Reviews
| Selected reviews of Spontaneous Fantasia | ||
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May 22, 2007 Spontaneous FantasiaBy Martin HernandezWith a title that proffers a less-than-subtle nod to another innovative work of animation, artist and composer J. Walt Adamczyk blends computer technology, visual imagery and music into a head-spinning good time. Armed with self-designed software, a computer touchpad, color controls and a joystick, Adamczyk sketches abstract images and shapes in real time that are projected on a domed planetarium ceiling as we just lie back and enjoy. Accompanied by his own and others’ compositions, Adamczyk takes us on a trip — sans LSD — through playfully psychedelic virtual worlds. “Autocosm 2007” starts with color-shifting, almost 3-D tubular shapes that Adamczyk has us swoop around as if on a helicopter ride, so as to view their many angles and textures. In “Nocturnes,” Adamczyk’s doodle of one line morphs, kaleidoscope-like, into multiples of itself to shape-shift from apparent deep-sea creatures to a plethora of ethereal compositions. “Autocosm: Gardens of Thuban” starts with a sunrise, as pod-shaped objects pop out of a desolate landscape and create a cosmic forest that, as Adamczyk moves the joystick for us to zoom over his cosmic creations, reminds one of those 1950s artist renderings of what other planets looked like once our rocket ships had landed. |
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Spontaneous Fantasia Where the stars are the stars by Ed Rampell Even the seating for Spontaneous Fantasia is unique as I’ve heard of “stadium seating,” but this innovative production features what could be called “planetarium seating,” with the seats completely recline so one has the sensation of stargazing. This is only appropriate as Spontaneous Fantasia takes place at Glendale Community College Planetarium, presenting what may very well be a new art medium that’s simply out of this world. J. Walt Adamczyk uses computer software to combine abstract imagery, performance art and recorded music composed by Pachelbel, Adamczyk, and others. The graphic forms are projected overhead on the planetarium’s dome, as the shapes swish, zoom and soar to the music. The software allows Adamczyk to create on his feet and on the spur of the moment, as the mood moves him during an approximately hour-long show that culminates with a Q&A with the maestro after each live show. Adamczyk, who won a Technical Oscar for creating a “real-time pre-visualization system” is a visionary who calls his graphic ballet of form, movement and sound “performance animation.” While some may find the imagery and music to be monotonous, others may see in Adamczyk’s innovative aural light show the seeds of a brand new art and form of expression that takes Impressionism, Abstract Art and more into the 21st century realm of computerization. Think action painter Jackson Pollack and Moog synthesizer pioneer Wendy/Walter Carlos on Purple Owsley. In its title and technique Adamczyk’s Spontaneous Fantasia pays homage to that other Walt and animation innovator, Walt Disney. In the best of the cartoon tradition, this live performance is, to coin a phrase, “sponTOONeous,” and well worth seeing for those who enjoy that which lies outside of the proverbial box. |
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Spontaneous Fantasia January 16, 2008 By Wenzel Jones Save for the dentist’s office, I’m always thrilled to be asked to lie back in a comfortable, completely reclining chair, and even more so when I’m asked to behold wondrous things. J. Walt Adamczyk offers us exactly this in his hourlong presentation of five 3-D pieces created live on computer by the artist in the techno-exotic confines of a planetarium. (Program sample: “I employ a lot of graphic algorithms, as you might expect….”) The first, “Autocosm 2007,” is a sort of primer: linear shapes, some of which come to resemble ties you’ve given your father, that keep thrusting into space and revolving to get you used to the experience. The objects take on seemingly monumental proportions and — save for the times when your point of view is of one falling backward, yielding the slightest sense of nausea — it’s a perfect introduction. The large tree, with its aggressively propagating mushrooms beneath, is not the first nod to Disney’s Fantasia. There follows a piece, “Nocturnes,” that gives one an appreciation of life at the luminescent, unicellular level of existence (with brain and eyes, of course). Watching the massive yet ethereal forms of the chandeliers/coat racks/Thonet bentwood creations evolve is sublimely relaxing. But don’t fall asleep. “Autocosm: Gardens of Thuban” is an exploration of a planet populated largely by what appears to be fruiting mold spores. Some forms are delightfully phallic, others more like malevolent hydras. The best part is that, after you’ve watched these shapes burst forth, the perspective changes, and you’re viewing the whole thing as if from a helicopter, and all looks exactly as it should. One remembers the birth of the woody trumpets, the sketching and placing of the mountains, the trip beneath the arch of weenies. “Pachelbel’s Canon” is performed by silk scarves impersonating goldfish swimming among the clouds, and it captivates with its relative simplicity. “Color Organ” is spectacular in a rather show-offy sort of way, not unlike a spirograph discovering hallucinogens. When one glances at the artist quietly creating this visual splendor, he appears to be hardly moving, yet somehow he manages to move entire universes. |
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December 27, 2007 INDESCRIBABLY DELICIOUS 2006 technical Oscar-winner J. Walt Adamczyk says his art is almost like puppetry, but really his “Spontaneous Fantasia” is beyond words. Animated trippy landscapes, gestural shapes moving through 3-D graphic spaces — oh, just go. |
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July 9, 2007 ‘Spontaneous Fantasia’ offers 3-D animation in real timeJ. Walt Adamczyk brings drawing and animation into the realm of performance. By Lynne Heffley, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer J.Walt Adamczyk stands in front of audiences like a symphony conductor, but this graphic and animation designer wields a pen, not a baton. Adamczyk creates paintings and sculptures on a computer pad, projecting 3-D images in a “Spontaneous Fantasia” of alien landscapes, strange oceanic ballets, surreal gardens, psychedelic swirls. A theatrical audience-immersive experience for dome venues, “Spontaneous Fantasia” can be seen Friday and Saturday at the Glendale Community College Planetarium, where it runs through Sept. 1. ” ‘Spontaneous Fantasia’ is my name for bringing drawing and animation into the realm of performance,” says Adamczyk, who designed the software for his show. “The interface is a drawing tablet. I act a little as a painter, sometimes as a puppeteer, sometimes as a sculptor, sculpting a virtual 3-D environment.” As the images are projected, they often seem to revolve around audiences, who watch the show from reclining seats. Adamczyk’s subjects, many set to his own electronic music, can be free-form, painterly or science fiction-ish; some begin as simple strokes, like sumi-e paintings. These can evolve into organic shapes resembling sea creatures, plants or alien life-forms. For the high-tech immersive effect he wanted, Adamczyk designed a real-time video system. He worked with Sky-Skan Inc., which creates star show presentations for planetariums, using multiple projectors. A CalArts grad and an innovator of technology for computer-generated imagery, Adamczyk has designed and produced real-time animation and interactive attractions for theme parks and entertainment centers for Disney, Sony and Universal Studios. In 2006, he and two colleagues received a technical Academy Award for the creation of the Aerohead motion control camera and J-Viz Pre-Visualization technology, which allow filmmakers to view virtual sets as actors perform scenes against a green screen. He began performing his live shows in 2003. The common thread in all of his projects is real-time animation, Adamczyk says. “It’s always been fun and exciting for me, but most of that fun happens in studio. I really wanted to share more of the excitement of the discovery and exploration and improvisation that can happen in animation.” |
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excerpt from Rock ‘n’ Roll and Expanded Cinema in L.A. by David E. James:
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