OFFON
Offon (Scott Bartlett, 1967, 10 minutes, color)
Bartlett was one of the first experimental filmmakers to create electronic cinema. Utilizing early video equipment and trippy film loops Bartlett was able to create mind-bending images. Today, they feel dated and regressive. We've seen it all before from music videos to feature films. The psychedelic images of dancing female forms melting into one another, wild colors, and crazy patterns. Pass the brown acid.
Obviously, I am not so impressed with this work. Growing up straight-edge and never having taken mind-altering drugs may have something to so with my lack of interest. More particularly, it is Bartlett's lack of subject matter that disinterested me most. He's just a boy playing with toys.
Bartlett was one of the first experimental filmmakers to create electronic cinema. Utilizing early video equipment and trippy film loops Bartlett was able to create mind-bending images. Today, they feel dated and regressive. We've seen it all before from music videos to feature films. The psychedelic images of dancing female forms melting into one another, wild colors, and crazy patterns. Pass the brown acid.
Obviously, I am not so impressed with this work. Growing up straight-edge and never having taken mind-altering drugs may have something to so with my lack of interest. More particularly, it is Bartlett's lack of subject matter that disinterested me most. He's just a boy playing with toys.
posted by Ryan Sarnowski @ 7:15 PM
1 Comments:
At 9:58 AM,
zierot said…
If the viewer did not enjoy OffOn, certainly the style of the film is not an appropriate one for him, but what is interesting about OffOn is that it is the seminal example of the shopworn style he viewer recognizes. The "shock of recognition" is an important factor in judging the weight of this particular work of art, because it is at the root of a whole genre. Music video is one outcome.
It is possible that "crazy patterns" and "wild colors" seem random and unstructured to some viewers, but they are well planned and executed here. The film gained an immediate following and is still a point of reference among those following the development of what is called synesthesia, the simultaneous sensation of sound and light from a single stimulus. This experience can be associated with "brown acid" or schizophrenia, but it also occurs without either drugs or pyschological pathology. Some artists are particularly moved to express these abstract perceptions in their art. A recent exhibition in Washington, D.C.'s Corcoran Gallery focussed on the phenomenon.
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home