Jordan Belson
Monday, 4 July 2005
Allures – Jordan Belson via Centre for Visual Music
Jordan Belson made the incredible and strange computer sequences for the 1977 film Demon Seed. On further research I also discover he made many experimental art shorts and was originally an abstract expressionist painter – exhibiting large scale artworks at the Guggenheim Museum in the late 1940s.
The titles of Belson’s films are enough to give us an idea of the kind of work he has made: Samahadi, LSD, Cosmos, and Transformation. Often he employs complex geometrical shapes that converge and diverge producing layers of space and colour, pulses of dots circumnavigating an invisible sphere of influence – an attempt at visualising the non-objective through patterns arrived at via mystical study merged with scientific fascination.
“a combination of molecular structures and astronomical events mixed with subconscious and subjective phenomena—all happening simultaneously. The beginning is almost purely sensual, the end perhaps totally nonmaterial. It seems to move from matter to spirit in some way” – Belson
The Unknown Art of Jordan Belson is an entrée into the graphic work of this non-objective film maker.
‘Like his films, Belson’s graphic art is constructed around mystical ideas. He seems to possess special sensibilities that allow him to see what others are not able to see and he is eager to share his vision through those mysterious images; through image abstraction he reveals his understanding of the universe.’
This particular research derive brought me to some other interesting places:
Galaxy: Avant-garde Film-Makers Look Across Space and Time
Visual music / lightshows
Visual music / Films
No. 1 — July 5th, 2005 at 3:10 pm
I didn’t find this in the articles you linked to, but I remember reading years ago that Belson was a candidate to do the “trip” sequence in 2001. As I recall, Kubrick found other ways of making the effects–don’t remember if the issue was just time and cost or if there were other reasons. I also don’t remember if Belson was actually hired or if it was just in the negotiation stages. The Demon Seed work was great–some other interesting computer graphics in that film, as I recall. Such a strange movie…
No. 2 — May 11th, 2006 at 6:07 pm
if you want to read more about Jordsan Belson, theres a twenty page chapter on him in the excellent (and out of print) book, Expanded Cinema. the book is avalible here in .pdf format for FREE:
http://www.vasulka.org/Kitchen/PDF_ExpandedCinema/ExpandedCinema.html
No. 3 — May 17th, 2006 at 6:30 am
heh peter many thanks for the link, ive been wanting a copy of this book for a while….
No. 4 — May 8th, 2007 at 6:26 am
Jordan Belson DVD release – May 2007. See http://www.centerforvisualmusic.org/JBDVD.htm