Ed Emshwiller
Biography
Born in 1925, Ed Emshwiller studied graphic design at the University of Michigan and L'Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. By the late '60s Emshwiller was working as a science fiction illustrator, and had established his place in the American avant-garde cinema with such works as Relativity (1966) and Image, Flesh and Voice (1969). His early films featured collaborations with dancers and choreographers—a theme he carried over into his videoworks. As both an artist and a teacher, Emshwiller’s pioneering efforts to develop an alternative technological language in video were enormously influential. His early experiments with synthesizers and computers included the electronic rendering of three-dimensional space, the interplay of illusion and reality, and manipulations of time, movement, and scale that explore the relationship between "external reality and subjective feelings." Emshwiller was among the first artists-in-residence at the TV Lab at WNET, where he produced the groundbreaking Scape-mates (1972). Sunstone (1979) was made over a period of eight months at the New York Institute of Technology. Emshwiller passed away in 1990 and an extensive collection of his work is housed by Anthology Film Archives.
Personal Details
Movies (50)
Birth of a Nation
1997
Hungers
Director (Directing)
1987
Home Movies 1971-81
1985
Skin Matrix S
Director (Directing)
1984
Skin Matrix
Director (Directing)
1984
The Lathe of Heaven
Special Effects (Crew)
1980
Sunstone
Director (Directing)
1979
Eclipse
Director (Directing)
1979
Dubs
Director (Directing)
1978
Sur Faces
Director (Directing)
1977
Lost, Lost, Lost
as Self
1976
Self-Trio
Director (Directing)
1976
New England Visions Past and Future
Director (Directing)
1976
Family Focus
as Himself
1976
Inside Edges
Director (Directing)
1975
Solstice and Solyanka
1975
Suite 212
Camera Operator (Camera)
1974
Crossings and Meetings
Director (Directing)
1974
Chrysalis
Director (Directing)
1973
Positive Negative Electronic Faces
Director (Directing)
1973
Pilobolus and Joan
Director (Directing)
1973
Identities
Director (Directing)
1973
Notes on the Buffalo Conference: “Autobiography in American Independent Cinema”
1973
Painters Painting
1973
Woe Oh Ho No
Director (Directing)
1972
Scape-Mates
Director (Directing)
1972
Computer Graphics #1
Director (Directing)
1972
Thermogenesis
Director (Directing)
1972
Millhouse
Cinematography (Crew)
1971
Film with Three Dancers
Director (Directing)
1971
Choice Chance Woman Dance
Director (Directing)
1971
Branches
Director (Directing)
1970
Carol
Director (Directing)
1970
Report
Sound Recordist (Sound)
1970
Images
Director (Directing)
1970
Image, Flesh and Voice
Director (Directing)
1969
Jr. Star Trek
Cinematography (Crew)
1969
Project Apollo
Director (Directing)
1968
Diaries, Notes, and Sketches
as Self
1968
Dont Look Back
Camera Operator (Camera)
1967
Fusion
Director (Directing)
1967
Galaxie
as Self
1966
Relativity
Director (Directing)
1966
In Three Zones
Director (Directing)
1966
Oysters Are in Season
Director of Photography (Camera)
1966
Art Scene USA
Director (Directing)
1966
George Dumpson's Place
Director (Directing)
1965
Film Magazine of the Arts
Cinematography (Crew)
1965
Faces of America
Director (Directing)
1965
Scrambles
Director (Directing)
1964