Cinema expanded: Avant-garde film in the age of intermedia

Walley, J. (2020). Cinema expanded: Avant-garde film in the age of intermedia. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190938635.001.0001

Leaping ahead now from Copper Age Europe to 20th-century New York—specifically Tribeca on June 18, 1975. Avant-garde artist-turned-filmmaker Anthony McCall “premiered” his Long Film for Ambient Light at the Idea Warehouse, an abandoned industrial building cum makeshift artists’ space at 22 Reade Street (fig. I.5). McCall’s film “ran” from noon of the 18th to noon the following day, during which time spectators could come and go as they pleased and move about the space at will. Viewers arriving to see Long Film for Ambient Light encountered a large, bare, industrial-looking room with a bank of windows along one wall covered by diffusion paper; by night, a single bare bulb hanging from the ceiling provided the only light. A timeline marking off 50 days in one-hour increments ran along one wall, the 24-hour duration of the film in mid-June bracketed in the center (fig. I.6). Next to it was an artist’s statement entitled “Notes in Duration,” which proclaimed that these elements—the space, light, timeline, and statement—along with the coming and going of spectators, comprised the work. There was no film, no projector, no movie screen, no rows of seats; rather, McCall claimed a specific location during a specific time as “a film,” suggesting that the necessary and sufficient conditions for a work of cinema consisted of the modulation of light in space and time (the timeline on the wall additionally indicated the “fluctuations of darkness and daylight”), and the actions of spectators within such conditions (fig. I.7). Indeed, the only way an independent, avant-garde filmmaker could afford to make a 24-hour film in the first place would have been to jettison the expensive materials of the medium, particularly film stock and chemical processing. McCall’s statement attested to this, claiming that it was possible to make films “without using the customary photochemical and electro-mechanical processes (which have the disadvantage of being expensive, i.e. slow).”5

Despite his adaptation of concepts from the other arts, however, McCall explicitly framed his “film” in terms of ideas and aims specific to cinema, and to the cinematic avant-garde in particular. Long Film for Ambient Light was not a work of multimedia or “intermedia,” not a happening or event lacking a specific artistic identity. That film itself was missing from the “film” didn’t matter; in fact, it allowed McCall to explore fundamentals of cinema all the more directly: “I do not rule out the possibility of continuing to make ‘films.’ However, for the time being I intend to concentrate less on the physical process of production and more on the presuppositions behind film as an art activity.”7

现在从铜器时代的欧洲跳到 20 世纪的纽约——具体来说是 1975 年 6 月 18 日的翠贝卡。先锋派艺术家转行成为电影制作人 Anthony McCall在 Idea Warehouse “首映”了他的长片《环境光》 （图I.5 ），Idea Warehouse 是一栋废弃的工业建筑，也是位于里德街 22 号的临时艺术家空间（图I.5 ）。McCall 的电影从 18 日中午“放映”到第二天中午，在此期间，观众可以随意进出并在空间中随意走动。观众来观看《环境光》长片时，会看到一个很大、光秃秃的工业风房间，一面墙上的一排窗户都蒙着柔光纸；到了晚上，天花板上垂下来的一个裸灯泡是唯一的光源。一面墙上有一条以一小时为增量标记 50 天的时间线，中间括号中表示了 6 月中旬电影的 24 小时时长（图I.6）。旁边是艺术家的声明，题为“持续时间的音符”，宣称这些元素——空间、光线、时间线和陈述——以及观众的来来往往，构成了这件作品。没有胶片，没有放映机，没有电影屏幕，没有一排排的座位；相反，麦考尔声称特定时间的特定地点是“一部电影”，这表明电影作品的必要和充分条件包括空间和时间中光线的调制（墙上的时间线还表明了“黑暗和白天的波动”），以及观众在这种条件下的行为（图I.7）。事实上，一个独立的前卫电影制作人能够制作一部 24 小时电影的唯一方法就是抛弃昂贵的媒体材料，特别是胶片和化学处理。麦考尔的声明证实了这一点，他声称可以制作电影“而不使用传统的光化学和机电工艺（这些工艺的缺点是成本高，即速度慢）。” 5

尽管麦考尔借鉴了其他艺术的概念，但他明确地用电影、特别是先锋电影的理念和目标来构建他的“电影”。《环境光长片》不是多媒体或“跨媒体”的作品，也不是缺乏特定艺术身份的偶发事件或事件。“电影”本身缺少这部电影并不重要；事实上，它让麦考尔能够更直接地探索电影的基本原理：“我不排除继续制作‘电影’的可能性。然而，目前我打算少关注制作的物理过程，多关注电影作为一种艺术活动的前提。” 7