Dreamlands: Immersive Cinema and Art, 1905–2016

Oskar Fischinger was one of a group of artists working in Weimar Germany in the 1920s who produced abstract films exploring non-narrative compositions using color, light, music, and movement. He performed multiple-projector film shows with percussive musical accompaniment, changing the music and the order of the films periodically.

In Raumlichtkunst [Space Light Art], hypnotic spirals and abstract patterns created using colored oils, three-dimensional objects, various animation techniques, and wax cascade across three screens. This reconstruction is accompanied by Edgard Varèse’s “Ionisation” (1929–31) and two versions of “Double Music” (1941) by Lou Harrison and John Cage.

Oskar Fischinger's films: courtesy Center for Visual Music.