John Whitney built his first instrument from a war-surplus anti-aircraft computer, using its mechanical precision to swing lights and artwork through mathematical paths: the title sequence of Vertigo (1958, with Saul Bass) and Catalog (1961) showcase the machine. As IBM’s first artist in residence he moved to digital computation; Arabesque (1975) is the signature result.
His book Digital Harmony argued motion could obey the same ratios as musical consonance, differential dynamics as visual tuning.
With his brother James (whose Lapis remains a landmark), Whitney established computed, parametric motion as an art, the direct ancestry of generative visuals and every parameter-driven system since.