Artificial Light (Hollis Frampton, 1969)

“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 portrait-shots follow each other with almost academic smoothness in lap-dissolves 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, upside-down 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