Denys Irving
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Denys George Irving (4 January 1944–5 August 1976), was a Welsh filmmaker and musician from
Colwyn Bay Colwyn Bay () is a town, Community (Wales), community and seaside resort in Conwy County Borough on the north coast of Wales overlooking the Irish Sea. It lies within the historic counties of Wales, historic county boundaries of Denbighshire (h ...
, North Wales.


Biography

He grew up in South London and was educated at
Dulwich College Dulwich College is a 2-18 private, 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 a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1263 by nobleman John I de Balliol, it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world. With a governing body of a master and aro ...
(1962), where he read
Philosophy, Politics and Economics Philosophy, politics and economics, or politics, philosophy and economics (PPE), is an interdisciplinary undergraduate or postgraduate academic degree, degree which combines study from three disciplines. The first institution to offer degrees in P ...
. After graduating in 1966 he went on to study at the
London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...
, and was a graduate student in the Philosophy Ph.D. program at
Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
, 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 the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of 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 university, public research university in London, United Kingdom, with campuses in South Kensington, Battersea and White City, London, White City. It is the only entirely postgraduate art and design uni ...
(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 ou ...
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, enterprise ...
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 (drug), cannabis smuggler through high-profile court cases. At his peak he claimed to have been sm ...
(who he met at Oxford) later described as ‘proto punk’, Howard also contributed financially to support Denys' work.
Lucifer The most common meaning for Lucifer in English is as a name for the Devil in Christian theology. He appeared in the King James Version of the Bible in Isaiah and before that in the Vulgate (the late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bib ...
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 published between 1954 and 1991, aimed at pop fans and record collectors. Launched two years after ''New Musical Express'', it never attained the circulation of its rival. The first UK Album ...
'' & ''
New Musical Express ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a " rock inkie", the ''NME'' would become a maga ...
'' & via the underground press, including ''Oz'' magazine and ''
International Times ''International Times'' (''it'' or ''IT'') is the name of various Underground press, underground newspapers, with the original title founded in London in 1966 and running until October 1973. Editors included John Hopkins (p ...
'' . 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 Digitization is the process of converting information into a digital (i.e. computer-readable) format.Collins Dictionary. (n.d.). Definition of 'digitize'. Retrieved December 15, 2021, from https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english ...
by Barney Platts-Mills 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 filmmaking 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' and the original 16mm print is now held in the BFI archive.https://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web/Details/ChoiceFilmWorks/154057717 Around this time he also worked as a roadie for The
Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English Rock music, 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 experiments ...
. 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 of
Soft Machine Soft Machine are an English Rock music, rock band from Canterbury, Kent. The band were formed in 1966 by Mike Ratledge, Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers, Daevid Allen and Larry Nowlin. Soft Machine were central in the Canterbury scene; they became o ...
, constructed a prototype
synthesizer A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...
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 and filmmaker. 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 ...
&
Peter Wollen Peter Wollen (29 June 1938 – 17 December 2019) was an English film theorist and filmmaker. He studied English at Christ Church, Oxford. Both a political journalist and film theorist, Wollen's ''Signs and Meaning in the Cinema'' (1969) helped ...
). In America, he had taken up
hang gliding Hang gliding is an air sports, air sport or recreational activity in which a pilot flies a light, non-motorised, fixed-wing aircraft, fixed-wing heavier-than-air aircraft called a hang glider. Most modern hang gliders are made of an aluminium al ...
and he continued to pursue this interest in England. In August 1976 his hang glider crash landed at Mill Hill,
Sussex Sussex (Help:IPA/English, /ˈsʌsɪks/; from the Old English ''Sūþseaxe''; lit. 'South Saxons'; 'Sussex') is an area within South East England that was historically a kingdom of Sussex, kingdom and, later, a Historic counties of England, ...
, 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'', 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 UK ...
, London. Two of his computer generated films "69" & "Now" are held in the
LUX The lux (symbol: lx) is the unit of illuminance, or luminous flux per unit area, in the International System of Units (SI). It is equal to one lumen per square metre. In photometry, this is used as a measure of the irradiance, as perceived by ...
collection.


References

‘Mr Nice’ ( Secker and Warburg, 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 myspace

Denys Irving's films at Lux

International Times

OZ magazine



'EXIT' at the BFI'

Denys Irving at BFI ('Riddles of the Sphinx')

Merdelle Jordine

1968 Sun Ra interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Irving, Denys 1944 births 1976 deaths British experimental filmmakers