Dr Christa Sommerer Filmteractive Presentation: Interactive Installation between Expanded Cinema and Expanded Poetry

1. Interactive Installation between Expanded Cinema and
Expanded Poetry
Christa SOMMERER & Laurent MIGNONNEAU
Professors for Interface Cultures, Kunstuniversität Linz, Austria
christa.sommerer@ufg.ac.at
http://www.interface.ufg.ac.at/christa-laurent

2. Expanded Cinema
Expanded Cinema had a strong influence on the development of today’s
Interactive Art.
Expanded Cinema is an elastic name for many sorts of film and projection
events. The term was coined by Steve Vanderbeek and Carolee Schneemann
in the mid 1960ies. Often even the body was used as a projection screen.
The experimental film maker Jonas Mekas writes already in 1965 about the
“expanded” cinema in the crucible or multimedia spectacle, optical experiment
and film performances by the NY and international underground (mentioning
Bryon Gysin, Ian Sommerville, Gregory Markpolous and Robert Breer).
More information and interviews at:
http://www.rewind.ac.uk/expanded/Narrative/Home.html

3. In 1970 Gene Youndblood wrote a book with the title Expanded Cinema, he is
one of the first to consider video as an art form and he propagated the use of
alternative cinema. (Gene, Youngblood, Expanded Cinema. Publisher: E P Dutton;
January 1970)

4. Stan Vanderbeek‘s
Movie-Drome» 1963
Influenced by Buckminster Fuller’s
spheres, VanDerBeek had the idea for a
spherical theater where people would
lie down and experience movies all
around them.
Floating multi-images would
replace straight one-dimensional film
projection. From 1957 VanDerBeek
produced film sequences for the Movie
Drome, which he started building in
1963. His intention went far beyond the
building itself and moved into the
surrounding biosphere, the cosmos,
the brain and even extraterrestrial
intelligence.
(source: Jürgen Claus in Leonardo, Vol. 36, No. 3,
2003, p. 229 from medienkunstnetz.de.)

5. Werner Nekes‘
Schnitte für ABABA, 1967
The film starts with a real scene of
policemen who try to capture a man.
After 4 minutes of black film the light
is switched off in the room and viewers
only hear the sound of the movie.
Viewers starts using lighters and
look around in the room. At one point
the film projector is directly
projected at them and a sense of
participation occurs. The film
passages switch between green and red
and through a very fast cut a
threedimensional sensation is created.
Nekes uses the filmprojector as a
mobile instrument, that projects at
the audience, the wall and the
interior of the cinema.

6. Paul Sharits‘s works
Paul Sharits (1943-93) was a pioneer of “expanded
cinema.” He made “flicker films” of stroboscopically
changing colors and structural films that
experimented with the basic properties of the
medium. (quoted from New York Times) see also
interview conducted by Steina and Woody Vasulka:
http://vimeo.com/12607672
« This has nothing to do with “pleasing an audience”
– I mean to say that in my cinema flashes of projected
light initiate neural transmission as much as they are
analogues of such transmission systems and that the
human retina is as much a “movie screen” as is the
screen proper. At the risk of sounding immodest, by
re-examining the basic mechanisms of motion
pictures and by making these fundamentals explicitly
concrete, I am working toward a completely new
conception of cinema. « (quoted from: Notes on Films
by Paul Sharits (1969)

7. Carolee Schneemann‘s Snows, 1967 at the Martinique Theater New York
In Shows Schneemann produced a kinetic theater piece combining performance and
film in order to « extend the visual densities of the live event. » The performers bodies
are key elements for projections. video at http://vimeo.com/20392122

8. Valie Export‘s
Ping Pong - Ein Film zum Spielen, 1968
With the ball and raquet you have to try to hit the
dots that appear on the screen. A film to play with –
a players' film. Stripped of semantics, the relationship
between viewer and screen becomes clear:
stimulus and reaction. The aesthetic of conventional film
is a physiology of behaviour, its mode of communication
a perceptual event. 'Ping Pong' explicates the relationship
of power between producer (director, screen) and consumer
(viewer). In it, what the eye tells the brain occasions motor
reflexes and responses.
‘Ping Pong' makes visible the ideological conditions.
Viewer and screen are partners in a game with rules dictated
by the director, a game requiring screen and viewer to come
to terms with each other. To this extent, the viewer's response
is active. But the controlling character of the screen could
not be demonstrated more clearly: no matter how involved
the viewer becomes with the game and plays with the screen,
his status as consumer is hardly affected – or not at all.
Valie Export (text from MedienKunstNetz)

9. Expanded Poetry
Experimental Literature in the early 1900
Early forms of experimental literature can be traced back to the 18th century. In 1897 Stephane
Mallarme published a poem that used spacing and the placement of sentences as important
components for producing meaning. The German poet Christian Morgenstern also partly played
with the placement of characters and words to achieve a special visual expression (see: Fisches
Nachtgesang). Around 1913-1916 the French Avantguarde poet Guillaume Apollinaire produced
Calligrammes, drawing a connection between text and image, often expressing the subject and
meaning of the text through a corresponding drawing, sometimes even opposing it (f.e. Eiffel
Tower Calligramm).

10. The Historical Avant-garde movements also contributed to the development of experimental
literature in the early and mid 20th century. In 1920 Tristan Tzara, a central figure in the
Dadaist movement, suggested a system where newspaper clippings were poured out of a bag to
produce new forms of random poems and experimental typographies. Fragmentary
typographical Bulletin Dada. (See image Johannes Baader Gutenberg Commemorative Sheet)
The Beat poets William S.Burrough’s and Brion Gysin rediscovered the cut-up technique in the early
1960ies.

11. Expanded Poetry by The Vienna Group
During 1954-1959 H.C. Artman, Gerhard
Rühm, Oswald Wiener, Konrad Bayer and
Friedrich Achleitner produced experimental
literature that defied any categorization and
was strongly inspired by Dadaism and
Surrealism.
The Cool Manifest was written and the
following forms developed: typewriterideograms, typocollages, formular poems, word
and phonetic compositions, news paper
collages, inventions, montages, series, rows,
constellations, text montages, studies, picture
texts, text films, projections, picture montages,
dialect poems, theater pieces, spoken pieces,
text sculptures, etc.
In 1953 H.C. Artman manifested in his EightPoint-Proclamation of the Poetical Act that
one can be a poet without having so much as
written or spoken a single world, he called
this openness of the genre Expanded
Poetry.(see image Literary Cabaret on 15th
April 1959, Vienna)

12. Gerhard Rühm’s A Poetry in Numbers, 1968
Here numbers are placed to propose a continuous plot, an optical rhythm, with sequential numbering and
alternating dynamism.

13. The Media Poet Peter Weibel
Weibel’s Action Lecture from 1986, is made up of various films showing Weibel projected onto his body
as well as the screen behind him. He also carries on his body a tape recorder playing back a lecture,
while at the same time holding a lecture through a microphone with the same content as the one recorded on
the tape. The central element of the action was a visible electronic switch mechanism with which the
audience could influence the operation of the film projector, the tape recorder, as well as a second
tape recorder playing music. The amount of noise produced by the audience controled not only the
projection of several films, but also a magnetophone, a spotlight, and a record player. (quoted from M.
Michalka, XScreen, MUMOK Vienna, 2004, p.95)

14. Peter Weibel’s Split Medium Simultan from 1974
A text about the problem of concurrence is typed simultaneously on two typewriters. The left hand of the
protagonist types only the characters that are placed on the left side of the typewriter, while his right hand
types only the characters on the right side. Once these two resulting texts are overlaid again, they should
give back the original text about simultaneousness.

15. Interactive Installations combining
Expanded Cinema and Experimental Poetry
by Sommerer & Mignonneau
© Sommerer & Mignonneau

16. Life Writer
© 2006 Christa SOMMERER and Laurent MIGNONNEAU, for MOCA Cleveland
*
antique type writer is
adapted
*
typing text creates
digital text on the
paper
*
when turning the left
handle this text
transforms in B&W
creatures that “live”
on the paper
*
they try to survive nd
reproduce by eating
text that the user
writes
© 2006, Sommerer & Mignonneau

17. Life Writer
© 2006 Christa SOMMERER and Laurent MIGNONNEAU, for MOCA Cleveland
*
text typed by the users =
genetic code
*
genetic code determines
the look and behavior of
the creature
*
text becomes alive (see
also W. Burroughs
Naked Lunch)
*
creatures feed on text
and reproduce (genetic
programming)
*
the user can also kill the
creatures
© 2006, Sommerer & Mignonneau

18. Life Writer
© 2006 Christa SOMMERER and Laurent MIGNONNEAU, for MOCA Cleveland
*
the paper tray can be
moved by turning the
cylinder and creatures
can be move with it
*
user can use the paper
as it were normal paper,
though it has become
the computer screen
*
intuitive interaction with
the type writer
*
obsolete technology
(media archaeology) of
knowledge creation has
been transformed into a
subversive tool of text
creation, destruction and
mutation
© 2006, Sommerer & Mignonneau

19. Life Writer
© 2006 Christa SOMMERER and Laurent MIGNONNEAU, for MOCA Cleveland
*
expanded literature
where the the borders
between author and
reader disappear
*
The Death of the Author
(see R. Barthes)
*
everyone can become a
poet, by participating in
the poetic act (see H.C.
Artman)
*
Derrida’s sense of the
liberation of the text/work
through the participants
co-creation of the work
© 2006, Sommerer & Mignonneau

20. Life Writer
© 2006 Christa SOMMERER and Laurent MIGNONNEAU
video at:
http://vimeo.com/63735655
© Sommerer & Mignonneau

21. Excavate
© 2012, Laurent MIGNONNEAU and Christa SOMMERER
developed for The View Contemporary Art Space
*
media archaeological
interface consisting
of a magic lantern
*
this device was
invented in 1650 by
Christiaan Huygens
Magic Lanterns are
the ancestors of the
slide and film
projector as well as
our multimedia
devices
*
we equipped the
magic lantern with a
mobile phone and a
mini projector as well
as sensors
© 2012, Sommerer & Mignonneau

22. Excavate
© 2012, Laurent MIGNONNEAU and Christa SOMMERER
developed for The View Contemporary Art Space
*
visitors can explore
the damp and totally
dark cave with the
Excavate device
*
when users shine
light onto the cave
walls various dark
particles appear
*
they looking a bit like
isopods; they
assemble and build
faint children’s faces
*
the image particles
are created by A-Life
swarming algorithms
© 2012, Sommerer & Mignonneau

23. Excavate
© 2012, Laurent MIGNONNEAU and Christa SOMMERER
developed for The View Contemporary Art Space
*
In Excavate the
surrealistic sensation of
seeing faces in random
patterns is produced
*
the user becomes the
producer and the
audience (see V.Export
producer-consumer
relationship)
*
the device represents a
form of Expanded
Cinema combining a
media archaeological
interface with an
algorithmic image
production
© 2012, Sommerer & Mignonneau

24. Excavate
© 2012, Laurent MIGNONNEAU and Christa SOMMERER
developed for The View Contemporary Art Space
video at:
http://vimeo.com/63726856
© Sommerer & Mignonneau

25. Escape
© 2012, Laurent MIGNONNEAU and Christa SOMMERER
developed for The View Contemporary Art Space
The installation deals with
the issue of Expanded
Poetry and Expanded
Cinema. It was originally
developed as site specific
installation in the civilian
airraid shelter in Salenstein
Switzerland.
The installation consists of
an antique film projector
and an antique projection
screen from the 1930ies.
The projector was modified
to hold a small LCD video
projector and sensor
technology.
© 2012, Sommerer & Mignonneau

26. Escape
© 2012, Laurent MIGNONNEAU and Christa SOMMERER
developed for The View Contemporary Art Space
* When visitors enter, they
see a fat fly sitting on the
projection screen
* Once they start turning
the handle, the fly starts
to frenetically move
around, like it would be
trapped, trying to escape
* When continuing to turn
the handle, more and
more flies appear,
packing together as
having discovered some
nutrition
© 2012, Sommerer & Mignonneau

27. Escape
© 2012, Laurent MIGNONNEAU and Christa SOMMERER
developed for The View Contemporary Art Space
One fly calls more flies and they look for text pixels; once they find invisible text they sit
on it and reproduce by producing more and more flies (produced through our
Artificial Life algorithms)
© 2012, Sommerer & Mignonneau

28. Escape
© 2012, Laurent MIGNONNEAU and Christa SOMMERER
developed for The View Contemporary Art Space
* At one point text starts
to form out of the fly
pack and when one
continues to turn the
handle, a text of Kafka
becomes legible.
* It is a chapter of
“!etamorphosis” by the
writer Franz Kafka
where the protagonist,
Gregor Samsa, realizes
that he is trapped in his
own body and begins to
transform into a gigantic
insect
© 2012, Sommerer & Mignonneau

29. Escape
© 2012, Laurent MIGNONNEAU and Christa SOMMERER
developed for The View Contemporary Art Space
As long as the visitors turns the handle the text is formed, however if he/she stops,
the text dissolves again; the visitor becomes a producer and consumer of the text
(see Barthes, Derrida, Kluszczynski); an interactive installation referring to
Expanded Literature and Expanded Cinema was created
© 2012, Sommerer & Mignonneau

30. Escape
© 2012, Laurent MIGNONNEAU and Christa SOMMERER
developed for The View Contemporary Art Space
video at:
http://vimeo.com/63735474
© Sommerer & Mignonneau

31. Publications by Sommerer & Mignonneau

32. Recent Solo Exhibitions:
2012 Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art
Gdansk, Poland
Wonderful Life, Art& Science Meeting
Curator: Ryszard Kluszczy"sk, Jadwiga
Charzy"ska
14. May 2012 - 24. June 2012
TV Report on Polish TV:
http://www.tvp.pl/kultura/magazynykulturalne/informacjekulturalne/wideo/160520122000/7179045

33. Recent Solo Exhibitions:
2011 Arts Santa Monica, Barcelona,Spain
Sistemes Vius/Living Systems
1st June 2011- 30th September 2011
Curator: Josep Perello & Irma Vilà Odena
TV Report:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDs0m
e1zXTk

34. G. Stocker, Ch. Sommerer, L.
Mignonneau (eds.)
Christa Sommerer & Laurent
Mignonneau: Interactive Art
Research
A first monography of Sommerer
& Mignonneau’s interactive art
works and writings, with essays
by:
C. Paul, O. Grau, R. Ascott, E.
Huhtamo, M. Kusahara, J. Casti,
F. de Meredieu, P. Weibel, M.
Michalka, et al.
Springer Verlag Vienna/New
York, Sept 2009, ISBN978-3211-99015-5 English, with DVD

35. This book brings together key
theoreticians and practitioners of
interaction and interface design and its
shows how historically relevant the term
is, as it can be analyzed not only from
an engineering point of view but from a
social, artistic and conceptual, and even
commercial angle as well.
Artists and creators of interactive art
have shown how interactive digital
processes and human-computer
interaction are essential elements for
their artistic creations. Their resulting
prototypes have often reached beyond
the art arena into areas such as mobile
computing, intelligent ambiences,
intelligent architecture, fashionable
technologies, ubiquitous computing and
pervasive gaming.

36. This book, edited in 2008, gives an
overview of the current state of interactive
art and interface technology as well as an
outlook on new forms of hybridization in
art, media, scientific research and everyday media applications.
We have invited around 40 practitioners
and theoreticians for guest lectures over
the past 4 years. This book is a collection
of these guest lectures, to stimulate the
discourse on Interface Cultures and its
social impact.

37. This book, edited in 1998 provides
articles by 24 scientists and artists
on the following topics where art
and science meet:
Telecommunications, Scientific
Visualization, Artificial Life, Artists
as Researchers,Chaos and
Complex Systems, Public Spaces,
Education of Art & Science, Art &
Science in Historical and Cultural
Context

38. More information at:
Christa SOMMERER & Laurent MIGNONNEAU
INTERFACE CULTURES
Department of Media, Kunstuniversität Linz, Austria
Christa.Sommerer@ufg.ac.at
Laurent.mignonneau@ufg.ac.at
http://www.interface.ufg.ac.at/christa-laurent