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    16 views5 pages

    Issue 24 2 2004 PDF

    Uploaded by

    Mónica Amieva

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    of 5
    JACKIE HATFIELD THE SUBJECT IN EXPANDED CINEMA (eR Wren \ A” vendkday, ere] A aging wudel tor a Lootlall - laa 4S Co Cris aes, Py a. ead for a major critical review of the practices of ‘experimental fim and video to examine the significance cof technological experiment, experiment with narrative (dramaturgy), and performance (ofthe artist or the aud ence) within the crnematic event, all ritnerto under- explored in the written histories. Paradigms tested with expanded cinoma’ have largoly fallen outside the otho- doxes ofthe availabe critical histories of the experimen- tal film and video canons with their single-screen bas, Gene Youngblood's Expanded Cinema, Thorold Dickinson's ‘A Discovery of Cinema and aspects of Malcolm Le Grice's Experimental Cinema in the Dightal Age, are exceptions However, now is an opportune time to address this gap since current (post fm) forms of expanced cinema open Lup possiblities for new hypotheses. [= Identified in previous writing, that there is now @ ‘Te ascendancy of any one theory, history, or lineage of ‘experimental film and video is due to the scarity of wrt ing relative to other art forms, however overlooked critical histories can be adcressed through a review of the prac tice. Despite emphasis on language, abstraction and med lum in the modernist sense, many artists working with fm ‘or video have explored technology narrative, image, spec: tacle, and fore-grounded the arst or audience as sub Jects or participants in the work, of as part ofthe process ‘or material inthe live event, the subject isthe existential material ofthe artwork ~ the physical embodiment ofits nartative history with the incumbent chaos and pandemo- rium ofthe spontaneous. in relation to expanded cinema 1 artin-sight » & In particular, discourse focussed on the subject as central ‘0 tne mectanism ofthe cinematic isa history waiting to be written, although there are theoretical precedents ‘worth considering In Apparatus, Cinematic Apparatus, Selected Writings Jean-Louis Bautry deliberated on the language ofthe cin ‘ema mechanism, with emphasis onthe subject (aud- ence} and their relationship with the projection in the dark space. Wit his Plato's ‘Cave" analogy he argues, "describes [.] the cinematographic apparatus and the ‘spectato’s place in relation to it" Primarly Baudry was interested in te ‘psychicat' relationship of the audience ‘with the image’, and asked the question whether it was real-efct or Impression of realty?" within the project- ‘ed environment, the audience, he stated, are ‘prisoners ‘ofthe projection ‘shackled tothe screen, tied. And he ‘argued thatthe fl projection is a representation of a king of realty not unlike painting and theatre (dry-runs' in the human need for representation of ‘psychical fe”, ie. “the cinematographic projection is reminiscent of ‘ream an “impression of realty" (my italics) a'epro- ‘ction ofthe rea Subsequent to crnema’s technical invention it was predominantly the issue of reproduction ‘of realty that was emphasised in analytical theory rather than the relationship between the subject and the image and the potential ofthe cinema apparatus as @ reflection Of ‘states’ n contrast to this Baudry argued that cinomat. ic signifers and apparatus should not be exclusively on ‘ented around the ‘technique and content, Le. “character Istes of the image, depth of field, of screen space, shot, single-shot-sequence, montage, etc."» but should include ‘the “postion ofthe subject facing the imagen his ‘analysis Baudry concentrated on the subject, the auch fence, and stated that cinema “is indeed a simulation of @ onefton ofthe subject a position of the subject, su lect and not of reality"® and included the spectator as a ‘major element within the definition of cinema apparatus Similarly Roland Barthes described the audience as being ‘anonymous, nd the sereen "visible and yet unnoticed, the dancing cone which ils through the darkness ofthe theater like a laser beam."* Without distraction and unlike painting ora video monitor, which can be seen in

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