CVM Library
Selected reference materials, articles, bibliographies
NOTE re links to external sites: CVM cannot guarantee the accuracy of information presented on external sites
Still from Allures (c) Jordan Belson, all rights reserved
Contents:
General texts on Visual Music Texts on Color Organs Other Visual Music Resources: Specific Artists and Theories Bibliographies
Links specific to Experimental/Abstract Animation Sixties Light Show Resources Other Music Links Other Links Exhibitions
Recommended Books in Print Support the Library
Moritz, Dr. William
-- The Dream of Color Music and the Machines That Made it Possible, Animation World Magazine, Apr 1997.
-- Towards an Aesthetics of Visual Music. ASIFA Canada Bulletin, Dec 1986.
-- Musique de la Couleur - Cinéma Intégral (Color Music - Integral Cinema). in Poétique de la Couleur. Paris: Musée du Louvre, 1995
-- Visuelle Musik: Höhlenmalereien für MTV? (Visual Music: Cave Painting to MTV?) in Sound & Vision (exhibition catalog). Frankfurt: Deutsches Filmmuseum, 1993
-- Visual Music and Film-As-An-Art before 1950 in On the Edge of America: California Modernist Art, 1900-1950. Karlstrom, Paul J., ed. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996.
--See Visual Music section below for additional Moritz articlesMcDonnell, M. Visual Music . A brief overview of the history of Color Organs, selected theories of Visual Music, and an overview of some Visual Music filmmakers (A brief introduction).
Ox, Jack and Cindy Keefer. On Curating Recent Digital Abstract Visual Music. New York Digital Salon, Abstract Visual Music Project, 2006. Includes definitions of Visual Music
Rhythmic Light. Fred Collopy's website resources on visual music including texts, timeline and bibliography. Of particular interest to those beginning their studies is his brief Pioneers of Visual Music.
WRF. Color Music: The Art of Light.
See Visual Music section, continued below, for many more articles and links.
Texts relating to Color Organs
Bainbridge, Bishop. A Souvenir of the Colour Organ, with some Suggestions in Regard to The Soul of the Rainbow and the Harmony of Light (1893). PDF. Hosted by Rhythmic Light.
Baranoff-Rossine, Vladimir. Excerpt from Mecanisme du piano at Piano Optophonique site, also includes a bibliography of his texts and an audio file.
Franssen, Maarten. “The ocular harpsichord of Louis-Bertrand Castel: The science and aesthetics of an eighteenth-centure cause celebre,” Tractrix Yearbook for the History of Science, Medicine, Technology and Mathematics, 1991 (3), 15-77. Paper online (PDF) at Rhythmic Light.
Laszlo, Alexander, Die Farblichtmusik, Leipzig, 1925
Mason, W. "Father Castel and his color clavecin". Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, vol. 17, Sept 1958, 103-116.
Moritz, William. The Dream of Color Music and the Machines That Made it Possible, Animation World Magazine, Apr 1997.
Peacock, Kenneth. "Instruments to Perform Color-Music: Two Centuries of Technological Experimentation," Leonardo 21, No. 4 (1988) 397-406. PDF online at RhythmicLight.com
Rimington, Alexander Wallance. A New Art: Colour Music. A paper read at St. James' Hall, 1895. Hosted by www.lumen.nu.
Smith, Steven A., Greta J. Dockum, and Gretchen Evans Dockum. "Kinetic Art: The Mobilcolor Projectors of Charles R. Dockum (1904-1977). Leonardo 12, no. 2 (Spring, 1979), pp 144-50. Available on JSTOR.
Wilfred, Thomas. "Composing in the Art of Lumia" in Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, VII. no. 2, December 1948
--“Light and the artist,” Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, (V) June 1947. PDF online at RhythmicLight.comPatents of color organs and light show instruments
Proceedings of the Athanasius Kircher Society: A Short History of the Ocular Harpsichord and its Progeny
Other Resources on Visual Music, specific Theories and Artists
Alves, Bill. Digital Harmony of Sound and Light in Computer Music Journal, 29:4, Winter 2005. PDF for download.
Beck, Stephen. Direct Video: Electronic Artform for Color Television on Experimental Television Center site
Bragdon, Claude Fayette. "Harnessing The Rainbow" in Architecture and Democracy (see third chapter).
Brinkmann, Christine Noll. Collective Movements and Solitary Thrusts: German Experimental Film 1920-1990. Millenium Film Journal, No. 30/31, Fall 1997
Bute, Mary Ellen. Reaching for Kinetic Art. 1976. Reprinted in Program Notes for Harvard Independent Film Group
Mary Ellen Bute on fusionanomaly.net
Camper, Fred. Writing on Experimental and Avant-Garde Film
Chladni, Ernst (on wikipedia)
New Color Spaces (on Color Phenomena site). ref. Athanasius Kircher, Sir Isaac Newton, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Corra, Bruno. Abstract Cinema-Chromatic Music, 1912.
Delehanty, Suzanne. Soundings. In SOUNDINGS, Neuberger Museum, SUNY Purchase, 1981 (exhibition)
DeWitt, Tom. “Visual music: Searching for an Aesthetic,” Leonardo, 20 (1987), 115-122. PDF online at RhythmicLight.com
Engel, Jules
--Reflections: Graphic Choreography. New Magazine, Vol. 10
--Experimental Animation - The Joy of Movement. Unpublished typescript, n.d.Fischinger, Elfriede. Writing Light. (about Oskar's Lumigraph) reprinted in First Light, Robert Haller, Ed. New York: Anthology Film Archives, 1998
Fischinger, Oskar - (see CVM's Oskar Fischinger Research Pages for statements, bibliography, film notes and other resources)
--Sounding Ornaments, 1932
--My Statements are in My Work. Art in Cinema catalog, San Francisco, 1947
--True Creation, 1949. Knokke-le-Zoute film festival.
--A Statement About Painting, 1951. For exhibition at Frank Perls Gallery, Los Angeles
--Visit the Fischinger Archive website for filmography, articles and moreFriedlander, Paul. What is Visual Music? Includes definitions of Visual Music
Futurism.org: Futurist Cinema (ref. Ginna, Corra).
Gschwandtner, Sabrina. Between Film and Video - the Intermedia Art of Jud Yalkut: An Interview with Jud Yalkut. Millenium Film Journal 42 (Fall 2005)
Galeyev, Bulat M. Abstract Cinema and Light-Music.
New -- On the Natural Philosophy Conceptions of "MUSIC VISION"Ginsberg, Allen and Paola Igliori discuss the life and times of Harry Smith: Interview in Milk Magazine, Sept 24, 1995
Hall, Manley P. The Pythagorean Theory of Music and Color in The Secret Teachings of All Ages, 1928.
Haller, Robert
--Jim Davis: Visions of Convergence. First Light catalog, 1999
-- Galaxy: Avant-Garde Film-makers Look across Space and Time. Catalog notes, 2001 (Fischinger, Davis, Brakhage, Belson, Emshwiller)Hammid, Alexander. Film and Music.
Hatfield, Jackie. Expanded Cinema and Narrative. Millenium Film Journal no. 39/40, Winter 2003
Higgins, Dick with an Appendix by Hannah Higgins. Synesthesia and Intersenses: Intermedia. 1965. Originally published in Something Else Newsletter 1, No. 1 (Something Else Press, 1966).
Holsopple, Jerry. Toward a Poetic of Visual Music. Dissertation. pdf
Hutchison, Niels. Colour Music: History and Theory of Relationship of Music to Color
James, David. "Expanded Cinema in Los Angeles: The Single Wing Turquoise Bird." Millenium Film Journal Nos. 43/44, Summer/Fall 2005. Article not online yet
New Janiak, Larry and Dave Daruszka. Oskar Fischinger: An Interview with Elfriede Fischinger. Zoetrope: The Publication of Commercial and Experimental Media, No. 3, March 1979.
Jewansky, Dr. Joerg. Colour and music. In L. Macy (Ed.), The New Grove Dictionary of Music Online. 2003. http://www.grovemusic.com
Keefer, Cindy
-- On Curating Recent Digital Abstract Visual Music. With Jack Ox. New York Digital Salon, Abstract Visual Music Project, 2006 (authored for exhibition catalog and website).
--"Visual Music: Music for the Eyes." Harmony Channel website, 2006
--"Space Light Art" - Early Abstract Cinema and Multimedia, 1900-1959. (Excerpt) White Noise (Melbourne: Australian Centre for the Moving Image, 2005). Exhibition Catalog.
--A Lifetime in Animation: The Glamorous Dr. William Moritz. Animation World Magazine, Los Angeles, 2003
--"Hungarian Rhapsodist: Jules Engel." Animation Magazine, Los Angeles, 2003
--"Hy Hirsh Preservation: History and Mystery." Kinetica 3 catalog, Los Angeles, 2001Klein, Adrian Bernard. Colour-Music: The Art of Light. London: Crosby Lockwood and Son, 1927.
Kuo, Michelle. Synaesthesia and The Body Politic. Hosted online by The Govett Brewster Art Gallery.
Langlois, Philippe. Les pionniers du son synthétique au cinéma, Les Cahiers de l’OMF, No. 4, 1999. Paris: Observatoire Musical Français: 23-33.
Laposky, Ben F. Oscillons: Electronic Abstractions. Originally published in Artist and Computer, 1976. Hosted online by Atari Archives.
Lazell, David. Colour Music Light (on Rimington)
Levin, Thomas. "Tones from out of Nowhere": Rudolph Pfenninger and the Archaeology of Synthetic Sound (pdf). First published in Grey Room journal; French version published in Sons et Lumieres exhibition catalog, Centre Pompidou, Paris, 2004.
Lyden, Harry. The Schillinger System of Musical Composition. (System studied by Mary Ellen Bute)
McDonnell, Maura. Visual Music. Notes for Lecture on Visual Music, October 2003. PDF.
Markopoulos, Gregory J. The Intuition Space. Millenium Film Journal No. 32/33, Fall 1998
Mead, Stephen. Ludwig Hirschfeld Mack. University of Melbourne, Ian Potter Museum of Art, Ex. Cat. (pdf)
Milicevic, Mladen. Experimental/Abstract Film and Synaesthetic Phenomena 1725 - 1970
Oskar Fischinger: Artist of the Century, reprinted in Animac Magazine 2001 (Lleida, Spain)
New Harry Smith, Mythologist. Unpublished typescript from presentation at Harry Smith Symposium, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, 2001
Jordan Belson: Last of the Great Masters. Animation Journal, 1999
The Influence of Sound/Music on the Image. with Baerbel Neubauer. Animation World Magazine, June 1999
In Passing...Elfriede Fischinger, Animation World Magazine, May 1999
The Absolute Film, Presentation at WRO 99 Media Art Biennale. Wroclaw, Poland, April 1999
"Enlightenment" in First Light, Robert Haller, Ed. New York: Anthology Film Archives, 1998
The Film Strip Tells All, AW Magazine, Sept 1998
Digital Harmony: The Life of John Whitney, Computer Animation Pioneer, AW Magazine, Aug 1997
Mary Ellen Bute: Seeing Sound. AW Magazine, 1996
GasparColor: Perfect Hues for Animation. Presentation at The Louvre, Paris, 1995
Jules Engel, Post-Modernist. Cardiff International Animation Festival program, 1994
Color Harmony/Color Music in El color en el arte mexicano, 1994New Abstract Films of the 1920s. In International Experimental Film Congress. Toronto, Ontario: The Art Gallery of Ontario, in association with the International Experimental Film Congress, May 1989.
Some Observations on Non-Objective and Non-Linear Animation. Storytelling in Animation: the Art of the Animated Image
Volume 2. Ed. John Canemaker. Los Angeles: American Film Institute, 1988, 21-31.
New The Private World of Oskar Fischinger. Liner notes, "The World of Oskar Fischinger" laserdisc, LaserDisc Corporation, Tokyo, 1986.
The Films of John Whitney. Liner notes, LaserDisc Corporation, Tokyo, 1986.
Abstract Film and Color Music, in The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890-1985. Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Exhibition Catalog). Abbeville Press, 1986
James Whitney Retrospective. "Toronto '84", Canadian International Animation Festival program notes, Toronto, March 1984.
You Can't Get Then from Now, Part I: Oskar Fischinger, in Journal: Southern California Art Magazine, No. 29, 1981
Non-Objective Film, The Second Generation. In Film as Film, Formal Experiment in Film, 1910 - 1975. London: Hayward Gallery/Arts Council of Great Britain, 1979
"Fallout: Some Notes on the Films of Bruce Conner." With Marsha Kinder. Film Quarterly, Vol XXXI, no. 4, Summer 1978.
Beyond "Abstract" Criticism, Film Quarterly, Vol. XXXI, no. 3, Spring 1978
Fischinger at Disney, or Oskar in the Mousetrap. Millimeter, Vol. 5, no. 2. February 1977.
[On James Whitney's Yantra and Lapis] (excerpt), 1977 manuscript
The Importance of Being Fischinger, Ottawa International Animated Film Festival Program, 1976
The First Time Underground (excerpt), in Yankee Underground Film Festival Program Notes, Occidental College, 1968See General Texts above for other Moritz articles on Visual Music
Moritz-Related articles:
New Goldstein, Patrick. Even Greeks had Ear for Visuals Los Angeles Times. Nov 18, 1983. Contains excerpts from an interview with William Moritz.
Ox, Jack. A Complex System for the Visualization of Music
Potter, Ralph K. New Scientific Tools for the Arts, Excerpt. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol X:2, December 1951
Prampolini, Enrico. Chromophony - The Color of Sounds. Gazetta Ferrarese, August 26, 1913
Prometheus Institute, Kazan, Russia.
Putnam, Samuel. The Glistening Bridge. Leopold Survage and the Spatial Problem in Painting (1929). PDF. Hosted on RhythmicLight.com
Rekveld, Joost. Links to his texts including Symmetry and Harmonics, Transformations of Colour
--Program notes for A Brighter Future, Abstract Film and Utopia 1925-1975. Independent Film Show, Napoli, 2006.
Richter, Hans. “Easel-Scroll-Film,” Magazine of Art, February 1952, 78-86. PDF online at RhythmicLight.com
Rimington, A. Wallace. Colour-Music: The Art of Mobile Colour, New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1911. (A paperback version was published in 2003, available on amazon.com)
Schillinger, Joseph. Excerpts from A Theory of Synchronization. PDF. in Experimental Cinema No. 5, 1934. Online courtesy Philip Hood.
Snibbe, Scott and Golan Levin. Interactive Dynamic Abstraction. PDF.
Sorensen, Vibeke. California Dreaming the World. 2001
Starr, Cecile. Fine Art Animation. Reprinted from The Art of the Animated Image, Charles Solomon, ed., 1987.
Tan, Ying. The Unknown Art of Jordan Belson. Animation Journal, Spring 1999
von Maur, Karin. Vom Klang der Bilder, Munich: Prestel-Verlag, 1985. Exhibition Catalog - Highly Recommended. On amazon.de, Germany
WRF. Color Music: The Art of Light.
Wees, William. Light Moving in Time: Studies in the Visual Aesthetics of Avant-Garde Film. (Entire book online). CVM recommends Chapter 6— "Making Films for the Inner Eye: Jordan Belson, James Whitney, Paul Sharits." Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992
Whitney, John Sr. Computational Periodics. 1975. Originally published in Artist and Computer, 1976. Hosted online by Atari Archives.
Youngblood, Gene. Expanded Cinema. Entire book online. Chapters on Whitney, Belson and others.
(unknown) Animated Music, Extracts from catalog of Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film, 1996
For links to many individual artists' websites, please visit CVM's Artists' Sites
Oskar Fischinger
Jordan Belson
Leonardo: Visual Music
Bibliography for Experimental Animation (by Stephen Arthur)
Rhythmic Light. Annotated bibliography re visual music, color, form, motion, design and related topics
The Animation Bibliography. Maintained by the Society for Animation Studies.
Synesthesia in Art in Science, compiled by Cretien van Campen, ed., Greta Berman and Bulat Galeyev, in Leonardo online
Video History Project of the Experimental Television Center
Please help support our Library's continuing work, by making a donation via credit card through paypal (you do not need a paypal account)
Links specific to Experimental/Abstract Animation
Film Alchemy (by Leah M. Bosworth) at ASIFA Central
Dill, Janeann. Jules Engel, The Mentor. Animation World Magazine, May 1999
Elder, Bruce. On Picture: for Stan Brakhage. First Light exhibition catalog, 1999
Drawing and Etching on Film (by Marcel Jean), at NFB. Ref. Len Lye, Norman McLaren
Krukowski, Samantha. Alchemical Frames (unpublished)
Norman McLaren: Illustrated filmography with clips and film notes, at NFB
Reble, Jurgen. Chemistry and The Alchemy of Color. Millenium Film Journal no. 30/31, Fall 1997
DVDs by Joshua White, Glenn McKay at the CVM online store; plus Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable (on videotape)
Tune In, Turn On, Light Up... in Tate ETC, Issue 4, Summer 2005 (includes reminiscences from Joshua White, Mark Boyle & Joan Hills, Glenn O'Brien, Ronald Nameth, others.
Gschwandtner. Between Film and Video - The Intermedia Art of Jud Yalkut: An Interview with Jud Yalkut. in Millenium Film Journal No. 42 (Fall 2004)
James, David. "Expanded Cinema in Los Angeles: The Single Wing Turquoise Bird." in Millenium Film Journal, No. 43/44, (Summer/Fall 2005)
Patents of color organs and light show instruments
Pig Light Show - check out their gallery of slides
Psychedelic Light Shows at the Pooterland website
Single Wing Turquoise Bird Light Show - official site
"The World's Largest List of Psychedelic Light Shows" at Liquid Sound Designs website
Youngblood, Gene. Expanded Cinema. PDF online. See Part Six: Intermedia for section on Single Wing Turquoise Bird, page 392
Pictures of Music. Online exhibition of Block Museum, Northwestern University. Another type of Visual Music.
The Visual Context of Music on BibliOdyssey
A History of Spatial Music, by Richard Zvonar, PhD
Was Scriabin a Synaesthete? by Bulat Galeyev and I.Vanechkina
120 Years of Electronic Music - includes The Theremin and many other instruments
Musique et arts plastiques, CRDP de l'académie de Créteil
John Cage: An Autobiographical Statement
John Cage: Interview on KPFK's Ode to Gravity - for download
A History of Early Visual Media (pre-cinema, photography)
Alchemical Texts
CGI Historical Timeline (ref. Whitney, Vanderbeek)
Cantrills Filmnotes index and article: La couleur au cinéma (1995)
Color Academy: A Resource of Ideas About Colour (UK)
History of Animation (Jm Hoffman)
International Synaesthesia Association
Kinetic Optics, Steve Baker
Making Sense of Marcel Duchamp (Andrew Stafford)
Patents of color organs and light show instruments
A Review of Synesthesia: Colored Hearing, Creativity and Research (Judith A. Easton)
Synaesthesia (by Dr. Richard Cytowic) - many links
Synaesthesia (James Wierzbicki)
Synesthesia and Artistic Experimentation (Crétien van Campen)
Synaesthesia & the Arts (Dr. Hugo Heyrman)
Theosophy
VJ Culture by momus (PDF)
Extra Ordinary Every Day: The Bauhaus at the Busch-Reisinger (Harvard Univ. Art Museums)
Future Cinema, ZKM Karlsruhe, 2002-03.
Light Art from Artificial Light, ZKM Karlsruhe, through August, 2006
Sons et Lumieres, film screenings Sept. 22-26, 2004 (pdf), Centre Pompidou, Paris. Exhibition page.
What Sound Does a Color Make? ICI, touring 2005-06
See CVM's Exhibitions Page for Visual Music exhibition, 2005, MOCA LA and Hirshhorn Museum
Summer of Love, 2006, Tate Liverpool, UK; Frankfurt and Vienna. May - Sept. 2007 at Whitney Museum, New York.
Articulated Light: The Emergence of Abstract Film in America O'Grady, Gerald and Bruce Posner, Eds. Harvard Film Archive and Anthology Film Archives. Film series held at Harvard Film Archive, 1997. (NOTE: contains numerous errata, particularly in the filmographies, dates and also text on Hirsh). Program notes, PDF.
WARNING: The articles and essays referenced on this site are protected by Copyright Law - please clear permissions with the appropriate author or organization before reproducing.
Recommended
Books in Print
many are available through CVM's
Amazon.com
links page
Recent exhibition catalogs:
Sons et Lumieres.A History of Sound in the Art of the 20th Century. Centre Pompidou, Paris exhibition Sept 2004-January 2005. Order through Centre Pompidou.
Pat O'Neill: View from Lookout Mountain Santa Monica Museum of Art and Steidl Verlag, Germany, 2004. Order through SMMA
Recommended recent book publications:
Scott MacDonald, Art in Cinema, order through our amazon links page
Dr. Jörg Jewanski and Natalia Sidler, Farbe - Licht - Musik: Synaesthesie und Farblichtmusik Zurich: Peter Lang, 2006
David James, "The Most Typical Avant-Garde: Minor Cinemas in Los Angeles"
order
through our amazon links page
Dr.
William Moritz, "Optical Poetry," published by John Libbey
Publishing; in the US and Canada, by Indiana
University Press. Available through amazon
links page
"At last! A full biography of Oskar Fischinger, arguably the greatest and the most influential artist of abstract or 'absolute' cinema. This informative book, written with insight and candor by film historian Dr. William Moritz, is an important contribution to our knowledge of alternative filmmaking seen through the life and art of a unique visionary."
John
Canemaker
Professor/Director - Animation Studies, New York University
For more recent published texts on Visual Music, please see our Amazon.com links page
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