Stan VanDerBeek

Reeling in TV Time (1983)

In Reeling in TV Time, VanDerBeek experiments with imaging capabilities and early computer graphics. ...

Micro Cosmos 1-4 (1983)

In Micro Cosmos, a series of four short computer-animated works, the image of an orb is transformed into a pulsating, energetic evocaton of life forces. ...

Sonia and Stan Paint a Portrait of Ronnie (1983)

In Sonia and Stan Paint a Portrait of Ronnie, VanDerBeek and artist Sonia Sheridan assemble a pastiche of images of Ronald Reagan, metamorphosed through digital computer graphics. ...

Self-Poured Traits (1983)

Self Poured Traits is a tongue-in-cheek self-examination set to the poetry of Kenneth Rexroth. ...

Face Concert (1981)

Face Concert is an ode to human expression in which VanDerBeek transforms the face into a visual canvas. ...

After Laughter (1981)

In After Laughter, VanDerBeek constructs a rapid-fire montage depicting the evolution of the human race and the haunting specter of its destruction. ...

Euclidean Illusions (1980)

A fantasy film of illusive geometry, changing and rebuilding itself by computer animation, unique visual magic done while artist-in-residence at NASA in Houston in conjunction with Richard Weinberg. ...

Mirrored Reason (1980)

A Kafka-inspired tale, Mirrored Reason tells the story of a woman who is haunted and eventually replaced by her double. ...

Color Fields Left (1977)

A study in analog imaging and the relation of sound to image, Color Fields Left merges moving bands of color with electronic sounds in an increasingly complex pattern. ...

Vanishing Point Left (1977)

In Vanishing Point Left, the "vanishing point" is an analogy for the metaphysics of watching the video screen, which assumes such forms as a mandala, flower or gyre. ...

Strobe Ode (1977)

Strobe Ode is an exercise in video feedback and analog imaging, in which a circular image-field is modified and abstracted by strobe flashes. ...

Symmetricks (1972)

Against a black background and a pulsating beat matching white symmetrical geometric flashes around a central orb, white lines are drawn in mirror images vertical to each other. The images created are generally a myriad of faces in silhouette. Those silhou ...

Who Ho Rays No. 1 (1972)

"The shapes of sound filmed from a computer system that reproduces analog patterns from sounds. This pioneer work in animated computer mandalas is a lyrical, abstract song with analog rhythms. ...

The Computer Generation (1972)

Stan VanDerBeek, experimental filmmaker at work with friend and computer expert Wade Shaw, at the sophisticated new (1972) computer at MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies, and discussing the inevitable interaction of computers with artistic creativity. ...

Videospace (1970)

"A film of video light and color. Dancers move through computer-generated patterns and fields of soft color to the music of Ravel. An experiment in video graphics combining the new technologies of video matting and analog computer patterns. One of the most ...

Moirage (1970)

"A study in ocular illusions, pattern superimposition producing other patterns and illusions of three dimensionality. A thorough demonstration of the richness and varied qualities of moiré patters by the acknowledged scientist/artist Gary Oster." S.V. ...

Oh (1968)

"Assassination, falling down, animated drawings from the landscape of memory, mankind falling down, faces with faces, a haunting view of man drawn in brilliant animation graphics." – S.V., Filmmaker's Cooperative Catalogue № 7. ...

Ad Infinitum (1968)

Poem Field No. 5: Free Fall (1968)

COMPUTER ART SERIES is animated computer/graphic films. The series is called POEMFIELD. All of these films explore variations of poems, computer graphics, and in some cases combine live action images and animation collage; all are geometric and fast moving ...

Film Form No. 1 (1968)

A hypnotic dance film of colours, dancers, forms, music, all sweeping through the TV tube eye, mixed together into a flow of female bodies and colours, a brilliant study of colour printing from black ad white. Collaboration on the project by Brown/Olvey. ...

Superimposition (1968)

Similes of a slippery TV tube gesticulate break and supply – a long view of multiple images (Mr. Johnson's war, is it Howard Johnson's or President Johnson's war?) – a long curving view, breakfast with aspirin, good grief – or Goodbye. (SUPER-IMPOSIT ...

Fuses (1967)

An experimental short in which a couple engaged in lovemaking is superimposed over ocean and beach scenes. ...

Poemfield No. 1 (Blue Version) (1967)

To create his "Poemfields" (1965-71) series, VanDerBeek worked closely with computer scientist Ken Knowlton and the staff at Bell Labs. Each "Poemfield" was adapted from poems by VanDerBeek, programmed on an IBM 7094 computer in black and white using a cus ...

Poem Field No. 1 (1967)

"Words pulsate, then bleed into abstraction. Fields of color fragment into pixels or smear into mutating organisms. Swarming text grids explode into chaotic rainbow clouds, blinking dots, stars, and spirals. Snaking orange lines and pointillist textures fo ...

Panels for the Walls of the World (1967)

A short by Stan Vanderbeek. ...

Poem Field Series (1967)

"Each film was constructed using Knowlton's BEFLIX computer language, which was based on FORTRAN. The films were programmed on a IBM 7094 computer. The films were created in black and white, with color added later by Brown and Olvey. ...

Poem Field No. 7 (1967)

"Calligraphic computer animation of the enigmatic poem 'There is no way to peace- Peace is the way.' Black and white animation is colored by Brown/ Olvey. This film with soundtrack by John Cage is a lyric accidental stylization of christian myth/crosses. T ...

Image After Image (1967)

Optically-printed film and computer graphics synthesis. 16mm, color, silent, 4:40 min. ...

For Life, Against the War (1967)

First shown on January 30, 1967, FOR LIFE AGAINST THE WAR was an open-call, collective statement from American independent filmmakers disparate in style and sensibility but united by their opposition to the Vietnam War. Part of the protest festival Week of ...

Poem Field No. 3 (1967)

In this pioneering work of early computer art, geometric groupings of monochrome patterns and words are created with the program BEFLIX, which was developed in the 1960s by Bell Telephone Laboratories programmer Kenneth Knowlton. ...

Spherical Space No. 1 (1967)

A dance filmed with Elaine Summers, in which the nude figure is placed against nature, in this case a particular and spherical sense of nature as produced by a special lens…(that takes in 195 degrees of sight on film). ...

Man and His World (1967)

16mm film transferred to video, color, sound ...

Expo Faces (1967)

16mm film transferred to video, black and white, sound ...

Collide: Oscope (1966)

An experimental film ...

Poem Field No. 2 (1966)

To create his "Poemfields" (1965-71) series, VanDerBeek worked closely with computer scientist Ken Knowlton and the staff at Bell Labs. Each "Poemfield" was adapted from poems by VanDerBeek, programmed on an IBM 7094 computer in black and white using a cus ...

Vision III (1966)

16mm film transferred to video, black and white, silent ...

Movie-Drome (1966)

Influenced by Buckminster Fuller's spheres, VanDerBeek had the idea for a spherical theater where people would lie down and experience movies all around them. Floating multi-images would replace straight one-dimensional film projection. From 1957 on, VanDe ...

See Saw Seams (1965)

An artistic short film directed by Stan Vanderbeek. ...

The Human Face Is a Monument (1965)

Camera animation over stills, "a portrait study of mankind, beginning with an infant and growing up to old age and death... using still pictures from the collection of 'magnum photos on the range of expression and moods of people from all over the world, i ...

Pastorale (1965)

A Stan VanDerBeek short film from 1965. ...

A Dam Rib Bed (1965)

"A two screen Dream/Film/Farce/Sity about sleeps-two-sides-the Dream-Beast, animated trick photography combined into a knifed dream with a sexual dream's edge. A movie mural, based on the gender question... In question or sexus plexus... Dayglow dream life ...

Facescapes (1965)

The Birth of the American Flag (1965)

Movie-Movies (1965)

Experimental film that used handheld projectors to present film images and slide projections. ...

Newsreel of Dreams 1 & 2 (1964)

Dream matrix, history written in lightning image, memory and the TV syntax, images flowing and fused together to other images and electronic tapestry of images half seen, sought for, seeking man's dreams, movies as dreams, history as media. "The artist wil ...

Phenomenon No. 1 (1964)

Dream matrix, history written in lightning image, memory and the TV syntax, images flowing and fused together to other images and electronic tapestry of images half seen, sought for, seeking man's dreams, movies as dreams, history as media. "The artist wil ...

Site (1964)

Performance by Robert Morris and Carolee Schneemann. ...

Fluids (1964)

16mm color work by Stan Vanderbeek that takes his work away from the cutups and the commentary and lands him in the psychedelic and abstract. Opticals, repetitions, camera moves and zooms are what make up the bulk of this exploration into fluids. The resul ...

Breathdeath (1963)

A surrealistic fantasy based on the 15th century woodcuts of the dance of the dead. A film experiment that deals with the photoreality and the surrealism of life. A collage-animation that cuts up photos and newsreel film and reassembles them, producing an ...

Summit (1963)

World leaders at the crossroads. ...

Skullduggery (1962)

A subversive experimental short against the ruling class. ...

Snapshots of the City (1961)

"A Claes Oldenburg 'happening.' A black statement about the City in which two people represent the populace after a bomb raid." S.V. ...

Achooo Mr. Kerrooschev (1960)

A cut-out of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev sails over newspaper articles as they take place. Combines live photography and collage animation in one film. ...

Black and White, Day and Night (1960)

A 'drawn' film, with images that are constantly changing, drawings of landscapes that keep escaping, traces of faces, everything is almost what it is but never stays that way. The soundtrack punches out a wild monotone of dirty, nonsense limericks to the a ...

The Smiling Workman (1960)

Performance art collaboration between Jim Dine and Stan VanDerBeek. ...

Science Friction (1959)

This film uses stop motion animation of still photographs to convey images of politics and science in the nuclear era. The advancement of science allows man to do things he never would have been able to do without, for good or bad. Politicians are either b ...

A La Mode (1959)

A short surreal animation created with fashion magazine clippings and sound collages. ...

Street Meat (1959)

Vanderbeek photographs NYC, 1959. The 'meat' of the street: Doorways, debris, dilapidation. We meet a few youngsters and get a glimpse into a bygone era. ...

Astral Man (1959)

"An animated vision... a subliminal glance at man in light and space" S.V. ...

Dance of the Looney Spoons (1959)

An animated and live action fantasy, the loop de loops of ten spoons, forks and tableware ... a parable in the shape of a soup spoon ... conceived as a children's film. ...

Wheeeels No. 1 (1958)

"Dedicated to Detroit and subtitled 'America on wheels.' A fantasy-farce on the car of everyday life. Everything is a vehicle, life is in motion, motion is the means, the automation is the mean mania of today." - S.V. ...

Wheeeeels No. 2 (1958)

A companion piece to Wheeeels No. 1, exploring more of the highways and by-ways of "American on Wheels"- with the filmmaker's gentle surgery on the American pop-consciousness very much in evidence. ...

What, Who, How (1957)

An animated short film from Stan Vanderbeek. ...

Mankinda (1957)

An animated drawing done directly under the camera, combining painterly images and a drawn calligraphy, the works unfolds as you watch, permitting the viewer to see the process of the drawing. ...

Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film (2011)

Experimental filmmaker Pip Chodorov traces the course of experimental film in America, taking the very personal point of view of someone who grew up as part of the experimental film community. ...

Visual Velocity: The Work of Stan VanDerBeek (2000)

Visual Velocity is a tribute to the pioneering work of Stan VanDerBeek. VanDerBeek was an experimental filmmaker, artist, animator, and media visionary. Produced by David Donnelly, the work originally aired on PBS stations' THE TERRITORY, the longest runni ...

Home Movies 1971-81 (1985)

Home movies shot on Super 8mm by W+B Hein over 10 years. ...

Notes on the Buffalo Conference: “Autobiography in American Independent Cinema” (1973)

During the 1970s I shot, helped to make, or commissioned about ten document films, mainly about film-makers. This film is one of them. It was made with Dan Ochiva, who acted as cameraman on about half of the footage. I shot the rest, and then edited the fi ...

Reality's Invisible (1972)

Fulton made the film during his brief time at Harvard, where he had been invited to teach by Robert Gardner, his friend and collaborator (Fulton would later serve as a cinematographer on Gardner's 1981 documentary Deep Hearts, among others). Reality's Invi ...

Filmmakers (1969)

Iimura creates a short self-portrait as well as brief portraits of five of his peers: Brakhage, Vanderbeek, Smith, Mekas and Warhol. In each portrait, Iimura attempts to copy the styles and traits of each artist (Vanderbeek's constantly moving camera; Meka ...