Graphic Sound Films
“Just as many performers and choreographers have sought creative autonomy by originating the sound components of their works, so have some filmmakers found aural generations within the mechanics of the motion picture. A few have realized that the photo-electric optical system is a synthesizer by any other name, and have painstakingly developed intricate strategies for its direct control.
“Pioneer of the abstract film in Germany, Oskar Fischinger's explorations of audio-visual aesthetics operated at such depths that it now seems only logical that he would have experimented with the printing of patterns on the sound track. Canada's avatar of animation Norman McLaren developed a complete audiographic language capable of wide compositional latitude. Australian David Perry wittily laid in Zipatone transfer patterns across the film. Bay Area artist Barry Spinello confronted the filmstrip as a celluloid canvas where line and color yield total expression.” --A.R.

Ornament Sound --**Synthetic Sound** replaced this

• By Oskar Fischinger. (1932, 4 mins, Print courtesy of Elfriede Fischinger)

Pen Point Percussion

• By Norman McLaren. (1951, 6 mins, Print from Creative Film Society)

Dots

• By Norman McLaren. (1940, 3 mins, color, Print from PFA Collection)

Loops

• By Norman McLaren. (1940, 3 mins, color, Print from Creative Film Society)

Halftone

• By David Perry. (1967, 3 mins, Print from Canyon Cinema)

Sonata for Pen, Brush and Ruler

• By Barry Spinello. (1968, 11 mins, color, Print from Canyon Cinema)

Soundtrack

• By Barry Spinello. (1969, 10 mins, black & white/color, Print from Canyon Cinema)

Six Loop-Paintings

• By Barry Spinello. (1970, 11 mins, color, Print from Canyon Cinema)

A Tribute to Cal Arts
“The California Institute of the Arts at Valencia, with its programs in the performing as well as the visual arts, has always been fertile ground for creative collaboration. One of the most successful and widely appreciated proofs of that potential has been the influence of Professor Jules Engel's stimulation of animators and resident composers. Carl Stone's scores have ranged from the ethereal, synthesized susurrus elevating Dennis Pies' Aura Corona, the evocation of the journey into the unconscious mind of Borenstein's Revisited, the pulsating, cyclic throbbing mood of elastic tranquility with the late Adam Beckett's Evolution of the Red Star, and his informed, rhythmic wit with Engel's own Accident. Barry Schrader's electronic score for Beckett's Heavy Light describes a strict structure made of three sections which progressively develop three subsections, and Carter Thomas' sensuous and sensitively cerebral impressionism gives aural justice to Sonoma, Pies' major work.” --A.R.

Aura Corona

• By Dennis Pies. Music by Carl Stone. (1974, 4 mins, color, Print from Serious Business)

Revisited

• By Joyce Borenstein. Music by Carl Stone. (1976, 8 mins, color, Print from Creative Film Society)

Evolution of the Red Star

• By Adam Beckett. Music by Carl Stone. (1973, 7 mins, color, Print from Canyon Cinema)

Heavy Light

• By Adam Beckett. Music by Barry Schrader. (1973, 7 mins, color, Print from Canyon Cinema)

Sonoma

• By Dennis Pies. Music by Carter Thomas. (1977, 9 mins, color, Print from Serious Business)

Accident

• By Jules Engel. Music by Carl Stone. (1977, 3 mins, color, Print from PFA Collection)