Permutations

John Whitney / United States / 1967 / Czech Premiere / 8 min.

synopsis

The permutations of dancing dot patterns and geometric shapes, which the computer-generated film performs to the playful rhythm of Balachander's tabla playing, test the boundary between order and chaos. The polyphonic visual composition unfolds along an axis of contrapuntal principles, but placing structure against structure instead of note against note.

“My computer is like a piano. I could continue to use it creatively all my life.”

Source: Gene Youngblood: Expanded Cinema, New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1970, s. 207.

biography

John Whitney (1917–1955) was a leading exponent of computer animation and the American film avant-garde. With his brother James, he made five Film Exercises (1941–1944), created the opening credits for Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958) with Saul Bass, and focused on title sequences with his company Motion Graphic Inc., which he founded in 1960. He used a sophisticated analogue computer he built himself to create them. In 1966, he became an artist-in-residence at IBM and began experimenting with the digital computer. In 2021, the Ji.hlava IDFF screened his film Celery Stalks at Midnight (1951).