Denys George Irving (1944-1976), was born on 4 January 1944 in Colwyn Bay, North Wales.
Biography
He grew up in South London and was educated at
Dulwich College
Dulwich College is a 2–19 independent, day and boarding school for boys in Dulwich, London, England. As a public school, it began as the College of God's Gift, founded in 1619 by Elizabethan actor Edward Alleyn, with the original purpose of ...
(1954–1961), where he was awarded the Fawkes Memorial Scholarship to
Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...
(1962), where he read
Philosophy, Politics and Economics. After graduating in 1966 he went on to study at the
London School of Economics
, mottoeng = To understand the causes of things
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £240.8 million (2021)
, budget = £391.1 millio ...
, and was a graduate student in the Philosophy
Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
program at
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
, New York.
Whilst at Columbia in 1968, Denys was actively involved in student politics, notably during the
student demonstrations in May, when he was prominent among a large number of students who occupied Fairweather Hall.
It was at Columbia that Denys became interested in
artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...
and started working with computers. In December 1968 he wrote to his parents: "I have been working with computers this term and I have made pretty good progress so far and my plan is to try to get accepted by the
Royal College of Art
The Royal College of Art (RCA) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design university in the United Kingdom. It offe ...
(film department) to do research into computer generated research and music." He acknowledged that "the chances (of being accepted) are pretty slim." (This assessment proved correct and Denys's application to the Film School was rejected. Perhaps what he was trying to do was a bit too avant-garde for the film establishment of the time). During his stay in New York Denys recorded (as Dennis Irving) an interview with the American Jazz/Experimental composer
Sun Ra
Le Sony'r Ra (born Herman Poole Blount, May 22, 1914 – May 30, 1993), better known as Sun Ra, was an American jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, and poet known for his experimental music, "cosmic" philosophy, prolific out ...
for Pacifica Radio.
Using Columbia University's
mainframe computer
A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterpris ...
he developed programs to produce short computer generated silent films. In a letter dated 9 May 1969 he referred to "working on my various films in the face of incredible and demented opposition. I may manage to finish one or more before I leave!"
In New York Denys pioneered projection systems for ‘psychedelic’ effects, initially using liquid inks on glass slides, and later combining these with a variety of photographic images. He mounted a powerful projector in his tiny apartment in the East Village and projected images onto the building opposite, often attracting substantial crowds.
On his return to London in 1969, Denys continued to be interested in making films and in record production. He set up a company called Lucifer films Ltd. with Naomi Zack who he'd met at Columbia University. Lucifer films developed into Lucifer recordings, and produced various records that
Howard Marks
Dennis Howard Marks (13 August 1945 – 10 April 2016) was a Welsh drug smuggler and author who achieved notoriety as an international cannabis smuggler through high-profile court cases. At his peak he claimed to have been smuggling consignmen ...
(who he met at Oxford) later described as ‘proto punk’, Howard also contributed financially to support Denys' work.
Lucifer
Lucifer is one of various figures in folklore associated with the planet Venus. The entity's name was subsequently absorbed into Christianity as a name for the devil. Modern scholarship generally translates the term in the relevant Bible passage ...
released several singles, including the infamous "Fuck You" and two LPs, "Big Gun" and "Exit" in which he played all the instruments and also provided the vocals. These were available by mail order through ads in various music papers including ''
Record Mirror
''Record Mirror'' was a British weekly music newspaper between 1954 and 1991 for pop fans and record collectors. Launched two years after the ''NME'', it never attained the circulation of its rival. The first UK album chart was published in ''Re ...
'' & ''
New Musical Express
''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...
'' & via the underground press, including
''Oz'' magazine and ''
International Times
''International Times'' (''it'' or ''IT'') is the name of various underground newspapers, with the original title founded in London in 1966 and running until October 1973. Editors included John "Hoppy" Hopkins, David Mair ...
'' . The "Exit" LP was the soundtrack to the recently rediscovered ‘motor-cycle shock film’ "Exit" which Denys co-wrote & co-directed with Naomi and starred in. The film has been
digitized
DigitizationTech Target. (2011, April). Definition: digitization. ''WhatIs.com''. Retrieved December 15, 2021, from https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/digitization is the process of converting information into a digital (i.e. computer- ...
by
Barney Platts-Mills
Barney Platts-Mills (15 October 1944 – 5 October 2021) was a British film director, best known for his award-winning films, ''Bronco Bullfrog'' and ''Private Road''.
Biography
Platts-Mills was born in 1944 in Colchester, England, a son of b ...
and received a much belated premiere at The Portobello Pop Up Cinema on 30 September 2012 and was screened at the
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...
on 17 April 2015 as part of 'Cinema Born Again: Radical Film from the 70s'.
Around this time he also worked as a roadie for The
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philo ...
.
In a letter to his parents dated 6 May 1970, he refers to a recent TV programme
Disco 2 and asks "Did you see my nude body on Disco 2? They apparently couldn’t use my computer film, (presumably "69",) but they did use the footage of another film I made in America."
Around 1975, Denys became interested in synthesizers and, working with his friend
Mike Ratledge
Michael Roland Ratledge (born 6 May 1943) is a British musician. A part of the Canterbury scene, he was a founding member of Soft Machine. He was the last founding member to leave the group, doing so in 1976.
Biography and career
Ratledge was ...
of
Soft Machine
Soft Machine are a British rock band from Canterbury formed in mid-1966 by Mike Ratledge (keyboards, 1966–1976), Robert Wyatt (drums, vocals, 1966–1971), Kevin Ayers (bass, guitar, vocals, 1966–1968) and Daevid Allen (guitar, 1966–196 ...
, constructed a prototype
synthesizer
A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...
that Ratledge used on the soundtrack to the 1977 film '
Riddles of the Sphinx' (directed by
Laura Mulvey
Laura Mulvey (born 15 August 1941) is a British feminist film theorist. She was educated at St Hilda's College, Oxford. She is currently professor of film and media studies at Birkbeck, University of London. She previously taught at Bulmers ...
&
Peter Wollen
Peter Wollen (29 June 1938 – 17 December 2019) was a Film theory, film theorist and filmmaker. He studied English at Christ Church, Oxford. Both Political journalism, political journalist and film theorist, Wollen's ''Signs and Meaning in the ...
).
In America, he had taken up
hang gliding
Hang gliding is an air sport or recreational activity in which a pilot flies a light, non-motorised foot-launched heavier-than-air aircraft called a hang glider. Most modern hang gliders are made of an aluminium alloy or composite frame covered ...
and he continued to pursue this interest in England. In August 1976 his hang glider crash landed at Mill Hill,
Sussex
Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...
, and he was fatally injured. He left a wife, Merdelle Jordine, (an actress who was one of the first black women to appear in a British soap opera, ''
Crossroads
Crossroads, crossroad, cross road or similar may refer to:
* Crossroads (junction), where four roads meet
Film and television Films
* ''Crossroads'' (1928 film), a 1928 Japanese film by Teinosuke Kinugasa
* ''Cross Roads'' (film), a 1930 Brit ...
'', playing Trina MacDonald 41 episodes, 1978-1982), whom he had married in 1975, and a son Arthur.
Denys was an attractive and charismatic character who enjoyed operating on the frontier of new developments and challenging the established order of things.
It is something of an irony that Denys died in the year that micro-computers became available. The personal Computer medium would have provided the ideal tool and vehicle for his exciting and creative energies. He was a pioneer in early computer generated animation and his work was recently shown at the
Tate Gallery
Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...
, London.
Two of his computer generated films "69" & "Now" are held in the
LUX collection.
References
‘Mr Nice’ (
Secker and Warburg
Harvill Secker is a British publishing company formed in 2005 from the merger of Secker & Warburg and the Harvill Press.
History
Secker & Warburg
Secker & Warburg was formed in 1935 from a takeover of Martin Secker, which was in receivership, ...
, 1996) by Howard Marks
‘Howard Marks, His Life and High Times’ (Unwin Hyman, 1988)
David Leigh,
‘A history of artists' film and video in Britain’, 1897 – 2004, (British Film Institute Publishing, 2006) by David Curtis.
& the e-book ‘Rogue Males: Richard Burton, Howard Marks and Sir Richard Burton’ (2010) by Rob Walters.
With additional biographical information provided by Andrew Irving.
External links
Lucifer on myspaceDenys Irving's films at LuxInternational TimesOZ magazine'EXIT' at the BFI'Denys Irving at BFI ('Riddles of the Sphinx')Merdelle Jordine1968 Sun Ra interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Irving, Denys
1944 births
1976 deaths
British experimental filmmakers