Expanded Cinema: Art, Performance and Film

Abstract

Rees co-edited this book (307pp.) with David Curtis, Duncan White and Steven Ball, and wrote its introduction, an essay on the ‘troubled history’ of the many diverse forms of Expanded Cinema. The introduction (12pp.) traces the controversial history of Expanded Cinema, and its bewildering variety, from the 1950s to the present, describing its impact on film culture and its social context. The essay is historical in method, but comments on contemporary practice. The book contains 25 original essays by leading historians and artists, alongside rare archival reprints (some in facsimile) and extensive interviews. The emphasis on texts by artists as well as by critics/historians was deliberate and also innovative among anthologies in this area. The publication was part of the AHRC-funded project Narrative Exploration in Expanded Cinema, and was overseen by an academic advisory board. The context for the book was partly determined by papers presented at public seminars and conferences held at BFI Southbank ‘The Live Record’ (2008) and Tate Modern ‘Activating the Space of Reception’ (2009), but wholly new contributions were invited to bridge gaps and add balance. The book was commended in the 2012 Krasna-Krausz annual awards for new publications on film. The project and conferences are archived at http://www.rewind.ac.uk/expanded/Narrative/Home.html The book explores a wide range of expanded cinemas, from spectacular multi-screen performance to minimalist projection art, and is international in scope. It recovers lost histories and neglected pioneers, and explores contemporary digital art. It suggests new relations between seemingly separate sectors, e.g. video art and experimental film, and contributes to current debates about defining the ‘cinematic’, and the rise of mixed-media and gallery installation. Methodologically, the project as a whole was academically led and assessed, and included seminars for research students and staff, as well as major public events, screenings and installations at Tate Modern.

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