CONTENTS

 
   about
   MICHAEL BETANCOURT NEWS
   movies: AESTHETICS
   movies: NEWS & REVIEWS
   movies: SHOWS & SCREENINGS
   random art notes
   random how-tos
   research: AVANT-GARDE MOVIES
   research: MOTION GRAPHICS
   research: VISUAL MUSIC
   theory: CRITICAL OBSERVATIONS
   theory: DIGITAL CAPITALISM
   theory: GLITCH & POSTDIGITAL
   theory: working notes

 

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SEARCH ARCHIVES

archives begin in 1996

  

Duration Statement

story © Michael Betancourt | published June 13, 2003 | permalink | TwitThis Digg Facebook StumbleUpon  |  Print



research: AVANT-GARDE MOVIES

My work with movies has gradually developed towards shorter and shorter pieces, but not out of some need to purify and reduce the excess materials in my work. Instead it was the inevitable result of considering the question of duration versus the viewing habits almost all of us have when confronted by popular culture. I gradually reduced the length of my movies from a desire to explore issues closely related to duration.




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MOVIES AND STATICS

story © Michael Betancourt | published July 24, 1998 | permalink | TwitThis Digg Facebook StumbleUpon  |  Print



research: AVANT-GARDE MOVIES

Much of what follows, while directed towards Movies, is equally applicable to Statics. 'Real time' is the key to distinguishing statics (movies) which move very slowly from actual movies-as-such. Many things move/change, but not in a fashion we can actually perceive.




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Morphology and Structure

story © Michael Betancourt | published June 14, 1998 | permalink | TwitThis Digg Facebook StumbleUpon  |  Print



research: AVANT-GARDE MOVIES
(1)
	a priori expressions are limited to the physical materials*; in extreme forms it is 
	hoped to produce a phenomenological experience of the physical presence of the 
	material as a material
				(*note link to Marxist theory, Greenbergian modernism)


	technological potentials			IMAGE
	of moving images				CAMERA
	(movies) describing				BASE
	areas of technological				EDITING
	advancement					PROJECTION
							SCREEN
							SOUND

		technological potentials always determine aesthetics
		in materials-oriented formalism; this is why development
		and expansion of materials is so important to that formalism
		understanding this formalism is a necessary condition for
		escaping from it

[this list of seven categories is sufficient to cover all formal
development of movies and statics in any support system, 
whether film, television, computer or any other medium as
yet undeveloped.]



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Frame Change Rate

story © Michael Betancourt | published March 15, 1998 | permalink | TwitThis Digg Facebook StumbleUpon  |  Print



research: AVANT-GARDE MOVIES

the speed at which an image changes conditions our experience of it as a temporal object: we can only see things in real time* to perceive changes happening in real time (life) we must produce movies which condense the real time into a sped-up version for gradual changes (real time) to become visible to us in real time
[* which is to say the speed at which we as humans live and interact]




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Strobe-Effect Movies

story © Michael Betancourt | published December 27, 1996 | permalink | TwitThis Digg Facebook StumbleUpon  |  Print



research: AVANT-GARDE MOVIES

while all motion is an effect of a strobing light, the strobe movie is a movie where the image is actually printed onto the screen (rather than being a separate object) and the light source is simply a strobe
physical design of image used is a significant factor in the activation through strobing [Statics Folio 3: Village to City is a collection of strobe movies]
large-scale prints lit by strobe light, tuned to the most effective frame rate (will be some variability from person to person) best effects produced when light is above rather than below the image (angle of reflection = angle of inflection)




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