ABSTRACT

Beckett left Antioch College, returning to Los Angeles, where he made his first known animation, Early Animations or Quacked Jokes. This first film gives numerous clues about his development in animation and about the culture of the time. He enrolled in California Institute for the Arts (CalArts) in its inaugural year, a change that evidences his new focus and commitment to animation. He collaborated with the enigmatic James Gore to make The Letter. A solo animation, Dear Janice, marks his undergraduate work, baffling his peers and teachers, who cannot figure out how it was created. This film is discussed in terms of technique, content, and development of Beckett’s art and its connection to film and art from that period. Of crucial importance are the notable instructors he had in the early days of CalArts. These include Gene Youngblood, author of Expanded Cinema; Nam June Paik, with Shuya Abe, as they build their early video synthesizer; Jules Engel, his animation mentor; Pat O’Neill, experimental filmmaker; and Morton Subotnick, with the Buchla audio synthesizer. In addition to Paik, Fluxus artists Alison Knowles, Allan Kaprow, James Tenney, Emmet Williams, and Dick Higgins were faculty in the first years of CalArts.