct his ‘cam-machine’ – an analog computerised motion camera enabling him to have fine control over plotting graphics on to film. This was most famously used in collaboration with Saul Bass on the film titles for Hitchcock’s ‘Vertigo’. John went on to set up business for the production of further commercial work in film and founded in 1952 the company, Motion Graphics Inc. Arguably, the first use of the term motion graphics in film history. The Whitney brothers had started to work with jazz scores in their early film work but were to develop an affinity for more Worldly rhythms as well as themselves compose some of the earliest electronic music in the mid Fifties.

The Whitney Brothers
Copyright Carl Machover

Squarewave Cards used by Norman McLaren
Copyright National Film Board of Canada

The discovery of a new way to create sound via electronic means was however nothing new and indeed had opened up a different perspective in bringing sound and image together. It had been termed ‘Tonal Handwriting’ to begin with and later on, ‘Animated Sound’. Another man was pioneering not only in the visual realm in both animation and film but also directly in the musical, taking off where early Russian experiments with Avzaamov and the Swiss born Rudolf Pfenninger had layed down important work. Scottish born Norman McLaren was directly influenced by his own ‘visions’ and desire to express music through visual means and some of his earliest works demonstrate this with superb results. He described three methods of working for creating sound with film: Painting or inking directly onto blank film, scratching into black film stock and photographing and exposing on film ‘sound cards’ that each depict pitch and tone. It is this third technique, which had first been developed by Pfenninger in his piece ‘Tönende Handscrift’, (Tonal Handwriting) that McLaren takes to perfection with his 1971 ‘Synchromy’. ‘Synchromy’ is a purely graphic work and the most explicit example of the technique. A mammoth 7 minutes over of ‘visual music’ perfectly justifying McLaren’s claim that, ‘you see what you hear.’

Original exposure sheet by Norman McLaren
Copyright National Film Board of Canada

In his ‘Workshop Experiments in Animated Sound’, 1957 we encounter visual ‘bleeps’ and ‘blips’, foreseeing some of today’s electronic music scene and visual work by half a century and the likes of arcade video game music by twenty years. Other works of McLaren are also equally interesting and were successful films, the likes of ‘Blinkity Blank’, 1955 and ‘Neighbours’ 1952 both used synthetic sound techniques and are critically acclaimed pieces. And there is ‘Loops’, 1940, ‘Canon’, 1964 and even one of his very first films for the GPO in London, ‘Book Bargain’, 1937 had started out with experiments with sound.

…….to be continued with a third part soon.

Resources :

>>>The history of synthetic music drawn directly on filmstock.

>>> The Harry Smith Archives.

>>> “Who’s Who in Filmmaking: James Whitney.”
Sightlines. v.19 n.2 (Winter 1985/1986): 25-27.

>>>The IOTA Center.

>>>Norman McLaren - The Master’s Edition. DVD. ONF 2006

>>>Oskar Fischinger. Ten Films. DVD. Center for Visual Music 2006

Krasner, Jon.
Motion Graphic Design & Fine Art Animation. Focal Press, 2004

Sons & Lumière. Une Histroire du Son dans l’Art du XX Siècle
Editions de Centre Pompidou, Paris 2004

 

Colour is the Keyboard

An Essay on Music and Motion in Three Parts.
PART 1.

Little discussion echoes the historical links of sound to the visual or its importance as a valid part of the creative process in moving image. Within the motion arena, sound is composed and synchronised in tight relation to the slickness of the moving image, they are designed in perfect symbiosis for maximum expression. How then have two different art forms come together with such precision in execution?

Outside of cinema and traditional film, which I will refer to at moments but are not my main perspective, the relationship between the sonic and the visual has a rich and profound history that developed before the transition to the film and video medium. One only need to look at the titles of many of the early 20th Century art works to realise this : Paul Klee’s ‘Polyphony’ and ‘Fugue in Red’, Kandinsky’s ‘Improvisations’ and ‘Compositions’, Braque’s ‘Hommage to Bach’ or Mondrian’s series of ‘Compositions’. As sound developed with the film medium, it became an integral part of the production process feeding innovations on both sides of the artistic coin. Musicians Scott Bradley and Carl Stalling for example, innovated their orchestral works closely in line with many of the earlier cartoon productions. Silly Symphonies, Merry Melodies, Loony Tunes all had hallmark sonic stings that underlined the visual gags and chase sequences, building up a musical vocabulary that is still in use today. The jazz paintings of Stuart Davies from the 30’s to the 50’s express bold colours and graphic rhythm. The digital mandalas of John Whitney in the 50’s to 70’s, the title sequences of Maurice Binder and Saul Bass, the graphic scores of John Cage and the present day installations of Ryoji Ikeda or Semiconductor. The examples are indeed abundant.

Both sound and image have fed into and grown from each other to push forward creative expression and development. It is however, music’s inherent nature that sparked the greatest influence on the early works and theories, that have informed as well as shaped many of today’s practices in moving image. Sound evokes memories, emotions, and adds depth and dynamics which the visual does not necessarily have the capacity to do, or at least not with the same ease and efficiency. It is within the abstract nature of sound that we can trace its effect and indeed its fundamental link with the development of the visual arts at the beginning of the 20th century. Music was the driving force behind most European artists at the fore of the visual and mostly pictorial art scene in the early 1900s. Not only was it an inspirational form for the beginnings of abstract art, it equally imposed its immaterial and temporal weight on Cubism, Futurism, De Stijl, Bauhaus and later on the Fluxus movement.

Wassily Kandinsky. Impression III (Concert). 1911.

The analogy of musical composition in line with pictorial theory and practice has been well documented. One of the most quoted artists in this area is Wassily Kandinsky who had devoted practically all his life to ‘painting’ music. In January 1911, Kandinsky was present at one of Schönberg’s orchestral works. The musical experience had been so intense in terms of visual thoughts that it inspired him to painting ‘Impression III’. The event not only sparked a close friendship between the two artists, it also helped Kandinsky forge his ideas which were later to take shape in his first published work, ‘Concerning The Spiritual in Art’, 1911.

‘A painter, who finds no satisfaction in mere representation, however artistic, in his longing to express his inner life, cannot but envy the ease with which music, the most non-material of the arts today, achieves this end. He naturally seeks to apply the methods of music to his own art. And from this results that modern desire for rhythm in painting, for mathematical, abstract construction, for repeated notes of colour, for setting colour in motion.’
Kandinsky, Wassily. Concerning the Spiritual in Art. Project Gutenberg Ebook. [Translated by Michael T.H. Sadler]

Within this important reference work, Kandinsky develops his theory on colour. Closely in touch with the spiritual side of creation, he uses what he calls, ‘in the psychic sphere…the theory of association’. An association of the musical to the visual, deliberately drawing from musical vocabulary in order to discuss and argument his line of thought : Composition, melody, symphonic therein stand up to form and colour. Deep blues become bass sounds and yellows become softly blown flutes creating an orchestration of the canvass which ultimately sounds out with impressive viceral emotion. This initial theory of course fed his later work and teachings during his time at the Bauhaus. Further connection to music can be found in his theoretical work, ‘Point, and Line to Surface’, 1926. In which he describes art’s essential graphic elements, such as the point drawn on a surface, as single entities with their own inherent resonance and property for expression. Much as a pianist may consider the point on a musical score and play a note. This note, depending upon its position and relation to others would build up a bigger picture of a melody, harmony or rhythm, ultimately creating the composition. The analogy is strong and beautifully apt.

Fugue in Rot. Paul Klee. 1921. Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern

One of Kandinsky’s close associates at the Bauhaus was the artist and teacher of painting and elementary design theory, Paul Klee. An accomplished violinist, Klee was a keen player of Bach. The art of the fugue, for which Bach had ultimately brought to maturity, became the inspirational structure for many of the visual artists of the early 20th century and Klee was indeed an avid practitioner with some of his earlier works taking direct inspiration from this complex musical form – ‘Fugue in Red’, 1921 and ‘In the Style of Bach’, 1919. Whereas Kandinsky drew comparison between colour and sound, Klee developed more a relation between structure and composition of the image through musical metaphor. If we take ‘Fugue in Red’ for example, the repeated motif and its visual dimension through use of shade, clearly express the idea of polyphony and resonance. Each motif alluding to instruments of a musical orchestration.

Due to the important theoretical developments and teachings at the Bauhaus and essentially its move to America with Maholy Nagy, the purely graphical elements in visual creation and their relation to sound, began to show their signs in other disciplines such as graphic art. Here the musical aspect became even more apparent by the very nature of the work with posters and title sequences for the cinema, music album covers and concert posters. However, in terms of motion, it was within the realms of the film medium that sound and image would find their perfect marriage. The Futurists Bruno Corra and Arnaldo Ginna, along with the Parisian based Finish artist, Léopold Survage were amongst the first to take up the film medium as a means to experiment with these foundations of sound, colour and form. ‘Visual Music’ became then an obsession for a generation of experimental filmmakers to come. Kandinsky, as well as many more from the early 20th century had paved the way forward for what was to become truly a form of ‘painting’ music. The film stock had become the new canvas upon which to paint, scratch, draw and manipulate graphic elements and to create movement in synchrony with sound. Artists had finally found the time line upon which sound and image could co-exist. So what did the new medium promise?

>>> PART TWO Here.

 

An Online Collection of Early Abstract Films

Walter Ruttmann - Lichtspiel Opus 1. 1921-25

I thought I would add this in line with the last post on Oskar Fischinger - Motion Paintings. This particular early work is said to have been Fischinger’s first influence in the genre, motivating him to create his ‘Studies’ series in non-objective film.

I’ve started a few playlists in You Tube for further works in this era  :

Abstract Films 1

Abstract Films 2
I had to delete the above playlists as many of the pieces I started to collect have been taken off the Internet for copyright issues.

 

Oskar Fischinger - Paintings in Motion

Abstract Landscape- 1959 - Oil painting.
© Elfriede Fischinger Trust

Circles-Triangles-Sqaures - 1938 - Oil painting.
© Elfriede Fischinger Trust

Color Sinfony - 1957 - Oil painting.
© Elfriede Fischinger Trust

Abstraction - 1939 - Oil painting.
© Elfriede Fischinger Trust

Red & Green Concetric - 1952 - Oil painting.
© Elfriede Fischinger Trust

“..it is only that MOTION PAINTING N°1, as it unfolds itself, offers the viewer the same deep emotional feeling that he can receive from good music. Thus we find that music is not limited to the World of sound;there also exists a music of the visual World.”
Fischinger, Oskar (1951)

After Fischinger’s passing away, it is reported in an interview with his wife that he had always wanted to create a feature film, or as she expressed, “an audio-visual abstract concert feature”. Fischinger’s work is undeniably the ultimate expression of a profound and life-long search for a ‘visual music’ in the early 20th century. It is interesting to note that although he was first and foremost a filmmaker, he shared a growing interest amongst some of the greatest European artists of his time. That interest had its foundations in music and its abstract nature as an art form. Looking at the above examples, we can acknowledge a certain sense of rhythm and composition of graphical elements that were much a part of the aesthetic of his era and surroundings. Some may even be forgiven for reading Mondrian or Klee in the above works, for Fischinger was indeed conscious of the Bauhaus tradition developing in Weimar and the works of Klee, Kandinsky and Laszlo Maholy-Nagy. Maholy-Nagy had even rented Fischinger’s films on various occasions and had met with him during his time in Germany.

However, Fischinger was not only pushing abstraction forward, along the lines of the great modernists of his time. He was also pushing the form into a completely new medium that would lay the foundations for generations after. Len Lye, McLaren, Saul Bass, Binder, and right up to the present day. Fischinger had coined the word ‘Raumlichtmusik’, meaning ‘Space Light Music’. “Of this art….Plastic, dance, painting, music become one.” The ‘audio-visual abstract concert feature’ is only just beginning to find its place within contemporary culture, everything from art installations, danse, VJing to theatre and music concerts. I’m sure Fischinger would be overwhelmed with today’s plethora of visual musics in retrospect to how he fought, often alone, on a vision that was given little light in his days.

Sources :

Fischinger, Oskar “Sounding Ornaments”
First Published in Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, July 8. 1932

Fischinger, Oskar 1951 “A Statement About Painting”
The Fischinger Trust

Keefer, Cindy
“Space Light Art”-Early Abstract Cinema and Multimedia, 1900-1959
White Noise Exhibition Catalog. ACMI Melbourne. 2005

Moritz , William “You Can’t Get Then From Now”
Southern California Art Magazine, No. 29, 1981

Moritz, William Oskar Fischinger : Artist of the Century
Exhibition catalog. KINETICA 2. Los Angeles: The iotaCenter, 2000.

Other Material

Center For Visual Music - Oskar Fischinger DVD 2006