Introduction : from the chemistry of cobalt to the chemistry of dirt -- A brief introduction to Frampton's films before Magellan -- An introduction to Magellan -- Metahistory and the archive : "historical necessity" and tradition -- Encyclopedism, the universe, and everything -- Archeology : millennial allegories of art, representation, and politics in the camera arts -- The constellation -- Conclusion : virtual future metahistory.
Summary:
"Within the history of American experimental film there are few figures as central as Hollis Frampton. Yet it is Frampton's navigation of multiple artistic media and discourses outside the hermetic experimental film universe that marks him as still relevant to twenty-first century aesthetic and cultural debates. Throughout his career, Frampton explored related emerging image arts like early xerography, video, and computers. He was a pioneering digital artist who anticipated collaborative DIY open source programming through his Digital Media Lab. In short, Frampton's importance in American experimental film lies partly in the wide network of connections he represents to other arts, histories, and cultural frameworks. At the center of Frampton's work is his unfinished film, Magellan, which represents a key to understanding his legacy for contemporary art and cinema. Michael Zryd argues that, on one level, the Magellan metaphor is Frampton's way of yoking the modernist project of radical investigation of art and medium to the larger historical and epistemological tradition of Enlightenment thought. On another level, as Frampton begins to critique the modernist project-especially its purism, austerity, and hidden histories of power-he opens up the deeper problems of the Enlightenment tradition, especially the political legacy of capitalism and colonialism, as well as the totalizing logics behind it. While focusing on Magellan, Zryd also considers the full scope of Frampton's works and his exploration of how cinema attempts to capture and understand the world"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.