Crusts

Ooh it’s been awhile. I have so many little poignant thoughts to pop in here.
I've been reading about animators whos animations were a form of abstract expression/orchestration/composition using rhythm, movement, colour and form to do so. It’s quite an obvious step to take if you are exploring these kinds of ideas in other forms (painting/ sculpture/sound). Interesting that the Guggenheim Museum supported these kinds of animations for quite awhile.
(Skeletons of information here...keeping it brief for the function of K.notes/blog. Everything is wrapping in and outside itself as I go.)
Leopold Survage (1914)
" Coloured Rhythm is no way an illustration or an interpretation of musical work. It is an autonomous art, although based on the same psychological premise as music."
After reading about Leopold Survage's idea for Coloured Rhythm, I had an incredible urge to go watch Disney's Fantasia. With the idea in mind that all animation is an abstraction of form in some way.
Essentially Disney (in 1940) is working with the same kinds of ideas as Survage, only Disney's Fantasia is palatable for the average viewer because it spoon feeds these abstract notions by introducing them with the live orchestra and encasing them in a variety accessible imagery and narratives. Perhaps I am addressing the opening sequences in particular. Which I think were animated by Oskar Fischinger. ??
So Fantasia flopped. Commercially. Was Disney trying to sew together too many things? What if it were put in a gallery?
(Am I joking??)
What I've written here acknowledges a connection that could be placed elsewhere and everywhere to a certain extent.

I suppose in a historical context Disney's successes, failures and discoveries are the most memorable, seen and perhaps documented.


Oskar Fischinger
. His early artistic goal was to combine two of his great passions, music and the graphic arts. (Hmmm sounds familiar). He's done some pretty nifty things with wax.

Animators with a fine arts lineage.
Animator artists.
Cartoonists.
Storyboards. What happened before storyboards?
Gag cartoonists.




Oh, but I'm in a fluster coz I've not finished the business "hoo haa" as yet.
I have found the quote that Marcus fwd'd to me the other week.
Ach! Lots of thoughts swirling around this funny old quote. But I'll just leave it up for now as a "conversation piece"...... for me and my paper that is.

QUOTE:
" Improvisation is a mirage which tricks anyone who
does not know the technique needed in all creative work. Such a person thinks of inspiration as a kind of miracle, a hypnotic state that somehow settles all material problems. We aught to get rid of this legend of the inspired artist, living quite outside the world. The artist is responsible for what he does. He must use his own clear-sightedness to make something vigorous which respects the logic of the characters, the dynamic form of the film, and its technical demands. Improvisation becomes merely a certain form of sensitivity to the demands of the particular moment; for instance, when its a case of altering something at the last minute. In other words, it is concerned only with detail. The complete work must be carried out with mathematical precision".
> Frederico Fellini, Fellini on Fellini, 1976, Eyre
> Methuen Ltd. page 103


Well. I suppose this is true.

If you're a dry old crust.