Intermedia (pgs. 345 - 387) "Expanded Cinema"

I read about Intermedia and how it expanded Cinema as a whole. After reading (pgs. 345 – 387, Expanded Cinema) about the different composers, different ways theaters were built, and how art forms were changed, I decided to research the origin of “Intermedia.” I found that composer, poet, painter and early Fluxus artist, Dick Higgins was best known for coining the term “Intermedia.” Higgins was born in Cambridge, England but raised in many different parts of the United States. He did a lot of his work all around the world, which may have been what led him to his work in media across boundaries. Without the work of Higgins, I believe that people in the digital arts field would not be as diverse as they are. Before “Intermedia” was defined, most people stuck to one main art form such as poetry, painting or theatre. Higgins showed that those boundaries could be crossed and there was correlation between drawing and poetry, painting and theatre, music and light, etc. Although it may be a stretch, we could even say there would not be programs such as the Digital Arts and Sciences program at the University of Florida that teach students about all aspects of media, instead of just one form. Higgins did most of his work during the “Swingin’ 60s”. This was known as a cultural decade with different clothing, music, drugs, and sexuality. During the 1960s, things became a little bit more loose and radical and it seemed like many were thinking outside of the social norms of the decade before.

Primitive Holography

Gene Youngblood's introduction to Holography is an interesting one. His Expanded Cinema text seems to portray every kind of emerging, innovative cinema platform and Holography is one of these aspects. He provides examples of early projections that give the illusion of a hologram. I use the word "illusion" since it is truly not an actual hologram that contemporary audiences would recognize. Rather, it is a system in which it is limited to one or two viewers. The projected hologram is then catered to an individual's perspective by providing multiple renders of an object or objects. This method uses parallax to give the sense of Holography. There are other means of providing a holographic element that Youngblood describes. Technical artists utilize laser beams in conjunction with smoke. The smoke captures the light, and when used with multiples of lights, it gives depth to the image, thus giving the viewer a sense of Holography. I enjoyed reading about this. It provides a comparative view of how we create and see 3D movies with the early non-CG method of holography.

Mythopoeia: The End of Fiction

While perusing through the table of contents of Youngblood's Expanded Cinema, the word "Mythopoeia" caught my eye. The word seemed familiar to me, but I couldn't recall its meaning. As I did a quick google search, I discovered that the term represented a modern genre of film in which the author creates a mythological fiction. J.R.R. Tolkien, a favorite author of mine, even wrote a poem entitled "Mythopoeia" to defend creative myth making, as in his famous Lord of the Rings trilogy.

But how exactly did mythopoeia come to exist? Youngbood's chapter on the subject examines the three general purposes of cinema that have generally existed: fiction, documentary, and cinéma-vérité. I will not go through and define these terms, as that would just practically be copying and pasting from the article. However, I will say that each of these purposes represent a level of reality being portrayed in a given film - cinéma-vérité being the most real, with no interaction between camera and the subject being filmed, and fiction being the most, well, made up and contrived.

Just as every other art form (music, theatre, dance, etc) has divided into genres, then subgenres, and even beyond, film makers went beyond the three above described purposes of cinema, and began to mix and match different features. Of this came mythopoeia, a fictional story, world, language, etc that references the artist's reality. As Youngblood puts it, "it is a documentary of the artist's perception."

After reading this chapter, I've been inspired to binge watch the LOTR film trilogy this upcoming weekend. Thanks...

Response to the Preface of Expanded Cinema

In the preface, Gene Youngblood states that the "mass public insists on entertainment over art." According to Brown, "freedom" is "fusion." These days, entertainment encompasses many different venues -- from theatrical, to musical, to cinematic, and to more. Entertainment draws from various artistic values, and combines them together to please a crowd. An example of entertainment includes playing a classical musical piece during a ballet recital, with a projection design in the background. The audience is both hearing the music and watching two parts of a performance -- the dancers, and the screen. To quote the author, the "fusion" of different aspects of performance provides the audience with a greater overall experience.

Today, art and entertainment go hand in hand. In my opinion, you can't have one without the other. They are intertwined; aspects of art will always exist in entertainment, whether it's in the drawing and animation of video game characters, or in the artistic value of the costume designs of those in a theatrical work.

expanded cinema part one

part one, pp. 45-69.
Honestly, when I looked at the tittle of the book at the first time, it was not that attractive for me to peruse a book which was related to media tech & art and published in1970 . My idea was that how could the content be valuable as the technology develops rapidly. For instance, look back to ten years ago, people could hardly believe that they can do so many things with a mobile phone nowadays. Likewise, the knowledge of media art and science in the book could be very different with what we know today. After I read the first part of the book, I have to say that my mind has not been changed yet. However, I agree with Youngblood’s theory on the future shock affects. He claims that the future shock would have an impact on humans’ intelligence, morality, creativity, and even the family (pp. 50-53). From my point of view, the main reason leads to the fact is the impact of the pervasive technology on humans’ interactions and communications, which is also known as the mass media. In addition, Youngblood clearly distinguished commercial entertainment and the art. Again, it is slightly different with what we already know. Actually, I think the art of commercial entertainment is one of the most popular and important art form in the current world.

Richard Bulkminster Fuller's World

After reading the introduction wrote by R. Buckminster Fuller in  Expanded Cinema, I could not immediately express those multiple intwined feelings presented in my heart. Fuller's thoughts is a miracle, his imagination seems come from thousand years of self-talking before. He jumps out of this world and thinks the all issues in this world just like a stand-by. It looks like unemotional but actually full of enthusiasm.  Firstly, he knows humankind's model of thinking and behaviour of nature. Then, he breaks all of them and constructs his own ways to analyse and explain them newly. Anyhow, he distinctly understands the exact words and exact description about all his piquant thoughts in his brain.

Fuller's viewpoint in this article makes a connection between woman's womb with our universe, the uncertainty of telepathy, the temporary of definition and the alternation and bluntness in our human's understanding. Woman's womb, biosphere-sheathed world, both like a self-regenerating and transforming organic machine. On one hand, He consciously or subconsciously implies the simpleness of everything, he abstracts core of everything in the universe and then reshape some into his emotional memorable characters,  but on the other hand, he admires humanity's intellectual and physical all kinds of infinite sorties and utilizes part of them to continue his metaphorical thoughts.

Also, I like "eye-beamed thoughts" this words,  vividly and thought-provoking. In our digital world, digital projection,  signals, transceivers and reception, cannot say there is nothing related the same? All in all, Fuller's theory is worthy of being deeply exploring and digging, only through that we could grasp and control the future tempo in our wanted field ingeniously and comprehensively.

‘The Videosphere’

‘The Videosphere’

     Youngblood’s chapter on the future of television going to cable and having recording devices on 1” tape was part of my upbringing.  We started getting cable television I believe in 1979/80 when I was fourteen/fifteen!  VCRs did not come about for a few years but having cable and seeing the first broadcast of MTV is a vivid memory.

     The comparison of recording and retrieval to the English alphabet and Chinese characters is very interesting.  Nam June Paik states “retrieval is much quicker with Chinese characters.  You can record (write) quicker in English but you can retrieve (read) quicker in Chinese.” 

     Then the talk of existing satellites delivering high resolution COMSAT typesetting is quickly approaching, along with high-res cameras yielding picture resolution equivalent to 100 feet above ground.  With this announcement, some countries would complain of “invasion of privacy.”   Well, too bad!!