Hollis Frampton Artificial Light (1969)

1969, 25 , color, silent Artificial light repeats variations on a single filmic utterance twenty times. The same phrase is a series of portrait shots of a group of young New York artists informally talking, drinking wine, laughing, smoking. The individual portraitshots follow each other with almost academic smoothness in lapdissolves ending in two shots of the entire group followed by a dolly shot into a picture of the moon. In the following synoptic outline, this entire phrase, which lasts about one minute in black and white, will be called A : Artificial light 1. A, upsidedown and backwards 2. A, in negative 3. A, with superimposition of sprocket holes 4. A, with eyes painted blue and mouths red 5. A, scarred with a white drip mark 6. A, covered with transparent stripes of red and green 7. Still shots in sequence from A; a stroboscopic or flicker effect 8. A, almost obliterated by scratches 9. Shots from A, toned different colors by dye, in an asequential order 10. A, with faces and hair