Today would have been Oskar Fischinger’s 117th birthday, and Google is using its latest doodle to celebrate his abstract animations.
The German-American was notable for his abstract musical animations long before computer graphics and the concept of music videos came into play.
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In 1936, Fischinger and his wife fled Germany when it became clear he could not pursue his art under Hitler’s regime. When he arrived in the US, Paramount Pictures offered him a job. He went on to animate sequences for Disney’s Fantasia and Pinocchio.
The artist’s work was largely created between the 1920s and 1940s — and the lack of digital technology meant he often spent months painstakingly creating his paper stop-motions.
Luckily, Google isn’t asking you to do the same. In fact, they’ve made it incredibly easy to create your own composition to which it adds Fischinger-like animations.
The Google Doodle offers four instruments and a variety of modifications so that your piece will sound beautiful no matter your musical background — and it even offers the option to share to Twitter, Facebook or via email.
Composing music with a #GoogleDoodle thingy, lol!
Oh Oskar Fischinger… You never cease to amuse me! pic.twitter.com/GzEMQpgxgM — Utho Riley (@UthoRiley) June 21, 2017
Create visual music for Oskar Fischinger’s 117th birthday in this #GoogleDoodle
https://t.co/BZUSZ3xsGp — N¡R!
(@niriksha435) June 22, 2017
Leon Hong, the doodle’s creator, says that Fischinger’s work left him in “awe” when he first discovered him in college.
“I hope [the doodle] inspires you to seek out the magic of Fischinger for yourself,” he writes.
Yesterday’s Google Doodle celebrated the summer and winter solstices — the middle of winter and summer for Earth’s two hemispheres.
