You may post these responses Wednesday, after your return from Spring Break.

1. As requested in class, post your response to Carolee Schneeman's Fuses. If you need a reminder of the film (which I doubt) a version of it is available here (as you recall, this is "not safe for work," due to explicit content)

Fuses was, I feel, the most explicit film by far. Thus the fact that it was authored by a woman, makes for an interesting topic to talk about. The film is designed it seems in the same fashion as Brakhages "Cats Cradle." The sexual tension, however, is more explicit then implied, resulting in a less romanticized view of the events. Nothing is hidden, and nothing is to personal to be used for the film. I thought some of the cuts of the lake, were humorous as they were so obvious in what they were referring to.

If you need help focusing your response, consider responding to this Schneeman interview in which she discusses sexual politics, in relation to your response to Fuses:

http://nsrc.sfsu.edu/article carolee_schneemann_transforming_art_and_discourse_sexuality_and_gender


Sitney, “Structural Film”

2. How is structural film different from the tradition of Deren/Brakhage/Anger, and what are its four typical characteristics? The structural film is structured by certain film characteristics such as loop printing, fixed camera, rephotography, and flicker effect.

3. If Brakhage’s cinema emphasized metaphors of perception, vision, and body movement, what is the central metaphor of structural film? Hint: It fits into Sitney’s central argument about the American avant-garde that we have discussed previously in class. The structural film represents a metaphor of consciousness.

4. Why does Sitney argue that Andy Warhol is the major precursor to the structural film? Without his films like empire, sleeping, and haircut their would have been no link. His emphasis on duration provided that link.

5. The trickiest part of Sitney’s chapter is to understand the similarities and differences between Warhol and the structural filmmakers. He argues that Warhol in a sense is anti-Romantic and stands in opposition to the visionary tradition represented by psychodrama/mythopoeic/lyrical films. But for Sitney’s central argument to make sense, he needs to place structural film within the tradition of psychodrama/mythopoeic/lyrical films. Trace the steps in this argument by following the following questions:

a. Why does Sitney call Warhol anti-Romantic? He attempts to take the filmmaker out of the equation. Points the camera and shoots.

b. Why does Sitney argue that spiritually the distance between Warhol and structural filmmakers such as Michael Snow or Ernie Gehr cannot be reconciled? Warhols fixed camera, was an attempt to outrage while Snow and Gehr's is an attempt to explore space.

c. What is meant by the phrase “conscious ontology of the viewing experience”? How does this relate to Warhol’s films? How does this relate to structural films? To use duration to create a sense that the viewer can look around, but still at the same time to direct their eyes, and mind. Warhol is a wink at the audience, but the structural films require the audience to work to understand the piece.

d. Why does Sitney argue that structural film is related to the psychodrama/mythopoeic/lyrical tradition, and in fact responds to Warhol’s attack on that tradition by using Warhol’s own tactics? The people who saw Warhols work, saw a potential metaphor for consciousness, and therefore using his tactics delivered films that work as that.

6. What metaphor is crucial to Sitney’s and Annette Michelson’s interpretation of Michael Snow’s Wavelength? A search for purity of the images and the trapping of time.