# John Whitney Sr. [Wikipedia Link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Whitney_(animator)) ( 1917 – 1995 ) ## Description American animator widely regarded as a founding figure of computer animation: with his brother James Whitney he built an analog "computer" from surplus World War II anti-aircraft gun mounts to produce *Five Film Exercises* (1943–44), later designed the title sequence for Hitchcock's *Vertigo* (1958, with Saul Bass), and moved into digital computer film as a researcher at IBM in the late 1960s. ## Key Tags #visual-music #computer-animation #tool-builder ## Essential Works - *Vertigo* title sequence (1958, with Saul Bass) - spiraling abstract patterns generated on his analog mechanical computer - *Permutations* (1968) - digital computer film made as IBM's first artist-in-residence - *Arabesque* (1975) - late digital work using harmonic/sine-based motion algorithms ## Details Profiled at length in [[Gene Youngblood]]'s [[Expanded Cinema]] (Part Four, "Cybernetic Cinema and Computer Films") as a founding figure of computer film, alongside his brother James Whitney. Mentored a generation of computer animators, including [[Larry Cuba]], who studied with him and extended his algorithmic, harmonic approach to motion in works like *3/78 (Objects and Transformations)*. ### Concepts and Theories - [[Computer Art]] - foundational figure in the emergence of computer animation as an art form ### Creative and Technical Practices %% none yet %% ### Collaborators - [[John Whitney Jr.]] - his son and early collaborator, before John Jr. co-founded Digital Productions - [[Larry Cuba]] - mentee who studied with Whitney and extended his algorithmic approach to computer animation ### Institutional Affiliations and Associated Movements %% none yet %% ## References ### Primary Sources Bibliography Whitney, John. *Digital Harmony: On the Complementarity of Music and Visual Art*. McGraw-Hill/Byte Books, 1980. Whitney's own account of his harmonic theory of motion graphics. ### Secondary Sources Bibliography Youngblood, Gene. *Expanded Cinema*. P. Dutton & Co., 1970. Profiles Whitney's computer-film practice in Part Four; see [[Expanded Cinema]].