Saturday, May 24, 2014

A Blast from the Past: "Mountain Music"

It's been described as a warning against too much technology too fast, but I think it can also be interpreted as "where much of modern music went wrong".



source: Classic Will Vinton- Mountian Music

It's not that electronics in music is bad. But how you use it, makes all the difference. If you use technology to increase volume and sound power and generate a lot of inharmonious noise, it ceases to be music, in my opinion. And inharmonious noise CAN be destructive.

I remember seeing this movie by Will Vinton in my film studies class. It made a lasting impression. I even attempted clay animation at school. I sometimes wish I had pursued it further, but the fact is it takes a lot of patience. At least it did in those days, animation was not computerized, and everything had to be done by hand. And claymation was still a very new artform.

Will Vinton, an Oregon native, went on to do a lot of interesting things. He persevered with clay animation when most people were dismissing it as too unwieldy and difficult to work with. He created the term "claymation", and was very active in refining and developing it as an artform. Most people would recognize his work in TV commercials for California Raisins, and M&M's.

Also see:

Wikipedia: Will Vinton

WILL POWER: INTERVIEW WITH CLAYMATION PIONEER WILL VINTON

     

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