Binary Bit Patterns

Duration: 1:00

Year Published: 1969

Creator: Michael Whitney

Complete Record: Binary Bit patterns from the 1960s; abstract patterns shown with background music. By Michael Whitney, and musical help by Charles Villiers. Subliminal ‘peace signs’ within patterns. Digital computer-generated imagery, printed onto microfilm, then optically treated. Soundtrack: a guitar-tape composition by Whitney and Charles Villiers Print source: private collection Binary Bit Patterns ―was made on a PFR-3 programmable film recorder manufactured by Information International, Inc., in Santa Monica, California. The PFR-3 is a specialized visual subsystem driven by the Digital Equipment Corporation's small PDP-9 computer. It is a hybridized microfilm plotting system built specifically for reading film into the computer or recording information on motionpicture film. There are 16,000 possible X/Y coordinate points on the three inch face of the PFR-3's cathode-ray tube. [It was] produced with a program developed by one of the firm's employees…‖ (Youngblood, Expanded Cinema.) Michael Whitney is one of three sons of John Whitney Sr., the legendary pioneer of computer assisted filmmaking. Along with his brother John Jr., he created a number of influential multi-screen projection events, as well as some of the first digital computer animation ever made in the world.