Charles Dockum was born in Texas in 1904, and earned a degree in electrical engineering at Texas A & M in 1926. His health required him to move to Arizona, where he began working on the production of projection machinery that could perform color abstract imagery moving in a harmony and counterpoint comparable to auditory music. He coined the term Mobilcolor for this new artform, and gave public performances in 1936 in Prescott, Arizona. He became well enough to move to California shortly thereafter, and he continued working on improved MobilColor projectors (he would make six models altogether) at his home in the Los Angeles suburb of Altadena. Dockum enjoyed successful performances at such places as the Pasadena Playhouse and the California Institute of Technology. In 1942, the Baroness Hilla Rebay awarded him a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation to build a new improved MobilColor projector that could be installed at the Guggenheim Museum. By 1950, Dockum had perfected the MobilColor IV, which could produce layered movements of diverse over-lapping imagery. Dockum built MobilColor V in the early 1960s, and continued to perform at various venues in California. The MobilColor VI remained unfinished at Dockum's death in 1977. (William Moritz)
1 FILM EN DISTRIBUTION
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MOBILCOLOR PERFORMANCE AT THE GUGGENHEIM - Preserved by Center for Visual Music
1952 / 16mm / couleur / silencieux / simple écran / 6' 00 / 40 € distribution : 16mm |