When one thinks of a multimedia object, an animation created with a WWII anti-aircraft computer is probably not the first thing to spring to mind. But that’s exactly with John Whitney, a pioneer in the field of computing and experimental animation, did to create his video “Catalog”.
While the video itself is merely a composition of all his experiments, making it more of a demo reel than a deliberated piece, the video showcases precisely what it needs to – the use of an unorthodox technology to create art. Such experimentation is the backbone of multimedia, and Whitney does it flawlessly. The technology itself was used for warfare, to calculate the positions of enemy planes and use the data to fire weapons to shoot them out of the air. By combining the technology with simple patterns he painted himself, Whitney created dazzling and unique works that test the limits of the computer as well as art. When Natasha Tsakos talks about using technology during theatrical performances, she uses it not as “a special effect, but as a partner on stage”.
Manovich equates all multimedia with algorithms in his essay “Database as a Symbolic Form”. For Catalog, the algorithm, or process used to reach the end goal in the most efficient way, is limited by what the computer can do with its processing. However, the program was still able to do things and create things that the human hand or mind couldn’t – when given these paintings Whitney made himself, the result was a collaboration between himself and the technology. Whitney said of the technology that he “[didn’t] know how many simultaneous motions can be happening at once” with the computer, so everything that was composed, though using the same painting, was still completely new and unexpected.
This method of collaboration is apparent in many experimental multimedia projects – Radiohead’s music video House of Cards used programming along with human art to create an interactive piece that one can access and view from any angle. While the programming creates the general face of the singer, glitches and limitations in the program create a unique experience to mere filmed video. The singer’s jaw has a tendency to jump forward during certain mouth movements that works surprisingly well with the haunting music and dark, void of an environment. The interactivity allows for a different experience every time one accesses it.
Multimedia is a genre that both depends on an generates collaboration between the human creativity and the calculating precision of technology in many ways, small and large. From the simplest form of meme culture on the internet to larger, more integrated pieces such as Whitney’s Catalog, this relationship continues to generate unique pieces of human creation.
https://www.siggraph.org/artdesign/profile/whitney/motion.htm
http://www.awn.com/mag/issue2.5/2.5pages/2.5moritzwhitney.html
http://www.aaronkoblin.com/work/rh/index.html
definitely not becca 