Larry Cuba

Larry Cuba is a computer-animation artist who became active in the late 1970s and early 80s.

Born in 1950 in Atlanta, Georgia, he received A.B. from Washington University in St. Louis in 1972 and his Master's Degree from California Institute of the Arts which includes parallel schools of Dance, Music, Film, Theater, Fine Arts, and Writing. The Cal Arts faculty included abstract animator Jules Engel, Expanded Cinema critic Gene Youngblood, and special effects artist Pat O'Neill.^[1]

In 1975, John Whitney, Sr. invited Cuba to be the programmer on one of his films. The result of this collaboration was "Arabesque".

Subsequently, Cuba produced three more computer-animated films: 3/78 (Objects and Transformations), Two Space, and Calculated Movements.

Cuba also provided computer graphics for Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope in 1977.^[2] His animation of the Death Star is shown to pilots in the Rebel Alliance.

Cuba received grants for his work from the American Film Institute and The National Endowment for the Arts and was awarded a residency at the Center for Art and Media Technology Karlsruhe (ZKM). He has served on the juries for the Siggraph Electronic Theater, the Montpellier Festival of Abstract Film, The Ann Arbor Film Festival and Ars Electronica.

Cuba currently serves as the director of the iotaCenter in Los Angeles, California.

Films

3/78 (Objects and Transformations) (1978). 6 minutes. Created in Chicago with Tom DeFanti's Graphic Symbiosis System GRASS, consists of sixteen "objects", each composed of 100 points of light, some of them geometric shapes like circles and squares, others more organic shapes resembling gushes of water. Each object performs rhythmic choreography, programmed by Cuba to satisfy mathematic potentials.

Two Space (1979). 8 minutes. Full-screen image- patterns which parallel the layered continuities of classical gamelan music. Using a programming language called RAP at the Los Angeles firm Information International Inc. (III), Larry was able to systematically explore the classic 17 symmetry groups, a technique used by Islamic artists to create abstract temple decorations.

Calculated Movements (1985). 6 minutes. Cuba programmed solid areas and volumes instead of the vector dots of the previous two films. It also in four "colors": black, white, light grey and dark grey. In five episodes, he alternates single events involving ribbon-like figures following intricate trajectories, with more complex episodes consisting of up to 40 individual events that appear and disappear at irregular intervals. Electronic sound scores accompany.

References

External links

• Official homepage
• Calculated Movements on YouTube
• Making of the Computer Graphics for Star Wars on YouTube, 10 minute explanation of Larry Cuba's work.