SBN 0-525-10152-7 (US hbk),,, 0-525-47263-0 (US pbk)
non-fiction, media, media studies, cinema, experimental film, underground film, avant-garde, video, computer graphics, multimedia, communication, education, social history, future, metamorphosis, posthuman, Scott Bartlett, James Whitney, John Whitney, Jordan Belson
Illustrated, b/w and color. Cover photograph from OFFON by Scott Bartlett. Cover design by James McMullan. Introduction by R.Buckminster Fuller ["Revolution in Wombland" and "Inexorable Evolution and Human Ecology" have been reprinted in the collection Earth, Inc. by R.Buckminster Fuller, 1973].
List of Illustrations 11
Introduction by R.Buckminster Fuller 15
Inexorable Evolution and Human Ecology by R.Buckminster Fuller 37
Preface 41Part One: The Audience and the Myth of Entertainment 45
Radical Evolution and Future Shock in the Paleocybernetic Age 50
Part Two: Synaesthetic Cinema: The End of Drama 75
The Intermedia Network as Nature 54
Popular Culture and the Noosphere 57
Art, Entertainment, Entropy 59
Retrospective Man and the Human Condition 66
The Artist as Design Scientist 70
Global Cloed Circuit: The Earth as Software 78
Part Three: Toward Cosmic Consciousness 135
Synaesthetic Synthesis: Simultaneous Perception of Harmonic Opposites 81
Syncretism and Metamorphosis: Montage as Collage 84
Evocation and Exposition: Toward Oceanic Consciousness 92
Synaesthetics and Kinaesthetics: The Way of All Experienc 97
Mythopoeia: The End of Fiction 106
Synaesthetics and Synergy 109
Synaesthetic Cinema and Polymorphous Eroticism 112
Synaesthetic Cinema and Extra-Objective Reality 122
Image-Exchange and the Post-Mass Audience Age 128
2001 : The New Nostalgia 139
Part Four: Cybernetic Cinema and Computer Films 179
The Stargate Corridor 151
The Cosmic Cinema of Jordan Belson 157
The Technosphere: Man/Machine Symbiosis 180
Part Five: Television as a Creative Medium 257
The Human Bio-Computer and His Electronic Brainchild 183
Hardware and Software 185
The Aesthetic Machine 189
Cybernetic Cinema 194
Computer Films 207
The Videosphere 260
Part Six: Intermedia 345
Cathode-Ray Tube Videotronics 265
Synaesthetic Videotapes 281
Videographic Cinema 317
Closed-Circuit Television and Teledynamics Environments 337
The Artist as Ecologist 346
Part Seven: Holographic Cinema: A New World 399
World Expositions and Nonordinary Reality 352
Cerebrum: Intermedia and the Human Sensorium 359
Intermedia Theatre 365
Multiple-Projection Environments 387
Wave-Front Reconstruction: Lensless Photography 400
Selected Bibliography 421
Dr. Alex Jacobson: Holography in Motion 404
Limitations of Holographic Cinema 407
Projecting Holographic Movies 411
The Kinoform: Computer-Generated Holographic Movies 414
Technoanarchy: The Open Empire 415
Index 427
"'Today, when one speaks of cinema, one implies a metamorphosis in human perception,' writes the author of this extraordinary book. 'Just as the term "man" is coming to mean man/plant/machine, so the definition of cinema must be expanded to include videotronics, computer science, and atomic light.'
"In a brilliant and far-ranging study, Gene Youngblood traces the evolution of cinematic language to the end of fiction, drama, and realism. New technological extensions of the medium have become necessary. Thus he concentrates on the advanced image-making technologies of computer films, television experiments, laser movies, and multiple-projection environments. Outstanding works in each field are analyzed in detail. Methods of production are meticulously described, including interviews with artists and technologists. Expanded Cinema is filled with provocative post-McLuhan philosophical probes into 'The Paleocybernetic Age,' 'the videosphere,' and 'the new nostalgia,' all in the context of what the author calls 'the global intermedia network.'
"In 'Image-Exchange and the Post-Mass Audience Age,' Mr. Youngblood discusses the revolutionary implications of videotape cassettes and cable television as educational tools. His observations are placed in comprehensive perspective by an inspiring introduction written by R. Buckminster Fuller. The text is illustrated by 284 photographs, including 60 in color.
"Vast in scope, both philosophical and technical, Expanded Cinema will be invaluable to all who are concerned with the audio-visual extensions of man, the technologies that are reshaping the nature of human communications." [jacket blurb, US pbk, 1970).
"Prophetic and perceptive. Gene Youngblood prefigures the developments of now. His foresight was neurologically derived... triggered by heavy doses of McLuhan and Fuller... with dashes of Gurdjieff and Toffler. All immersed in the experimental film world of west coast California in the late 1960s (which was way ahead of it's time -- some of these filmmakers were eventually summoned by Hollywood to create special effects for feature films).
"This book is an essential read, and remains an important piece of social history." --Henry W.Targowski (in Mark/Space , 26 April 1997).
Highly recommended.
Marshall McLuhan
(Anachron Library entry... bibliography, bio, plus links to other websites)
Georges I.Gurdjieff
(Anachron Library entry... bibliography, bio, plus links to other websites)
Alvin Toffler
(Anachron Library entry... bibliography, bio, plus links to other websites)
