From: James Cole (email suppressed)
Date: Sat Dec 06 2008 - 06:18:04 PST
I really like the image of La Region Centrale on Venus. You should send a
proposal to Nasa. I'm only somewhat joking.
I think it was Brakhage who said they should have sent artists to the moon,
because the photographs they took look like ridiculous b-movie sets and
postcards. He said that Columbus was smart enough to bring Amerigo Vespucci
on his journey, and we named the damn country after him.
-James
On Fri, Dec 5, 2008 at 9:26 AM, Tom B Whiteside <email suppressed>wrote:
>
> 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
> Please respond to
> Experimental Film Discussion List <email suppressed>
>
> To
> email suppressed cc
> Subject
> 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>.
>
>
__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.