From: Tom B Whiteside (email suppressed)
Date: Fri Dec 05 2008 - 06:26:25 PST
No, definitely not a test-tube. I strongly believe that artists do what
they do "in their own time" and in many cases the larger culture catches
up later. (Of course in other cases the rest of the troops don't follow
the direction set by the avant-garde.) The rapidity of editing that began
in the 1920's has not slowed down, but it is no longer radical. It is
commonplace.
I don't think any points were missed, James. I think that art is made and
studied for its own sake, and the larger culture grows from that. Of
course it's not a straight line, it's a great big tangled up mess. I'm not
talking about the fact that some Hollywood films now have title sequences
that look like Brakhage, but things such as the use of tiny "cameras"
inside people's bodies during operations, images sent back from Mars, etc.
- Vertov would be jealous, right? Painting and drawing ruled our
constructed visual universe for centuries, but it's hard for us to imagine
much about the early years of those media. Things are happening more
quickly now, and as you study the history of the changes - technological,
aesthetic, cultural - you understand the world better. I don't see
experimental film separate from this world of change, instead I see it
playing a substantial role, even if most of the general public doesn't
know who Maya Deren was or why her editing was innovative in the 1940's.
It might be hard to convince the average undergraduate that Michael Snow
is important in his/her life (or Mahler, or Picasso, for that matter) but
it is worth it to teach the art form, to show the films, to research the
history. Maybe the significance becomes clearer to that student thirty
years down the road, working on the robotic camera for the exploration of
Venus, "Hey, remember that film we saw in college.......?"
- Whiteside North Carolina
James Cole <email suppressed>
Sent by: Experimental Film Discussion List <email suppressed>
12/03/2008 10:57 PM
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Re: Teaching film [Was: Experimental films showing at various
Universities]
"One thing to keep in mind is that the study of experimental film - its
history, its methods - is the study of the exploratory edge of motion
pictures. How has this language developed over the last 110 years, what
were the innovations at different points in time, how have they been
received, what does it mean in different cultural settings?"
I don't know that I agree with this, although I'm not 100 percent sure
what you're saying. I don't think that framing experimental film as an
attempt to mine new territory for mainstream film is a very accurate way
to look at it, and I certainly don't think you're going to garner much
serious interest for the avant-garde as serious venue for artistic
expression if you frame it as a test-tube for the mainstream. I agree
that the avant-garde has been co-opted by advertisers and Hollywood
filmmakers, but I don't think that's the main accomplishment of
experimental/avant-garde filmmakers. Forgive me if I'm missing the point,
here.
-James
On Wed, Dec 3, 2008 at 11:14 AM, Tom B Whiteside <email suppressed>
wrote:
One thing to keep in mind is that the study of experimental film - its
history, its methods - is the study of the exploratory edge of motion
pictures. How has this language developed over the last 110 years, what
were the innovations at different points in time, how have they been
received, what does it mean in different cultural settings? Without
question, motion pictures are important in many different fields -
politics, medicine, and yes, video games and other kinds of storytelling.
It probably doesn't matter what field that young person enters, there will
probably be one portion of that field where understanding how to be
creative in motion pictures will be important. And this understanding
begins with the study of framing, camera movement, editing, sound/image
interaction, etc etc.
In my lifetime, the influence of experimental film on mainstream media has
been tremendous. This will continue for quite some time.
- Whiteside North Carolina
__________________________________________________________________ For
info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
__________________________________________________________________ For
info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.