constructing a coherent experience in time the
artist must aid the viewer in making sense
of the many successive images.
Abstract filmmakers also turned their
attention to the problem of rhythm. John
Whitney noted that what works in music
does not work in film. What is "often
referred to as the drive of a piece of music,
is almost automatically enhanced with
metrical or cyclical consistency and
repetition. Rock musicians know
this-perhaps too well. On the other hand,
the most difficult visual quality to
compose into a composition, as every
abstract filmmaker may know, is the same
driving propulsive thrust with a visually
rhythmic metrical cycle" [29]. In his
films, Whitney used what he called
"differential dynamics" to achieve the
desired rhythms. He used graphic
harmonics to affect rhythmic patterns.
When the nested polygons in Fig. 4
move, each at a different speed, they create
rhythms.