Kenny J Smith

post modernity

• design teaching us about history not vice versa
• michael j dear & stephen flusty
• spaces of postmodernism
• ities - value system, ideology, cultural and economic meaning
• ism - the qualities associated with those ideas
• hfg - new bauhaus
• hans gagelot - working with braun
• rosie the riveter
• richard hamilton - collage
• pop art - roy lichenstein
• abstract expressionism
• on the road book
• hippy’s - habitat - consumerism - need / want
• space exploration - egg chair - fibre glass - bean bag - inflatable chair
• ettore sottsass - olivetti typewriter - kitche
• modern housing buildings become slums
• building is a sign - venturi

Analog in, digital out : Brandan Dawes on interactive design. by Brandan Dawes
Berkeley, CA : New Riders, 2007

Taking Credit: Film title sequences, 1955-1965 / 5 Spiralling Aspirations: Vertigo, 1958. by Emily King. http://www.typotheque.com/site/article.php?id=93

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Whitney_(animator)

http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/?p=1021

http://translab.burundi.sk/code/vzx/index.htm

http://www.siggraph.org/artdesign/profile/whitney/rdtd.html

My thesis is on the American animator and inventor John Whitney, who is considered to be one of the founders of computer animation. In my essay I ask ‘Did John Whitney’s films have more impact on the understanding of the human psyche or the advancement of digital media technology.

The time frame that I am concentrating on is when John Whitney is working with computerized animation from 1950 to 1995.

John Whitney’s films are now regarded as being important historically in the history of digital media but I argue that at the time they were more influential on the spiritual and psychedelic art world than the film community.

In my essay I will discuss the fact that John Whitney was not credited for his contributions to film including animation in Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Vertigo’ and Stanley Kubrick’s ‘2001 : a space odyssey’.

I will also discuss John Whitney’s films as using the new technology as a way to convey synaesthesia, stimulating senses that are not connected with the medium.

In summary, I will argue that at the time of his films, John Whitney progressed the field of psychological art more than the field of computer animation for film.

Modernism

• modernism came after Russian revolution
• Baroque ornamental 1600 - 1700
• Industrialization in Manchester
• William Morris mde furniture without ornaments
• Luis Sullivan - form follows function
• simple geometric forms and symmetry
• factories and electrical products
• end of WW1, Russian constructivism, avant garde
• El Lissitzky - red wedge
• Italian futurism
• dynamic with purpose
• De Stijl - Netherlands
• still life, primary colours
• design can educate people
• Bauhaus 1919 - 1925 - 1932
• mass modernism international style

Here is the link to the finished munted video:

http://kennyjsmith.com/cinematics/munted/munted.html

Company branding as a status symbol is the new social hierarchy

The rich buy the brand products, the middle class can’t afford the brand products and the poor make the brand products.

History of computers

• Ada King - first programmer
• Charles Babage - built the analytical machine
• Alan Turing - computer scientist
• Konrad Zuse - Z3 computer 1941
• Colossus - at Bletchley Park
• Norbert Wiener - Cybernetics
• IBM 701 - first commercial computer
• PDP1 - first PC
• SpaceWar - first computer game 1962 at MIT
• Sketchpad 1963
• NLS demo 1968
• Apple 1
• C64 1982

Motion Art

• Zoetrope 1834
• Eadweard Muybridge 1878
• Fantasmagoria 1849
• Laszlo Clavilux
• Jean Tinguely - meta matrix
• Nam June Paik
• John Whitney - computer animation

The inspiration of my video came from a work trip to Macau, China over the summer holidays. I was surprised to see how much the local people were influenced by label clothing especially disney. Walking down the street you can see people wearing mickey mouse clothing and bags. On Christmas eve I visited a home that had a mickey mouse themed bathroom where everything had mickey mouse on it. I also saw a disney themed car with mickey mouse airbrushed on the outside and full with Disney toys/merchandise.

It seemed strange to me that people were paying top dollar for items when most of the money goes to a wealthy american company and a few cents goes to local sweatshops. This is not a case of supporting the local economy, the people that work in these sweatshops are paid $3NZD a day.

The main theme of my video is “Company branding as a status symbol is the new social hierarchy“.

These are some links about sweatshops in Macau and mainland China.
http://www.cleanclothes.org/urgent/99-6-20-disney.htm

http://www.tabberone.com/Trademarks/SweatShops/GlobalExchange/WorkingConditions.html

http://www.tabberone.com/Trademarks/SweatShops/GlobalExchange/DisneyDeal.html

A response to Walter Murch’s article about editing: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4994411

I found Walter’s article interesting how he said that we see our daily lives unedited, yet we can watch edited films without becoming seasick.

It seems that our dreams and memories can be cinematic and edited by the brain.