Page 68 - Studio International - November December 1975

ON EXPANDING CINEMA

Deke Dusinberre

'You'll have to see how they do it perimeter of expanded cinema activity. Happenings
Tho evening prices go up quickly at noon. significantly influenced the definition of the term by
"Nazi !" Tarzan says coyly Gene Youngblood, and his definition represents that
"Nazi", Tarzan says segment of expanded cinema which is centred on the
And lures some celluloid to the lion's maw: west coast of the U.S.This eclectic type of work
And all the earth's problems are solved. represents the extrapolated consciousness available
You have seen through advanced technology. It has, in fact, become
A rain of dried peas does not stick to a screen, identified with expanding technology and relies on new
A non-stop reflector, technology to expand perception. As such, it yields a
(Not the black sheet of a bed), synthesis which tends to subordinate the means of
But an heroic image-production to the effect of that image, dwelling on
Which excretes and laughs.'* the new perception at the expense of apperception.
Louis Zukofsky So even though Youngblood can lay claim to popularizing
**** the term with his book Expanded Cinema, I will not deal
The project, as originally formulated, seemed a with that aspect here, but will move to another, more
formidable, almost impossible task : to describe and pertinent, area of expanded cinema which elaborates
define the recent English film work which owns the perception differently. ***
epithet 'expanded cinema.' It is a term which certainly
defies definition and even resists description. Art That elaboration is interpolative, and replaces the
criticism tends to describe its subjects by seeking the complexity of technology with the simplicity of
twin poles of generality and specificity ; new work is shadowplay; it explores the oid technology,
discussed in its newness, uniqueness, specificness. expanding the possibilities and exigencies of cinema
But because 'expanded cinema' represents an aesthetic technology as it has existed for eighty years. Since this
which is broader than specific forms or styles, an ultimately involves 'first principles', some artists—
analysis of specific instances will necessarily be scant and notably Valie Export and Peter Weibel of Austria — have
misleading. Generality, on the other hand, runs the risk of taken the principles out of their specifically filmic
blandness and — as a result of its super-inclusiveness — context and dealt with them conceptually (eg the idea of
critical meaninglessness. 'projection'). This work, too, is referred to as 'expanded
So, from our present disadvantaged perspective of cinema', but further discussion here will be limited to
contemporaneity, the project has metamorphosed into an work which is more parochially cinematic. And it will
attempt to circumscribe the area of activity which concern itself with drawing connexions between the
determines the diverse aesthetic thrust of expanded ways in which various works are specifically engaged in
cinema. That is, one must attempt to write around the the modernist aesthetic of process ; though they do it in
edges of a large, irregularly-shaped figure by plotting different ways, they insist on concentrating creative
some points on the perimeter, then locate salient points effort on the means of image-production, subordinating
in the interior; other points, of necessity omitted, should or eliminating content. As formulated by Annabel
be inferable. Nicolson, 'the content of the work is the process of its
The internal contradictions of an aesthetic which realization."' So that the best of recent expanded cinema
hypothetically includes the work of, say, Jordan Belson, has paralleled the thrust of other artistic activity in
Jeff Keen and Malcolm Le Grice, seem larger than the raising to a cognitive level the functions of perception in
consistencies which are theoretically necessary for a the recognition of signs and the acquisition of meaning.
unified aesthetic to emerge, if that aesthetic is to have In this regard, one approaches warily the work of
any critical relevance at all. What they do share is a Jeff Keen, England's veritable one-man institution of
heritage of recent cultural manifestations designed to manic expanded cinema. His work is clearly synthetic
shift consciousness. In fact, 'expanded cinema' was at rather than analytic ; in addition to the filmed collages of
one point almost synonymous with 'expanded pop imagery (usually animated one (or two) frames at a
consciousness.' What became a broad cultural activity in time), live performers are included — performers who are
the sixties to radically alter individual and social simultaneously in the films, dressed in the same bizarre
consciousness, was exemplified on the art-making level 'found object' gear. Keen himself adopts ironic personae
by the phenomena of 'Happenings' and 'Fluxus' events. like 'Dr. Gaz' or 'Motler.' The description of his work as
It was from these activities that expanded cinema being 'rooted in the British music hall tradition' 2
learned some of its strategies—activities involved in is surprisingly apt.
breaking down the barriers between media, and the Also surprisingly, Keen does share affinities with those
barriers between form as discrete, finished product and who are more rigorously concerned with the limitations
form as evolving activity. 'Action painting' had led to art of cinema : he develops a sense of irony between the
as action, and the Happenings tended to retain anair of word and the image in a way which ultimately
Abstract Expressionism. The gesture became a challenges the integrity of both. His films are often
privileged act, and complexity was introduced with projected onto 'screens' of paper on which Keen
multi-media elements : paint, film, dance, theatre, video. spray-paints layers of words as the images are
Fluxus, reflecting its Dada/Pop sympathies, attacked the projected over them. After defiling the sanctity of the
expressionist aspect of the gesture, turning art into white screen with graffiti, the screen itself is destroyed.
anti-art, and — more frequently — anti-art into art. Where So that Keen first undermines the authenticity of his
the Happenings suggested a shift in consciousness images by presenting his filmed actors and objects in the
through an increase in sensory and information input, the flesh, then strips the illusion of the filmed images from
Fluxus work reduced sensory input and minimized the wall, and ultimately empties the pop imagery itself
information input in an effort to reorientate perceptual of meaning. Keen's battle cry of 'Kill the word, don't let
priorities. Both activities demanded a realignment of the word kill you' applies equally to the image, and has
emphasis from the object perceived to the act of already earned him the title of 'a spiritual descendent of
perception — the former through extrapolation, and the the Dadaists.'3 Burning dolls and other plastic toys is
latter through interpolation, of the act of image-making. another favourite pastime ; but rather than its immediate
Both the Happening technique of extrapolation and impact as a petty (and ineffective) anti-bourgeois
the Fluxus technique of interpolation are situated on the outrage, it actually functions to assert Keen's central
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