# Expanded Cinema [Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/expandedcinema00youn) *Youngblood, Gene. Expanded Cinema. Introduction by R. Buckminster Fuller. P. Dutton & Co., 1970.* ## Description Foundational text theorizing cinema, video, computer art, and holography as technologies of expanded consciousness rather than new film styles — "the first serious treatment of video, computers, and holography as cinematic tools" and a founding document of media arts as a field. ## Key Tags #expanded-cinema #computer-art #video-art #cybernetics #consciousness-studies ## Key Passages - "When we say expanded cinema we actually mean expanded consciousness. Expanded cinema does not mean computer films, video phosphors, atomic light, or spherical projections. Expanded cinema isn't a movie at all: like life it's a process of becoming, man's ongoing historical drive to manifest his consciousness outside of his mind, in front of his eyes." (p.41) - "So I call it the Paleocybernetic Age: an image of a hairy, buckskinned, barefooted atomic physicist with a brain full of mescaline and logarithms, working out the heuristics of computer-generated holograms or krypton laser interferometry." (p.41) - "The intermedia network of cinema and television...now functions as nothing less than the nervous system of mankind." (p.41) ## Notes by Chapter %% Organized by the book's own seven-part structure %% ### Part One: The Audience and the Myth of Entertainment (p.45) Applies cybernetics and communication theory to commercial entertainment, arguing that profit-driven media separates "man from himself and art from life." Introduces the Paleocybernetic Age and "the artist as design scientist." ### Part Two: Synaesthetic Cinema: The End of Drama (p.75) Traces conventional film language to its limits and proposes the "synaesthetic mode" — simultaneous perception of harmonic opposites — as cinema's new major paradigm, replacing drama. Cites Brakhage, Warhol, Schneemann, and Michael Snow's *Wavelength* as exemplars; closes with "Image-Exchange and the Post-Mass-Audience Age" on the decentralization of media. ### Part Three: Toward Cosmic Consciousness (p.135) Contrasts two routes to cinematic cosmic consciousness: Kubrick's *2001: A Space Odyssey* (and Douglas Trumbull's Stargate sequence) versus the small-scale, personal "cosmic cinema" of [[Jordan Belson]]. ### Part Four: Cybernetic Cinema and Computer Films (p.179) The "Technosphere" as man/machine symbiosis and the "Aesthetic Machine"; surveys early computer film practice including [[John Whitney Sr.]], James Whitney, and [[John Whitney Jr.]]. ### Part Five: Television as a Creative Medium (p.257) The "Videosphere"; video synthesis techniques (keying, chroma-key, feedback, mixing); case studies including [[Nam June Paik]], Aldo Tambellini, and Les Levine's closed-circuit work. ### Part Six: Intermedia (p.345) "The artist as ecologist" — art as environment rather than object. Covers the Expo '67/'70 installations, the Cerebrum nightclub environment, and multi-projector light-show environments merging film, video, and live performance. ### Part Seven: Holographic Cinema: A New World (p.399) Explores wave-front reconstruction and the creative potential of holography as a future cinematic medium, closing with "Technoanarchy: The Open Empire." ## Details %% A more comprehensive personal reflection and collection of relevant notes, details, references, links %% ### Concepts and Theories - [[Transpersonal and Consciousness Studies]] - %%central thesis that technological/cinematic expansion is really an expansion of consciousness (the "Paleocybernetic" new consciousness)%% - [[Computer Art]] - %%Part Four surveys early computer film practice as a distinct aesthetic mode%% - [[Video Art]] - %%Part Five theorizes television/video as a creative medium in its own right%% - [[Visual Music]] - %%the "synaesthetic cinema" concept parallels visual music's audiovisual synthesis%% ### Creative and Technical Practices - [[Liquid Light Shows]] - %%Part Six discusses light shows and multi-projector environments as intermedia practice%% ### Related Individuals - [[Jordan Belson]] - %%Part Three profiles Belson's "cosmic cinema" as a model of expanded consciousness in film%% - [[Nam June Paik]] - %%Part Five covers Paik's video synthesis and manipulation work%% - [[Stan Brakhage]] - %%cited as an exemplar of synaesthetic/syncretic montage in Part Two%% - [[John Whitney Sr.]] - %%profiled in Part Four's survey of computer film pioneers%% - [[John Whitney Jr.]] - %%profiled in Part Four's survey of computer film pioneers%% - [[Andy Warhol]] - %%discussed in Part Two on polymorphous eroticism in synaesthetic cinema%% ## References ### Cited In - [[Gene Youngblood]] (230 - Individuals) - [[Jordan Belson]] (230 - Individuals) - noted as "profiled by Gene Youngblood in Expanded Cinema"