SM1701 - Lecture 4A part2 Consciouness, Ideology and Illusion, and Cinema as object performance and concept

Who is Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881 - 1955)?

• Jesuit Priest of artistocratic origin

• Many works unpublished until his death

• Thinking was so weird and non-Christian that his Catholic institution prohibited him from publishing it during his lifetime

• Came up with Noosphere

• Was apart of archeological dig in China that found the Peking Man

• His Catholic Institution banished him to China

• Wrote “The Phenomeon of man”

• Thought of collective consciousness

What is the Noosphere?

• conceptually related to the biosphere

• Idea was Earth was a barren land and the surface was dramatically transformed by living organisms

• Noosphere is the next stage of the process after the biosphere

• Earth not transformed by organism but by consciousness

• A planter layer of thinking substance that envelops the Earth like one thinking mind

• Inspired Evangelion’s Third Impact

What is example of Noosphere?

AI Chatbots are a collective mind.

How did they see Noosphere relation to evolution?

• 1. Evolution progress from

  • Rocks => Plants => Organisms => Consciousness

• 2. Consciousness grow into more novel and complex architecture of the mind

• 3. Break away from material form, form a web of consciousness

Unisphere

• a large sculpture for 1964 New York World Fair

• Theme of that year “Peace Through Understanding”

• Made during height of Cold War and Cuban Missile Crisis

• Placed trust for an everlasting peaceful future in technological development

Message of 1964 New York World Fair

Everyone chill out, just be friends

IBM Pavillion

• about computer

• How computer operates like a human mind

Why was the Unisphere made?

• During 1950s-1960s, it was a time of breaking down cultural and social barriers and countercultural movements

• As well as anxiety about Nuclear Fallout

• Boundaries of artistic medium breaking down is related to yearning for global unity

Cinema as performance =>

Strong performative aspect

Cinema as concept =>

Relationship to conceptual art

Cinema as object =>

Structural approach to the film

Who is Tony Conrad (1940 - 2016)

• American artist

• Work shown in a lot of museums

• Legacy commemorated internationally

• Contributor of minimal and structured films

• “Flickering Films”, alternating black and white frames

• Music performer, multi-disciplinary artist and professor

Tony Conrad history

• studied mathematics at Harvard

• Moved to New York and immersed himself in avant garde circles

• Collaborated with film-makers like Jack Smith

• Joined Theatre of Eternal Music alongside La Monte Yong

During the Mid-70s Conrad…

• relocated to Buffalo, New York

• Joined the University of Buffalo Department of Music Studies became professor

• Founded many experimental and community art organisations alongside Paul Shari’s and Hollis Frampton

“Bowed Film”

• music performance by Conrad

• 16 minute film strip looping around his forehead amplified by clip mics anchored to the floor

• Played the violin bow turning film strip into musical instrument

• Personal cinema viewed only by him

• Performance of watching a guy watching a film

“Pickled 3M150 (1974)” & “Deep Fried 4-X Negative (1973)“

• “Cinematic object” Conrad made between 1972 - 1975

• 12 jars of pickled film strips preserved and destroyed by pickle juice

• Film roll that got deep fried, its too brittle to be removed from tin can

• Showed as sculpture

• Anti-film, you cannot see what is in captured image

• If you put them in a projector you may see abstract and generated patterns

“ Yellow Movies (1972-1973)”

• Black painted square on paper

• Inside black square is painted with substance that will yellow over time

• He was thinking of long temporal scale

• See yellowing process as a movie

• He thinks in our homes we use house paint

• Places that get blocked by sunlight get impression of furniture

• Yellowing happens at different speeds

• Yellowing process is like a photographic imprint

How is “Yellow Movies” related to McCall’s exploration of sufficient condition of cinema….

Cinema surfaces and Imprints over time

One Second Loop = Infinity : A white line in black (2007) by Takahito Iimura

• Display of film as cinema as an object

• 24 frames of unexposed film in 3×3 cube with a razor thin clean line running through middle of the strip

• Clear conceptual play of a loop within a loop

• He is interested in showing film objects in well-lit gallery spaces

• Open display of the film system

• Contrasting darkness of the theatre

Who is Paul Sharitis (1943 - 1993)?

• Filmmaker, Painter and Visual Desinger

• Abstract films made of frames of color known as flicker films

• Interested in the form, disregard narratives

• Deep exploration into perception

• As a result, patterns of light

• Different and rhythmic arrangement

• Combined with patterns of light combined with sound

• Focus on “immateriality” of the film and viewer’s perception

“Frozen Frames” - Paul Sharitis

• display of entirety of his flicker films

• Full view of film’s structure

• Placed on clear sheets of arcyllic

“Score for Declarative Mode IA (1976 - 1977)” - Paul Sharitis

• scores on grid paper

• Scores from his film in exhibition

“Sound Strip/Film Strip (1972)” - Paul Sharitis

• commission for the opening of contemporary art museum in Houston, TX

• Purple color film with different color variation exposed for different duration

• Causing variations in purple color

• 2 Lines: Real Man and Illusionist Man

• Project it, produce a line 2x removed from real line

• Incomprehensible sound strip that produce the line “Miscellaneous”