نورمان ماكلارين
诺曼·麦克拉伦
נורמן מקלרן
ノーマン·マクラーレン

synchromy

source: art-a-lordinateurblogspot

Norman McLaren est un animateur canadien d’origine britannique, son nom est associé à l’office national du film du Canada, une agence culturelle fédérale qui relève du ministère du Patrimoine.
Synchromy ou synchromie est avant tout une œuvre expérimentale, c’est une animation réalisée à partir de sons graphiques, McLaren a utilisé une musique numérique afin de créer l’animation.
Pour la réalisation de l’animation, il dessine directement sur la bande sonore optique.
Sur le film des bandes verticales sont représentées, chacune de ces bandes représente les différentes tonalités, c’est aussi là que les traits symbolisant le son s’animent.
On peut percevoir que ces traits selon leur forme et leur nombre s’associent parfaitement avec la musique, c’est le son graphique.
Le son du film est constitué de traits : Leur rapprochement détermine la hauteur du son, plus ils sont rapprochés plus le son est élevé. L’épaisseur du trait assure le volume, plus ils sont gras, plus le son est fort. Ainsi Norman McLaren a interprété la musique par des images et des couleurs.
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source: sonore-visuelfr

Jeu de couleurs, de formes et de sons, ce film nous présente la gamme complète des couleurs de la palette et du clavier. La musique ne provient d’aucun instrument : McLaren a dessiné des sons synthétiques et il les a photographiés sur la bande sonore en conservant un parallélisme absolu entre le son et l’image. Synchromie, un film de «son animé» dans le vrai sens du terme.
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source: monografiacismewordpress

Em “Synchromy”, McLaren consegue unificar em uma composição de imagens e sons a idéia de animação sonora por meio da síntese de maneira auto-referencial e auto-explicativa. Ao criar seu material visual por meio de composições e interpolações com as bandas óticas (duplicação, corte, sobreposição), McLaren dá ênfase aos sons construídos sinteticamente por meio da manipulação do registro ótico de ondas sonoras. As cores empregadas em cada padrão de “traçado” para a criação de um vívido contraste entre as idéias sonoro-visuais.19
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source: motiondesignwordpress

Norman McLaren’s 1971 ‘Synchromy‘ epitomizes a particular era in which visual artists were in search of the ultimate marriage between sound and image. There seems to be no other better example of how the two domains meet in perfect sync and graphic rhythm. Synchromy, however, also marks the end of an era and the beginning of another in terms of technique and technology. If the camera brought the canvass into motion and in line with sound and music for the first half of the 20th Century, it was the computer that was to steal the limelight as the new tool for bringing the visual and sonic together.

From as early as the sixties, research and development into computer assisted imagery was taking shape, yet the enormous cost for such a technology and the fact that the privileged domain of science was its main proprietor and knowledge base, meant that the computer was not considered for artistic expression. Indeed, it took until the 80’s; the birth of the digital home computer, desk top publishing and the first graphical user friendly Apple, before the computer really became an accessible and important artistic tool.

One man however, made astonishing developments within the field of computer assisted imagery, well before the computer became a fully boxed clock of zero’s and one’s: John Whitney. The life and work of John Whitney, along with his brother who often had the more artistic role, is rarely given the attention it needs to fully bring to life and present his work in a comprehensive manner. Many short essays and interviews can be found along with his personal writings on his art form, yet we still await a lot more to surface. He is often cited in connection with the term motion graphics, due to his company of the same name in which he developed his first mechanical analog computer and created titles and graphic fx for the film and TV industry. One of the rare pieces available today of this early motion graphics work is entitled Catalogue completed in 1961. As the name suggest, the piece is rather a compilation of the various visual effects he had perfected using his early analog computer. Without doubt, the first ever motion graphics demo reel !

His work ‘Permutations’ was his first cohesive film to have been created using a digital computer, the IBM model 360 along with a 2250 Graphic Display Console. Using a computer program, developed by Dr. Jack Citron, called GRAF (graphic Additions to Fortran), John Whitney completed the film in 1968 along with a 15 minute presentation of the work entitled, ‘Experiments in Motion Graphics’, in which is explained his approach to programming for motion design and the relationships between man and machine . Beyond this technological virtuosity there was an extremely important motivating force that drove Whitney’s artistic expression – the metaphor of music.
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source: youtube

Synchromy. Film directed by Norman McLaren in 1971.
French title: Synchromie. Original music: Norman McLaren. Visual effects: Ron Moore. Sound departament: Roger Lamoureux.