Series III: Digital Art, 1960-2016, inclusive

Scope and Contents

Noll devised and programmed computer animations during the early 1960s while he was employed at Bell Labs. The films in this series are examples of some of the earliest stereoscopic computer-animated films. This series contains a CD with digital versions of the films. These items were donated to the Poly Archives by Noll in 2021.

Digital Art 2016 CD, 2016

box: 1, item: 1 (Material Type: Computer Disks)

CD of Computer Animated Films, 2016

box: 1, item: 2 (Material Type: Computer Disks)

AMN Sequences (7 inch reel), 1960s

box: 1, item: 3 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

AMN 4D Sequences (5 inch reel), 1960s

box: 1, item: 4 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Random Motion, Ballet head-to-head Stereo (5 inch reel), 1960s

box: 1, item: 5 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

4D Hyper-Objects (5 inch reel), 1960s

box: 1, item: 6 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Computer Ballet (3 1/2 inch reel), 1960s

box: 1, item: 7 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Hyperobjects, 3D Adjacent (5 inch reel), 1960s

box: 1, item: 8 (Material Type: Mixed Materials)

Scope and Contents

16-mm print of Noll's computer animated stereoscopic movies of rotating four-dimensional Hyperobjects. Gifted by Noll to the Poly Archives in 2022.

As described by Noll, "the film shows four-dimensional hyper-objects: a 4D hyper-cube with perspective and linear projection from 4D to 3D; a tetrahedron; and a 4D hyper-sphere with dots randomly scattered on its surface. The 3D stereoscopic projections are displayed on each frame with the left and right images adjacent to each other. I believe the left image is on the right of the frame, and the right image is on the left; so that when projected, they could be viewed cross-eyed."

See relevant publication "Communications of the ACM vol.10 no. 8."