Wednesday 1 August 2012

Lines for Clarinet



Lines for Clarinet
John Osborne
Edmonton 2011 Animation 4:47

Lines for Clarinet is an animated video created to a musical composition written and performed by Edmonton clarinetist Don Ross for this work. Using only a single white dot as the graphic element, a fluid sequence of interacting dots and lines were synchronized to the music. The video attempts to rise above its minimal graphic form and evoke the emotional feel of the music. This animated video was made with the Punto y Raya (Dot and Line) Festival in Spain in mind.  Considered the most abstract film festival in the world, the criteria require that only minimal abstract forms be used with no figurative representation or dialogue.

John began experimenting with abstract images and film in the late nineteen sixties and later worked for two years as the operator of a novel hybrid analogue computer used to make some of the first computer animated television commercials in the UK. In 1975, John returned to Canada and began a 30-year career with a large multinational company working in areas of information technology and environmental research, but continued his interest in the visual arts. In early 2000, he returned to the computer as a creative tool and began experimenting with mathematical algorithms to generate patterns and abstract images. He began to animate these images to music using a variety of tools including Adobe After Effects. John is interested in the relationship between sounds and images and exploring those through computer and video techniques. Over the last few years, he has had films shown at festivals in North America and Europe.