Sixth Dot: Expanded Cinema

Sixth ; Expanded Cinema

During the Master, I experimented with the cinematic frame and the way I want to engage with the spectator. I wish the encounter to become a meeting point, a space where dialogue can exist. My experiments were initially situated during the presentations of the exams in the form of performance.

The past three exams brought me closer to the spectator and away from the conventional cinematic experience. During the first presentation, 'I came out of my artistic closet' and revealed myself, the maker, to the spectator. I used the screen of the cinema as the backdrop for my appearance.

For my next exam, I realised a long time dream to 'VJ with drums', using an electric drum that steers video footage. I transformed the cinema into a music lab, full of sound equipment, again the screen was only part of the performance.

According to the Tate Modern, Expanded Cinema aims to make the relationship between the spectator and the screen active. It fights the notion of the audience as a passive receiver of cinema. It emerged in the 1960s and operated between the arts and pop sub-culture.

According to Julian Ross, a researcher of the subject, Expanded Cinema treats audiovisual projections as an event or performance and rethinks the space of the exhibition. Often it refocuses attention on the cinematic apparatus. According to Ross, the Expanded Cinema operates against the industrial framework of cinema. It provokes the possibilities of chance, 'happy accidents' and has a 'one-off' quality.

For the third exam, I invited the examiners to a Four O'clock tea and biscuits ceremony- a tribute to the Wednesday afternoons at my grandmother's. The liveness of the performance, the nowness and especially the intimacy with the spectators provide fertile soil to my work.

Reflecting upon the work I made over the past two years, it becomes evident that the most exciting moments were during live performances. My intention in entering the program was to find a new position in the world of cinema, but the pleasure of the practice led me back to what I enjoy doing. The liveness and nowness of a live performance is the space I operate in. The essential difference from VJing is that I take a clear position as a maker and I now operate consciously, aware of my subjectivity.

As a result of this understanding, I started making a monthly performance, co-creating with the choreographer Branka Zgonjanin. "Stolen Pleasures" is an audiovisual dance performance taking place anywhere but in the theatre. We performed in a construction site, a parking lot and so on. Besides activating our audience, this frees us from the constraints of theatres and programmers. We curate our audience; inviting a small number of carefully selected people.

My workflow is based on an ongoing process, resembling the VJ workflow. While VJing, each session was a continuation of the last set; I used the same materials while adding new footage. Each live set was affected by the music, the public and the aspect of liveness of the performance. The linear time framework of the cinema is deconstructed, as the work has no beginning nor end. It is genuinely work in process as I am editing live in front of the audience.

When I exhibited in theatres and museums, I often felt that the end result was merely a starting point. The opening night was the point where the different aspects of the performance finally came together and often the only occasion for a presentation. I was never satisfied with the workflow; by the time I was ready to play the game had already finished. Therefore the performance with Branka is based on the principle of continuation and addition. We prepare the elements but each performance we create a new dialogue. When a conversation with the public occurs, we later integrate it in our next event.

Engaging with the public in the context of expanded cinema fits in very well with the VJ tradition. Curating the spectators is also a form of collecting, sewing different patches together. The conscious choice over the power of visibility is shared with the vidding community. This workflow and context permit me mobility and freedom. Therefore, the results of the 'Fun-Fatal' research and the 'Through the Eye of the Needle' performance is not a film you can simply watch on Vimeo. It is a lecture-performance we will be sharing together very soon.