Visual Harmony

Visual Harmony

WARNING: You may become entranced and stare at this for quite a while!

http://www.coverpop.com/whitney/whitneyChromatic.swf

This weekend I’ve been playing, once again, with the ideas of experimental film pioneer John Whitney, using both graphics and audio. While Whitney was interested in turning musical ideas into motion graphics, I’m doing the inverse — turning one of his key animation ideas back into music.

Whitney made a number of films based around the simple idea of harmonic relationships. Above is a visual example of one his ideas that I implemented in Flash.

Here’s Whitney talking about this idea:

An early intuition about how to control total dynamics led me to activate all graphic elements through a motion function that advances each element differentially. For example, if one element were set to move at a given rate, the next element might be moved at two times that rate. Then the third would move at three times that rate and so on. Each element would move at a different rate and in a different direction within the field of action. So long as all elements obey a rule of direction and rate, and none drifts aimlessly or randomly, then pattern configurations form and reform. This is harmonic resonance, and it echoes musical harmony, stated in explicit terms. I tried this procedure in several films, and was gratified by the consistency of the confirmation it demonstrated.
– John Whitney, “Digital Harmony”, pp. 38

In this movie, each of the 48 dots is moving in a circle. Each of the dots is on a 3 minute cycle. At the end of 3 minutes, the outermost dot will have moved around the circle once (this dot represents the first harmonic or fundamental). The next dot will have moved around the circle twice (representing the second harmonic). The next dot three times, and so on. The innermost dot moves around the circle 48 times.

ChrisBowers's picture

Made me think of how the planets in a solar system come and go in and out of alignment.

Chris

davelambert's picture

Looking at this, I get the feeling that there's a significant principle being illustrated, that is just beyond my ken.

8-D

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