Guest of Honor: Larry Cuba
Summary of Contribution
This overview of Computer Animation will trace its development from the analog techniques involving oscilloscopes and video synthesizers through to the most sophisticated, digitally-rendered scenes. The program will include such classics of computer art as “Sunstone“ (1979) by Ed Emshwiller and “Particle Dreams“ (1988) by Karl Sims. Some films on the program demonstrate technical breakthroughs, like Peter Foldes’ “Metadata”(1971), the first film to use “morphing“ animation, and Loren Carpenter’s “Vol Libre”(1980), the first time fractal geometry was used to render a landscape. Realtime vector animation will be seen in Herbert W. Franke‘s “Rotationen“ (1974) and Larry Cuba‘s “3/78“ (1978). Demonstration videos by the inventors of some of the computer systems will be shown with a special section on motion control that will answer the question, “What is SlitScan and how does it work?“
Biography
Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Larry Cuba received BA from Washington University in St. Louis in 1972 and his MFA from California Institute of the Arts in 1974 where he completed his first computer-animated film, First Fig. John Whitney, Sr. invited Cuba to be the programmer on his film Arabesque (1975). Subsequently, Cuba produced three more computer-animated films: 3/78 (Objects and Transformations), Two Space, and Calculated Movements. Cuba also provided computer graphics for Star Wars Episode IV in 1977. He received grants for his work from the American Film Institute and The National Endowment for the Arts and was awarded a residency at the ZKM | Center for Art and Media Technology Karlsruhe. He has served on the juries for the Siggraph Electronic Theater, the Montpellier Festival of Abstract Film, The Ann Arbor Film Festival and Ars Electronica.