By Line Describing a Cone by Anthony McCall (16mm, 30min, 1973).
Time and space as experienced through film.
My experience of the film Line Describing a Cone was phenomenal, in both senses of the word. This is an incredibly simplistic yet elegant film that needs to be seen to be fully understood, but I’ll do my best to leave an impression of it anyway.
Line Describing a Cone is exactly what it sounds like. The film is meant to be viewed in a pitch-black room filled with fog or smoke, and as the film progresses, a single, white dot slowly traces around the screen to form an outlined circle of light. And, as one might imagine, the light being projected in the foggy room forms a cone that slowly appears as the film progresses.
When I got to see Line Describing a Cone, I already knew what it was. I knew what it going to do and what it was trying to accomplish. To be honest, I wasn’t in a great mood at the beginning of the screening, and I was kinda sulking in the back of the room. As the projection started forming and the fog started spewing, the audience eventually became int
Line Describing a Cone by Anthony McCall (16mm, 30min, 1973).
Time and space as experienced through film.
My experience of the film Line Describing a Cone was phenomenal, in both senses of the word. This is an incredibly simplistic yet elegant film that needs to be seen to be fully understood, but I'll do my best to leave an impression of it anyway.
Line Describing a Cone is exactly what it sounds like. The film is meant to be viewed in a pitch-black room filled with fog or smoke, and as the film progresses, a single, white dot slowly traces around the screen to form an outlined circle of light. And, as one might imagine, the light being projected in the foggy room forms a cone that slowly appears as the film progresses.
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When I got to see Line Describing a Cone, I already knew what it was. I knew what it going to do and what it was trying to accomplish. To be honest, I wasn't in a great mood at the beginning of the screening, and I was kinda sulking in the back of the room. As the projection started forming and the fog started spewing, the audience eventually became intrigued enough to want to experience more.
I held out for a while. I moved around a bit, trying to look at the slowly forming cone and the way that the light was bouncing off of the water-particles in the air at various angles, but I pretty much just stayed in my corner.
Eventually, I started inching closer, inexplicably drawn toward the way the light was organically flowing through the air, and the delicious way that the cone was slowly overtaking the room. The most attracting thing about Line Describing a Cone, is the fact that you can't touch it. Because it makes you want to, so very much. Something about it's slow growth and mystical movement just compels people to reach into the cone and try to grasp at its light.
I was probably the last person in the room to try to touch it. I wasn't going to, I was planning on staying in my corner and just watching other people. But once that line got to the point where it was about ¾ of the way to making a whole cone, I just couldn't stay away. It drew me in with its enchanting siren song! And let me tell you, the way that light speaks through air is abundantly more magical when it's as intimate as right in front of your eyes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vr_lYSTfIo
Line Describing a Cone is not just pretty in its visual components. It's also conceptually acute. Line Describing a Cone is addressing two main issues with cinema; time and space. The issue of time is pretty self-explanatory; the passage of time is directly related to how much the cone has grown. All you need to do is look at how much of the circle there is to see how much time there is left in the film.
The issue of space is just as clear, but nonetheless as captivating. Line Describing a Cone is meant to be interactive, it's meant to encourage you to walk through it, to reach out to it, to stick your head in it! The cone itself makes you fully aware of the space between the screens, of the air itself that is absolutely necessary, though often overlooked when viewing cinema. In essence, it's drawing you to itself by pointing itself out.
This film is particularly fun to experience, if you ever get the chance to view a screening, I'd highly recommend it. If you can, try to force yourself to view the whole thing from start to finish. The passage of time is how the film gains its real magic over you. The narrative of how you experience the time of watching Line Describing a Cone is quite possibly the most important part of the film.
For more on Anthony McCall.