16 pianos and a whole lot of dada

November 13, 2014 4:23 PM

The dadaist Ballet Mechanique (1924 video 16mins) was the only film written by Fernand Leger and had cinematography by Man Ray. (film wiki).
It starred Alice Prin better known as Kiki de Montparnasse ( Metafilter previously ) and was scored by the American composer George Antheil.
In 1940 Antheil met Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler better known as Hedy Lamarr at a dinner party in Hollywood and together they patented a secret communications system known as frequency hopping which they gave to the navy who ignored it until 1957.
( Previous and previouslier).
posted by adamvasco (5 comments total)

Such a groovy film.
posted by ThatFuzzyBastard at 6:37 PM on November 13, 2014

Well, that music was pretty scary. I may have a nightmare about it tonight...
posted by starlybri at 6:40 PM on November 13, 2014

Frequency hopping is cool stuff. If I recall, the basic idea is to keep switching between different frequencies while sending a signal. The sequence of frequencies is only known between the sender and the receiver, so nobody else can follow the signal. Frequency hopping is also the basis of CDMA scheme for cell phone communication.

The story of the collaboration between Antheil and Lamarr is detailed in Hedy's Folly. I highly recommend it.
posted by tickingclock at 8:57 PM on November 13, 2014

Okay, well I made it to three minutes. So I don't get to have any more commentary.
posted by antiquated at 7:27 AM on November 14, 2014

I can't help but wonder, after watching that, what the Dadaists would think of YouTube Poops. Just goes to show that we don't change, just the technology we use does.
posted by Queen of Robots at 9:37 AM on November 14, 2014