John Powers’s erudite and finely written book, Technology and the Making of Experimental Film Culture (forthcoming in May 2023 from Oxford University Press) is one of the many excellent books recently indexed at Southwest Humanities. Exploring topics including experimental filmmakers’ relationships with commercial film laboratories, the use of Bolex cameras and 16 mm reversal film stock, and the construction and use of DIY optical printers, “Technology and the Making of Experimental Film Culture examines how the avant-garde embraced these material resources and invested them with meanings and values adjacent to those of semiprofessional film culture.” Powers also focuses on kinesthetic and time-lapse filmmaking as they relate to these technologies and media, offering insights into metaphysics, identity, spiritualism, and the artistic process. “Providing a wealth of new detail about the making of canonized avant-garde classics by such luminaries as Carolee Schneemann, Jack Smith, and Stan Brakhage, as well as rediscovering works from overlooked artists such as Chick Strand, Amy Halpern, and Gunvor Nelson, Technology and the Making of Experimental Film Culture uses technology as a lens for examining the process of making: where ideas come from, how they are put into practice, and how arguments about those ideas foster cultural and artistic commitments and communities. You can find more information about this forthcoming title at the publisher’s website here.
SOUTHWEST HUMANITIES 