Films
Lillian Schwartz, resident artist and consultant at Bell Laboratories (New Jersey), 1969-2002. During the 70s and 80s Schwartz developed a catalogue of visionary techniques for the use of the computer system by artists. Her formal explorations in abstract animation involved the marriage of film, computers and music in collaboration with such luminaries as computer musicians Jean-Claude Risset, Max Mathews, Vladimir Ussachevsky, Milton Babbit, and Richard Moore. Schwartz’s films have been shown and won awards at the Venice Biennale, Zagreb, Cannes, The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and nominated and received Emmy nominations and awards.
Her work has been exhibited at, and is owned by, The Museum of Modern Art (New York), The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), The Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), The Moderna Museet (Stockholm), Centre Beauborg (Paris), Stedlijk Museum of Art (Amsterdam), and the Grand Palais Museum (Paris). Lumen has collaborated with Lillian Schwartz and curator Gregory Kurcewicz to compile a touring package of these important works. “A Beautiful Virus Inside the Machine” features animations restored to video. “The Artist and the Computer”, 1976, 10 mins is a documentary about her work. Produced by Larry Keating for AT&T, “The Artist and the Computer is an excellent introductory informational film that dispels some of the ‘mystery’ of computer-art technology, as it clarifies the necessary human input of integrity, artistic sensibilities, and aesthetics. Ms. Schwartz’s voice over narration explains what she hoped to accomplish in the excerpts from a number of her films and gives insight into the artist’s problems and decisions.” – John Canemaker
New pixel-editing techniques extends the psychology of perception and won Schwartz an Emmy. Commissioned by The Museum of Modern Art. Thanks to Richard C. Voss and Sig Handleman at IBM Yorktown, NY. Funded by IBM.
1978 “NEWTONIAN I” – 4 Min.
1978 “NEWTONIAN II” – 5 1/2 Min.
1977 “L’OISEAU” – 4 Min 55 Sec.
1977 “BAGATELLES” – 4 Min.
1976 “PICTURES FROM A GALLERY” – 6 Min 33 Sec.
1976 “LA SPIRITATA” – 4 Min. 20 Sec.
1976 “FANTASIES” – 5 Min. 15 Sec.
1976 “EXPERIMENTS” – 7 Min.
Music “Quartet in F” by Maurice Ravel, performed by Max Mathews. Subtly colored images combining microphotography and computer generated images with unique editing sequences that propel the viewer into a spiral-like endless vortex. Three music tracks were produced by the Groove System – a computer-controlled sound synthesizer.
1975 “KINESIS” – 4-1/2 Min.
1975 “COLLAGE” – 5 1/2 Min.
1975 “ALAE” – 5 Min.
1974 “METAMORPHOSIS” – 8 Min. 15 Sec.
1974 “GALAXIES” – 4-1/2 Min.
1974 “MAYAN” – 7 Min.
1974 “MIRAGE” – 5 Min.
1974 “METATHESIS” – 3 Min.
1973 “INNOCENCE” – 2-1/2 Min.
1973 “PAPILLONS” – 4 Min.
1972 “MATHOMS” – 2-1/2 Min.
1972 “ENIGMA” – 4 min. 20 sec.
“Lines and rectangles are the geometric shapes basic to ENIGMA, a computer graphics film full of subliminal and persistent image effects. In a staccato rhythm, the film builds to a climax by instantly replacing one set of shapes with another, each set either changing in composition and color or remaining for a moment to vibrate strobiscopically and then change.” – The Booklist. Awards: Foothills-1972; Kenyon-1973; 16 mm. de Montreal; 5th Annual Monterey Film Festival; 2nd Los Angeles International Film Festival; Nat. Acad. of TV Arts & Sciences; Spec. Effect (72). Recent screening at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, December 10, 2012.
1972 “GOOGOLPLEX” – 5-1/2 Min.
1972 “APOTHEOSIS” – 4-1/2 Min.
1972 “MUTATIONS” – 7-1/2 Min.
1972 “AFFINITIES” – 4-1/2 Min.
Beethoven’s variations on Mozart’s “la ci darem la Mano” synthesized on computer by F. Richard Moore. A ballet of squares and octagons in many forms, exhibiting a variety of geometric and sometimes sensuous interactions. Whitney Museum of American Art.
1972 “MIS-TAKES” – 3-1/2 Min.
1971 “OLYMPIAD” – 3 Min. 20 Sec.
Study in motion based on Muybridge’s photographs of man-running. “Figures of computer stylized athletes are seen in brilliant hues chasing each other across the screen. Images are then reversed and run across the screen in the other direction; then images are flopped until athletes are running in countless ways … not unlike a pack of humanity on a football field.” Bob Lehmann, Today’s Film-maker magazine. Lincoln Center Animation Festival of the 5th New York Film Festival. Recent screening at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, December 10, 2012.
1971 “UFOs” – 3 Min
Copyright © 1971, 2013, 2015 Lillian F. Schwartz
Invented first 2D/3D Film without Pixel Shifting.
UFOs involved developing special color filters used on anoptical bench in reshooting original rolls, but to heighten the color saturation exponentially, black frames were inter-edited so that the eyes’ cones were constantly refreshed, the saturation never diminished, and there was a shift in the brain’s alpha rhythm so that observers had conflicting reations. A film breakthrough that literally created an individualized viewing experience.
Music by Emmanuel Ghent. “UFOs proves that computer animation–once a rickety and gimmicky device–is now progressing to the state of an art. The complexity of design and movement, the speed and rhythm, the richness of form and motion, coupled with stroboscopic effects is unsettling. Even more ominously, while design and action are programmed by humans, the ‘result’ in any particular sequence is neither entirely predictable … being created at a rate faster and in concatenations more complex than eye and mind can follow or initiate.” – Amos Vogel, Village Voice. Awards: Ann Arbor-1971; International award-Oberhausen, 1972; 2nd Los Angeles International Film Festival; Museum of Modern Art collection; Commissioned by AT&T. Recent screening at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, December 10, 2012.
1970 “PIXILLATION” – 4 Min.
PIXILLATION occurred at a time when the computer system was linear in time and space; Programs did not yet control pixels as moving, malleable palettes so Lillian F. Schwartz only coded a few lines of computer-generated black and white texture that she intermixed with colored hand animation. She developed an editing technique so that colors between the two media were usually matched, but sometimes mismatched to permit the eye to see an even more saturated color arrangement. The film can be viewed in either 2D or 3D without pixel shifting although one must wear chroma-depth glasses.
“With computer-produced images and Moog-synthesized sound Pixillation is in a sense an introduction to the electronics lab. But its forms are always handsome, its colors bright and appealing, its rhythms complex and inventive.” – Roger Greenspun, N. Y. Times. Golden Eagle-Cine 1971. Moog sound by Gershon Kingsley; Version III: pulls the viewer into a primal experience. Awards:Red Ribbon Award for Special Effects from The National Academy of Television, Arts & Sciences; The Smithsonian Institution and The United States Department of Commerce, Travel Services for Man & His World at the Montreal Expo, ’71; collection The Museum of Modern Art. Commissioned by AT&T. Recent screening at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, December 10, 2012.