Animated Sound
New technologies
Computer-generated imagery

• Animated Sound
  
  
  • Norman McLaren ((1914-1987) a Scottish Canadian animator, director and producer
    
    
    • During the 1930s a holistic audiovisual approach to film animation was developed that is unlike any other technique used in the production of motion pictures.
      
      
    • McLaren began to use the principles and was the first to create a significant body of artistic work employing synthetic sound techniques.
      
      
    • Labeled "animated sound" by McLaren, this unique but little known method of conjugating sound and image has been explored and developed throughout most of the early and mid-twentieth century.
      
      
      
      
      
      
      
    • In his films Allegro (1939), and Dots and Loops (1940), McLaren drew both 'sounds and images' directly onto film celluloid without the intervention of a camera.
      
      
    • With this graphic approach to sound and image, McLaren created beautiful and refreshing animated films by experimenting with colorful abstract designs and a whole range of delightful auditory effects.
      
      
      
      
      
      
    • This form of animated sound is demonstrated in a number of films, most notably Synchromy (1971).
      
      
    • He orchestrated his films with a freer and more artistic approach, allowing each of these compositional elements to make a distinct contribution to the final effect.
      
      
      
      
    • The real significance of animated sound is that there is a direct synergistic linkage between sound and image. In other words, sound and image emanate from the same source and share a unifying common denominator.
      
      
    • In the case of McLaren, Fischinger, and the Whitneys, the common denominator is graphic patterns that are either hand-drawn or photographically inscribed onto a soundtrack.
      
      
    • Animated sound bypasses the conventional post-synchronization and consists of synthetic approach to filmmaking that stresses the synthesis and interdependence of sight and sound.
      

    
    
    
    

• New technologies
  
  
• New technologies
  
  
  • "Each age finds its own technique." - Jackson Pollock​
    
    
  • With the arrival of new technologies, "animated sound" has been expanded upon by a new breed of artists.
    
    
  • These new works have a "fine arts lineage" and are not a product of the motion picture or television industries. Rather, they are independent productions that project a highly personal sense of vision.
    
    
    
    
    
  • The audiovisual structures are not only devoid of big studio formulas and clichés, but are providing fresh technical and artistic alternatives that could broaden the way we think about art, entertainment, and the communication.
    
    
  • During the formative years of animated sound, experimenters in various areas of both art and science made important contributions to the technical development of "graphically generated sound."
    
    
  • These pioneers developed cinematic audio techniques that were personal, innovative and distinctly different from the conventional motion-picture approach.
    
    
  • Their techniques consisted of creating sound, not from musical instruments, but by inscribing various kinds of graphic patterns directly onto the soundtrack of film.
    
    
    
    
    
    
• Laszlo Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946) a Hungarian painter, photographer, professor in the Bauhaus school.
  
  
  • Among the first to theorize about the artistic potential of a totally synthetic approach to sound on film was Bauhaus artist and teacher Laszlo Moholy-Nagy.
    
    
    
    
    
  
  
• He published several articles on the subject in Belgium and Germany during the 1920s.
  
  
• In 1933, shortly after the sound projector was introduced, Moholy-Nagy demonstrated his theories by making Sound ABC, a film with an optical track on which he recorded letters of the alphabet, profiles, fingerprints, and all types of signs and symbols. Each of these visual forms produced a distinct and audible result.
  
  
  
  
  
• Although these sounds were not codified or orchestrated in any way, the experiment effectively demonstrated his acoustic theories and suggested a new and graphically unified approach to structuring the sound film.
  
• The early research projects by Moholy-Nagy and others, particularly the synthetic sound films of Oscar Fischinger, were shown widely in Europe and England.
  
  
• In a parallel development beginning in 1930, several Russians at the Scientific Experimental Film Institute in Leningrad were also producing animated sound or what they termed "ornamental animation in sound."
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Computer-generated imagery
  
  
  
  • Computer-generated imagery
    
    
    • Many artists use computer technology as an indispensable technical aid to invent and explore the unknown or new types of art.
      
      
    • Computers can also be used as a more integrated part of the creative process. With some basic knowledge in programming, many new possibilities emerge. Suddenly, previously unthinkable ideas or completely new art forms can easily be implemented.
      
      
    • The field has attracted many exceptional artistic talents associated with traditional art forms—painting, sculpture, cinematography, music and has offered them previously unprecedented methods of artistic expression and engaging art audiences.
      
      
      
      
    • With the emergence of digital technology in the late twentieth century, the techniques for conjugating sound and image that were pioneered during the era of experimental film animation were significantly transformed and expanded.
      
      
      
      
      
  • Hyper-animation
    
    
  • Forms of computer-based hyperanimation have evolved, opening up entirely new methods of expression, crossing borders and challenging our notions of art and audiovisual communication.
    
    
  • Hyperanimation is essentially a time-based form of synthetic expression, a high-tech continuation of the same artistic tradition.
    
    
  • Legible City (1989) by Australian artist Jeffrey Shaw is a pioneering interactive art installation where the visitor rides a stationary bicycle through a simulated representation of a city that is constituted by computer-generated, three-dimensional letters that form words and sentences along the sides of the streets.
    
    
    
    
    
    
  • Using advanced electronic and computer processes, these artists have expanded the field of experimental animation and have created a variety of works that have prepared the groundwork for a new audiovisual syntax.
    
    
  • Because of its multidimensional and polysensory expressive capabilities, hyperanimation has the potential to involve the viewer in unprecedented ways.
    
    
  • Unlike motion-picture film, it does not have to conform to a standardized format or projection system, but rather can be displayed in a variety of forms and interactive configuration.
    
    
    
    
    
    
  • SonoMorphis (1998) by German artists Bernd Lintermann and Torsten Belschner is an interactive stereoscopic display of virtual 3D organic objects accompanied by sound.
    
    
  • In this work, a computer is programmed to simulate the growth and behaviors of abstract animated objects that are displayed in an illusory space.
    
    
  • Sound is an integral part of the program and is designed to correspond to the visual activity.
    
    Sonomorphis (1998) Bernd Lintermann, Torsten Belschner
    
    
    
    
  • By wearing stereo spectacles and using an interface panel placed in front of the display screen, a user can participate in creating the imagery and sound of the installation.
    
    
  • The selected objects can be made to move, change size, and evolve in stereo space, producing random mutations and simulating the genetics and behaviors of virtual organisms.
    
    
  • Lintermann programmed the graphics for the installation, basically using genetic algorithms, and Belschner produced the computer-generated sound component.
    
    Sono reMorphed (2007) Bernd Lintermann, Torsten Belschner
    
    
    
    
  • Unlike other forms of expression, interactive works have an apparatus that comes between the creator and the audience and this apparatus is responsive and livelier than a motion picture screen.
    
    
  • When a conventional motion picture is made, the process is finished at some point and the result is an immutable work.
    
    
  • In contrast, interactive works remain in an alterable state and can be continuously explored because the apparatus is capable of performing certain operations on its own.
    
    
    
    
    
  • Vibeke Sorensen's hyperanimated works explore yet another direction in the realm of acoustical imaging.
    
    
  • Her interactive performance piece Lemma 2 is a totally interdependent sound-image structure that supercedes synchronization and even includes live improvised music.
    
    
  • Using digital technology and telecommunications, Sorensen and a team of collaborators produced this multimedia concert in 1999.
    
    
    
    
    
    
  • The interactive feature of this work does not involve the audience, but rather the participation of numerous artists. It is a process very similar to the way jazz musicians respond to each other while performing.
    
    
  • The layout of the piece involved the simultaneous use of two performance sites that were connected by the Internet: one was in New York and the other was in Hillsboro, Oregon.