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Home , Expanded Cinema, Robert Whitman, Tony Conrad, Underground film, USCO

Panoramas / Dioramas / early ‘Time Machine’ ‘Cinema of Attractions’ Early Optical Devices / Pre-sound, ‘Cine-lectures’ immersive environments H.G. Wells & Robert Paul’s patent application for Early cinema was a live and unpredictable event Magic Lanterns / Slide Shows / Tradition of the ‘barker’ who would narrate over the top of silent — often control of the These date back to the 18th c. and include new a ‘Time Machine ‘A largely imaginary moment but — combining performance, projection and Phantasmagoria one that combines, however hypothetically, the exhibition — includes events at the Paris ‘narrative’ belonged to the exhibitor rather than ‘architectures of seeing’ such as Robert Barker’s Extremely popular forms of pre-cinema that use of multiple projections and simulated move- Biorama ; Lumière’s touring programmes or the filmmaker or distributor. Panorama Rotunda at Leicester Square that combine illusion with analysis. What Werner ment (1895) — an early incantation of ‘virtual ‘Vues’ ; early Twentieth Century institutions of opened in May 1793 Nekes calls ‘Media Magica’ reality’? mass culture : Café-concerts, music halls, vaudeville, fairground theatres and temporary sites of exhibition. An important moment in Marcel Duchamp’s Precision the history of what Jeffrey Shaw calls, ‘specta- tor-spectacle relations’. Optics (1920) Paris Exposition 1900 Along with his Anaemic Cinema and Man Ray’s Rayographs (photographic images made without National exhibitions have showcased many of Hales Tours pre — 1910 use of a camera) Duchamp’s kinetic sculptures the technological innovations associated with anticipate what Ken Jacobs will call ‘para-cinema’ Part of the trend for travel films in the early expanded cinema. Here multiple projectors are — a form of cinema made without use of the Twentieth Century, ‘Scenes from around the used panoramically to simulate hot-air balloon Performance traditional media of cinema. World’ were projected onto the ‘window’ of a flights In Las Hurdes (Land Without Bread) made in 1932 mock-up railway carriage that jolted and Famously, René Clair produced his Entr’acte when sound recording was available to filmmak- bumped as ‘passengers’ travelled the world (Interval) (1924) to be screened during the break ers, Buñuel delivered a live voiceover at early without leaving Manchester between the two acts of Picabia’s Ballet Relâche. screenings in order to create a disjunction not The film is in many ways site-specific and draws only between sound and image but between the Lettristes and Bauhaus on early cinema ‘programming’ in order to dis- filmic record and the way in which it is consumed. Situationist Theo Van Doesburg’s ‘dynamic light architecture’ rupt the ‘reality’ of the live event. creates an agitated space of moving screens Cinema in which ‘the spectator space will become part Maurice Lemaître and of the film space. [And] the separation of the Isadore Isou created their ‘projection surface’ is abolished.’ Moholy-Nagy’s Abel Gance’s Napoleon (1927) own brand of cinema that Polykino is also an important piece of light- The film’s three-screen climax suggests a cross- emphasised the unpredict- sculpture that, as with later expanded works, Action Paint- over between avant-garde expanded cinema able and antagonistic in examines the primary materials of cinema : light, ing / Abstract and developments in cinema technologies more film events using disas- movement and time broadly. Expanded sembled narratives, films Machines without images and live Malcolm Le Grice and confrontation. other - After experimenting with shadow and light in work makers that employ vis- Computer Arts German Theatre ceral devices associated such as, Point Source Along with Brecht’s alienation effects and Epic with expanded cinema In the 1940s John and James Whitney were early (1973), Tony Hill went on to Theatre, Walter Gropius & Erwin Piscator’s take their cue as much adopters of computers as a means of making create specially mounted Street Actions notion of ‘Total Theatre’ — which combines film from post-war concerns film-forms ; the Californian brothers claim to cameras to create films / Projections in which ‘the camera is projections with live theatre anticipate some of in painting (and music) as inherit the ‘machine as art’ from Duchamp and Practitioners such as Wolf fixed relative to its mov- expanded cinema’s focus on mediated enactment. they do from cinema Mondrian. Vostell, Werner Nekes, ing subject, resulting in and Ken a reversal of the usual Moscow World’s Brussels World’s Fair (1958) Dewey all took the pro- relationship between fixed jected image to the street Fair (1959) Expo that witnessed combining of events such as and moving elements in as a means of activating Site for the unveiling of the Philips sponsored Corbusier Pavilion, Poem a scene’ (Nicky Hamlyn). Better Books environments beyond the Charles and Ray Eames’ Electronique the Czechoslovak Laterna Magica Stan Vander- Ken Jacobs See also : Robert Breer’s ’s Inauguration of the Pleasure London cinema. iconic multi-screen beek’s Movie Creator of important Mutoscopes (1964) ; Steve Dome 3-Screen version, Abel Gance & Nelly extravaganza : Glimpses The basement of Bob ‘para-cinema’ works such Farrer, The Machine Kaplan showing an updated version of Napoleon Drome 1966 of the USA Gutai Group Cobbing’s Charing Cross as Nervous System (1975) (1988) ; Tim MacMillan’s and Magirama (1956) In a dome-shaped con- (Japan) 3D Rd. bookshop hosted a and Apparition Theatre ‘hoop camera’ UK (1982) number of early expanded verted grain silo in upstate Widescreen Influential actionists from (1974) cinema events such as the ‘simultaneous the 1950s. Destruction in Art Sympo- images of all sorts would sium (1966) and showed be projected on the TECHNICOLOR work by artists such as entire dome-screen… the E.A.T (Experiments in Art Jeff Keen, Kenneth Anger, audience lies down at the and Technology) outer edge of the dome New York and An important influence on Crossing the boundaries of engineering, art, with their feet towards the Jeffrey Shaw. artists making expanded cinema and performance, practitioners such as World’s Fair centre, thus almost the cinema such as William , Robert Whitman and Billy complete field of view is Double-Screen and (1964 — 65) Raban and Klüver joined forces to produce spectacular the dome-screen. Thou- Multi-Projection Experimental The infamous IBM Pavilion events such as Nine Evenings of Theatre and sands of images would be Arguably a cinematic language in itself — dou- / was created here to Engineering New York (1966) produce an ‘immersive London Film- projected on this screen… ble-screen films such as Warhol’s Kinesthetic this image-flow [of] visual (1966) and Outer and Inner Space (1965) as well nedia environment’ where makers’ Coop Theatre spectators became part of material is to be presented as Malcolm Le Grice’s Castle Two (1968) pose the Hub for many influential and each individual makes Associated with Black the machine and were “led audience with the dilemma of simultaneous read- experimental artists and his own conclusions… or Viennese Actionists Mountain College and through American history, Allen Kaprow / Robert ings. Multi-projection works such as Paul Sharits’ filmmakers from the mid realisations.’ (Vanderbeek, Many moments of crossover between live per- practitioners such as to the moon and the Milky Whitman / Ken Dewey Razor Blades (1965–68), William Raban’s Wave 1960s to the 1990s many ‘Cultural Intercom’) formance and the filmic (Kurt Kren / Otto Muehl) Merce Cunningham, Way with 135 screens Formations (1977) and Guy Sherwin’s Sound of whom employed tech- that influenced a generation of expanded cinema and the that rose, slid and formed Cuts (2008) employ new forms of filmic rhythm in niques associated with artists including , and Judson Church Dance tunnels.” order to expand the form and range of cinematic expanded cinema. later Paul McCarthy and Mike Kelley. experience. Theatre, the sense of the kinetic and the rhythms of the body influenced makers of expanded cinema such as Carolee FILMAKTION Filmaktion Walker Art FLUXUS Schneemann. A loose group of filmmaker’s associated with Gallery, Liverpool 1973 Neo-dada movement that has among its member- With its emphasis on the the LFMC producing iconic pieces of expanded Following earlier events at Gallery House in ship many of the artists and filmmakers associ- body and a ‘politics of cinema such as, 1 (1970) by Malcolm London (one of the few galleries supportive of ated with expanded cinema. Including Nam June experience’ expanded Le Grice, 2’45’’ (1973) by William Raban, Aperture film and video artists) this was an important Paik, George Maciunas and and cinema is closely linked to Claus Olden- Flicker Films Sweep (1973) by Gill Eatherley and Reel Time event in the history of UK Expanded Cinema Paul Sharits. Particularly influential in its move- the traditions of perform- burg’s Movie- Films by (, 1966), Peter (1973) by Annabel Nicolson focusing on the enlivened interest in the ‘real ment away from objecthood toward the ephemera ance art — but its use house (1965) Kubelka (Arnulf Rainer, 1960) and Paul Sharits time/space’ of film projection. of performance and gesture. of film and other media (among others) expand the frequencies of filmic suggests an alternative Audience and actors perception through violent alternating rhythms. relationship to mediums change places as Olden- of technological repro- burg’s ‘’ turns the duction. movie theatre inside out…’

Light forms and Projection Films such as Anthony McCall’s Line Describing Knokke-le Zoute Underground USA a Cone (1973) and Lis Rhodes’ Light Music (1974) X-Screen Exploding Plastic Belgian Festival of ‘Participatory spectacles held at countercultural Combining , multi-media collage examine the space between the projector and Festival Inevitable 1966 experimental film that ran venues and spaces provided and film to create intense film performances ; the screen and the materiality of projected light. (Cologne 1968) and join irregularly between 1949 an atmosphere of collective improvisation and Schneemann also employed trigger devices in Other experiments with projection and light An important moment in forces to create Pop Expanded Cinema combin- and 1974 and a testing sensorial overload. USCO — early ‘media-art’ the audience to create pseudo-interactive and forms as ‘visionary experience’ include Jordan the history of expanded ing live performance, film projection, music and ground for many forms collective ; Ben Van Meter uses live film projec- participatory events. Crucial works include Belson’s Vortex Concerts at Morrison Plan- cinema organised in part mixed media. of expanded cinema. The tions as a way of promoting and constructing Snows (1967), Ghost Rev (1965), Illinois Central etarium in San Francisco ; John Cage and Lejaren by Wilhelm and Birgit Hein. 1958 festival moved to sub-cultural identities in San Francisco in the (1968) Hiller’s HPSCHD event (1969) ; or the liquid light Brussels to coincide with mid-1960s ; Peter Kubelka designs the ‘Invisible shows of Mark Boyle (and Soft Machine) at the the World’s Fair Cinema’ at Archives in 1970 UFO Club in the late 60s Valie EXPORT Stereovision Since the late 1960s Export has challenged the physical realities of moving-image media with works such as Tapp und Tastkino (1968), Cutting Expo ‘67 Montreal Film Performance Film Installation and Installation (1968), Abstract Film (1967/8) Jeffrey Shaw shows Movie Movie a large-scale A vital aspect of expanded cinema combining the Forms of gallery-based practice that develop Occupies a crucial position in the history of expanded expanded cinema projection performance incorporat- technologies of mediation (and absence) associ- in tandem with the experiments of expanded cinema. This is especially true in the UK where artists such as David Critchley, Tamara Krikorian, Stephen ing an inflatable and the architecture of the festival ated with filmmaking with the physical presence cinema challenging the context and durational Partridge and David Hall explore the ontology of video building. Also showing : ‘Kinoautomat’, the world’s first of the body (see also : FILMAKTION) Marilyn quality of film and its relation to the space and technologies in their spatial, temporal and material ‘interactive movie’ conceived by Radúz in era for the Peter Weibel Č č Halford, Hands Knees and Boompsa Daisy (1974) time of reception. E.g. Paul Sharits, Epileptic elements. Also points to an important engagement with Czechoslovak Pavilion. Robert Whitman, Shower Piece / Prune Flat (1965), Seizure Comparison (1976) ; Ron Haselden , MFV alternative cultural contexts such as television. Key Creator of live projection Tony Conrad, Bowed Film, (1974) Jeff Keen — Maureen (1975) ; Tony Sinden, Cinema of Projec- early works in the UK include Tony Sinden / David Hall, events including Nivea combining many different elements, Keen tion (1975) ; Michael Snow, Two Sides to Every 101 TV Sets (1975) ; David Hall, Progressive Recession (1968) and Action Lecture created a feverish and unpredictable form of film Story (1974) ; David Dye, Unsigning for Eight (1975) and David Critchley, Trialogue (1977) (1968) performance in which the 8mm camera acts as a Projectors (1972) pen and the projector as a gun. Keen created the ongoing Theatre of Dr Gaz, which incorporated live 8mm and 16mm multiple projections, blow- torches and paint, Birgit & Wilhelm Hein, Film und Festival of Expanded Cinema, Television Interruptions Live Show (1979–81) — Superman und Wonder- ICA Jan. 1976 & woman / From Here to Eternity (1979), Guy David Hall, 7 TV Pieces (1971) ­— Unannounced Site Specificity Video Performance Sherwin, Man with Mirror (1975–2008), Ian Important event that positioned UK expanded and un-credited, Hall’s seven works interrupted Robert Smithson proposed building a cinema in The work of video performance artists such as Marina Breakwell/Mike Leggett, Unword (1970–2003) cinema at the forefront ‘of structural researches BBC 2’s Scottish broadcast as part of the Edin- into process art’ (Jonas Mekas) moving away a mine and projecting a film of the mine being Abramovič, Vitto Acconci, Dan Graham and burgh Festival of that year. WGBH-TV in Boston excavated ; Morgan Fisher’s Screening Room occupies an important position in the development of from the psychedelic turn in US expanded cinema collaborated with video artists to produce early (start date : 1968) is a film made in the space in expanded cinema and its concerns with the immediacy toward an ‘emphasis on either the physical, forms of TV art in the US at the end of the 1960s. which it’s projected ; Richard Long produced and physicality of mediated environments. spatial or temporal aspects [of cinema]… to Gerry Schum created unannounced and un- ‘’ facilitate a perceptual shift’ (Deke Dusinberre). credited broadcasts in Germany such as Land Art instructions for Walking a Straight 10 Mile Line Master minded by Dick Includes work by artists such as Jeff Keen, Rob (1969). , Douglas Davies and Nam Forward and Back Shooting Every Half-Mile Higgins in New York during Gawthrop, Nicky Hamlyn, Lis Rhodes, Ian Kerr, June Paik produced the Satellite (Dartmoor 1969) ­— and shot it. the late 1960s combining Ian Breakwell, Marilyn Halford, Annabel Nicolson Telecast (1977) broadcasting live performances HOUSEWATCH light shows, projections and and Chris Welsby around the globe including Beuys’ direct address live performance A collaborative project combining installation, to the public, elaborating on his utopian theories video, film and the urban environment in order of art as ‘social sculpture’. to create what Tony Sinden has described as Surveillance Technologies ‘cinematic architecture for pedestrians.’ Marcel Broodthaers Post-punk (US) Section du Cinema (1971 – 72) (symptomatic Practitioners such as Mike of what Rosalind Krauss has called the ‘post- The Video Show, Serpentine Kelley, Paul McCarthy, medium condition’) museum, gallery and Gallery (summer) 1975 Architecture as Media and Laurie cinema merge as a site of cultural and aesthetic Video Walls Artists using closed circuit installations, per- Anderson adopt many archaeology With its roots, arguably, in the architectural and formances, multiple screens, video monitors cinematic experiments of the Bauhaus this cat- aspects of expanded Punk & Super 8 movement cinema as part of a and video graphics continue expanded cinema’s egory would include such works as Dan Graham’s attack on the forces of television and other forms In the UK, Derek Jarman experimented with the pavilions and works by the UK group House language of performance and video drawing on of media culture immediacy and lyricism of Super 8. In Spain, Watch that challenged the relationship between Pedro Almodóvar created Super 8 performances social space and media. post-modern and popular ‘Cinema of Exhibitions’ culture as well as in night clubs in the wake of Franco’s death A shift to using the gallery as a context for, on Modernist discourses the one hand, deconstructing the identity proc- ess inscribed in iconic works of classical cinema, Scratch Performance and on the other, of exhibiting the processes of Immersive Environments Early to mid 1980s scratch video performances in film production as a form of media displacement. UK nightclubs. Scratch artists such as the Duvet International Symposium Works such as ’s Tall Ships (1992) : ‘an Interactive Associated with artists such as David Lamelas, Brothers and Gorilla Tapes combine state-of-the- of Shadows (1996) entirely silent, sixteen channel video installation US artists Graham Weinbren and Roberta Fried- Stan Douglas, Douglas Gordon and Pierre Hughe. art video editing techniques with a subversive that comes into being through the presence of a man pioneered CD-Rom and video-disc-based Returning to first principles, a loose group of sense of détournement viewer ; it is set up so that whoever walks into the interactive filmmaking in the 1980s and 1990s in ‘shadow engineers’ reconsider the darker and darkened gallery triggers the projected figures which viewers are able to influence the narrative more primitive areas of projection, including hovering around the edge of the space to move developments of intricate cinematic fictions. Thomas Bartels Projecting Sculpture, Joost towards them.’ Creative Projection & Rekveld’s Installation 13 and the shadow per- formances of Loophole cinema. ‘Film Alchemy’ Multi-Screen Environments Contemporary artists from around the world and Installation (such as Jurgen Reble, Bruce McClure, Luis ZKM Future Cinema Recoder and Emma Hart) who work directly with E.g. Jane & Louise Wilson, Gamma (1999), A Free and Anonymous Monument (2003) Virtual Reality A ‘Media Museum’ and ‘Institute for Visual the material of film and the mechanics of projec- Mirza & Butler Media’ set up in Germany by Jeffrey Shaw and tion in order to create frenetic actions — proving Using multiple screens, double projections and “the most recent phase in the expression of the Peter Weibel, two prominent figures in the that films are not so much produced as they are site-specific ‘resonances’ Karen Mirza and Brad Pygmalion syndrome” — Malcolm Le Grice history of expanded cinema, that champions projected. Butler continue expanded cinema’s exploration of ‘artistic, social and technological research into Contemporary Festivals / the relationship between film, social context and new forms of interactive digital media with an personal experience emphasis on the expansion of cinematic codes Groups IMAX and techniques.’ Media Art Kill Your Timid Notion (UK) ‘Information Architecture’ La Cellule d’Intervention METAMKINE (France) Increasingly sophisticated forms of display and multi-channel screens seamlessly adorn facades internally and externally where building, image Television Satellite / Cable VJ Events and ‘Real Time and built surface blur into one another. Communication technologies Visual Performance’ Art