“Calculated Movements” by Larry Cuba
Video still from YouTube
Title:
- Calculated Movements
Artist(s) and People Involved:
Filmmaker, Video Artist, or Animator(s):
Symposium:
Venue(s):
Creation Year:
- 1985
Medium:
- 16 mm, b/w, optical sound
Duration:
- 6'
Artist Statement:
This special program introduces the rarely seen, yet widely acclaimed computer animated films by the American artist Larry Cuba. In his artwork Cuba is known for his painstaking strain after perfection. Because of this he has produced relatively few films which have, however, a quite unique esthetic quality. According to Gene Youngblood, “if there is a Bach of abstract animation it is Larry Cuba. Words like elegant, graceful, exhilarating spectacular works characterized by cascading designs, starling shifts of perspective and the ineffable beauty of precise, mathematic structure.” (Video/Arts, Winter 1986)
Calculated Movements
A choreographed sequence of graphing events constructed from simple elements repeated and combined in a hierarchical structure. The simplest is a linear ribbon like figure, that appears, follows a path across the screen and then disappears. The like figure, that appears, follows a path next level up in the hierarchy is an animated geometric form composed of multiple copies of the ribbon figure shifted in time and space. At the third level, the copies are speared out into a two-dimensional symmetry pattern or shifted out of phase for a follow-the-leader type effect, or a combination of the two. The highest level is the sequential arrangement of these graphic events into a score that describes the composition from beginning to end.
