Mary Ellen Bute
1906 – 1983

Mary Ellen Bute is a fascinating figure who ties together many of the strands running through this study, from abstract painting to color organs, visual music, and filmmaking, and on through to kinetic sculpture and computer graphics. In 1936 Bute, who worked with both light artist Thomas Wilfred and electronic music pioneer Leon Theremin, wrote an essay titled “Visual Music, Synchronized in Abstract Films by Expanding Cinema,” detailing of a synchronized, synaesthetic program. With regard to her film Synchromy No. …

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Image courtesy Center for Visual Music