# José Val del Omar [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Val_del_Omar) · [Home page](http://www.valdelomar.com/home.php?lang=en) · [Vimeo](https://vimeo.com/josevaldelomar) ( Granada, 1904 – Madrid, 1982 ) ## Description Spanish filmmaker, poet, and self-taught inventor who built his own projection and sound apparatuses — including PLAT (Picto-Luminic-Audio-Tactile), diaphonic sound, and overflowing-screen projection — to pursue what he called "mecamística," a mystical technological cinema, culminating in his unfinished *Tríptico Elemental de España*. ## Key Tags #expanded-cinema #apparatus-inventor #occult ## Essential Works - *Tríptico Elemental de España* — *Aguaespejo Granadino* (1955), *Fuego en Castilla* (1960), *Acariño Galaico* (1961–95, unfinished) - trilogy built around his own diaphonic sound and overflowing-projection apparatuses - PLAT (Picto-Luminic-Audio-Tactile) - his own theorized system for a total, tactile audiovisual cinema ## Details Worked for decades at Spain's Instituto de Investigaciones y Experiencias Cinematográficas, developing custom optical and sound apparatuses for his own films rather than working within conventional production. His late writing on "mecamística" fuses engineering with a personal Andalusian mysticism, and his self-built systems anticipate later expanded-cinema and immersive-projection practice. ### Concepts and Theories - [[Symbolism, Theology, and Occultism]] - late writing on "mecamística" fuses his technical inventions with a personal mystical/religious cosmology ### Creative and Technical Practices %% none yet %% ### Collaborators %% none yet %% ### Institutional Affiliations and Associated Movements - Instituto de Investigaciones y Experiencias Cinematográficas (Madrid) - long institutional base for his apparatus-building and film work ## References ### Primary Sources Bibliography %% none yet %% ### Secondary Sources Bibliography %% none yet %%