Center for Visual Music

A followup in connection with CVM's Belson/Vortex/Expanded Cinema seminar starting this week - flashback to some of the many museum exhibitions where CVM has displayed our restored Belson films over the past decades (working closely with Jordan). These are only a few - at D Museum Seoul, Chakra at Halle der Kunst (Graz), BAMPFA (we also had a still from Allures on the outside of the museum), Allures at Walker Art Center, Seoul Museum of Art, and Chakra at Raven Row, London. We don't have photos of the Belson room we did at MoCA LA/Hirshhorn (Smithsonian) in the 2005 Visual Music exhibition, does anyone have any of our Belson room?

Please visit our Belson research site (created with Jordan) for more about his films, our restorations and exhibitions. We're the only organization with his restored and preserved films authorized by Jordan himself. He was very specific about the conditions for his films, and the quality, and we continue to honor his wishes though sadly not all do now. Stills courtesy CVM, Halle der Kunst and Seoul Museum of Art.

Flashback: CVM did a Jordan Belson room in an exhibition about Psychedelia at Raven Row, London, with 3 films looped. Installation shots here are from World and Seance; Chakra also screened. World was photochemically restored from Jordan's original 16mm a/b/c rolls; later we finished the restoration on Chakra, also from his a/b/c rolls. Visit our Belson research site (created with Jordan's input and permission) for more about his films, our restorations, a filmography, bibliography, etc. CVM is the only organization with restored films approved by Belson (other than a few copies we placed in other archives); we worked with him for 13 years restoring his work, and producing projects for him.

Special Spring Sale, four Original Animation Drawings from Oskar Fischinger’s film Studie Nr. 8 (1931). Charcoal on paper. Unsigned, numbered lower right. 9 x 11-1/4 inches. Drawn at his Berlin studio, used in the film.

Fischinger’s popular series of Studies films, distributed to first run theatres worldwide, were milestones in the histories of musical cinema, music video, experimental animation and motion graphics. Fischinger produced Studie Nr. 8 after he had conceptualized the aesthetic style and values of his seminal Studies, and had designed a production process allowing him to create and distribute additional Studies such that each would attain new and distinct musical and motion effects. The hand drawn images of Studie Nr. 8 are charcoal images of signature Fischinger imagery that would be reversed in the printing process to appear in projection as an abstract choreography of light moving through darkened space.

Link in comments to details at our Art/Film Fundraiser, link is also on our home page. Only 4 offered at this special sale price of $1200 each (further discount for CVM Members). Other Fischinger merch is also offered there, plus another drawing from Ornament Sound experiments.

June 4: Oskar Fischinger’s Muratti greift Ein! (1934) in a screening at Palm Springs Art Museum (California).

This ad for Muratti ci******es ran in first run theatres worldwide, becoming famous. After this Fischinger received commissions for cigarette ads for Muratti, Borg, Meluka and others.

CVM’s digital exhibition copy was scanned from one of Oskar’s own nitrate prints in our archive. This ad is on our Oskar Fischinger: Visual Music DVD. Visit our Fischinger site for more about his work, link in comments.

REGISTRATION CLOSING SOON. One student comp pass available.

“Jordan Belson, Vortex Concerts and the Origins of Expanded Cinema,” CVM’s virtual seminar returns June 11. What’s the real story of the 1950s Vortex Concerts in Morrison Planetarium? How did they originate? What kind of visuals did Belson use? Our seminar explores the history of the Vortex Concerts and their influence, Belson’s own film work before and after Vortex, key moments in the origins of Expanded Cinema, 1920s-1960s, and more. Beginning June 11, limited enrollment.

Five weekly zoom sessions include illustrated talks by curator/archivist Cindy Keefer, who worked with Belson for years restoring and exhibiting his films, screenings of related Belson films and rare works, plus archival materials. Keefer interviewed Belson extensively about Vortex, plus Henry Jacobs and others. You’ll also see documentation footage of CVM’s reconstruction of Oskar Fischinger’s 1926 multiple projector cinematic performances called Raumlichtkunst, an early attempt at an immersive environment and expanded cinema.

Much incorrect info has been spread over years about Vortex, beware online sources especially. Jordan didn’t screen his films at Vortex. They were not a weekly series, or a late night weekend event (that’s Laserium), for example. The planetarium didn’t have 100 speakers, there were 38. Jordan didn’t receive much money from Vortex (less than $1000 in 1958). Henry Jacobs didn’t play any John Cage compositions as some claim (confirmed by Jacobs to Keefer). Join us, learn the facts about these spactacular and groundbreaking events. Limited enrollment, link in comments.

For Fischinger fans, we have a sale on the boxed coaster set, and the first DVD, Oskar Fischinger: Ten Films. Also at our shop, the silk Raumlichtkunst scarf created by the Whitney Museum for the premiere in 2012, our second Fischinger DVD and other DVDs, posters, books, more. While supplies last. Link in comments.

Scarf photos courtesy Whitney Museum of Art.

Herbert W. Franke exhibition and interview, 2022.

Herbert W. Franke on Art After the NFT As the Francisco Carolinum hosts a new exhibition of the artist’s work, Georg Bak talks to the father of computer art about how his theories became reality

Mary Ellen Bute, Abstronic. One of her short abstract films using oscilloscope patterns. See our Bute site for more about her films and work, including her oscilloscope test photographs.

CVM has playlists on youtube and vimeo of classics of Visual Music from our archive.

Careful, there’s other copies of this film floating around online of questionable quality.

https://youtu.be/SF-WRGQS5XY

Center for Visual Music 3 likes, 2 comments. "Mary Ellen Bute, Abstronic (excerpt #2)"

Brilliant light projection show in Tokyo, every weekend.

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