The_Text_of_Light

<i>The Text of Light</i>

The Text of Light

1974 American film

The Text of Light is a 1974 American experimental film directed by Stan Brakhage.

Quick Facts The Text of Light, Directed by ...

Synopsis

Time-lapse photography of books, paintings, reflections, and light falling on textures,[1] shot entirely through a glass ashtray.[2]

Reception

The film is considered an "epistemological meditation": "This uncommon lens [that is the glass ashtray] generates an equally uncommon image of the world. The density and shape of the glass subtracts linear perspective from the visual field. In this respect, the ash-tray takes up part of the function of rapid camera movements and zooms in other Brakhage films insofar as the ash-tray demolishes perspective. As well, in Text of Light objects lose their individuation, their outlines blurred in masses of light and color."[3] A presentation by Jonathan P. Watts for the Tate underlines the influence of Turner on this film: "In The Text of Light Turner’s influence is felt in the experimental use of colour, and is similarly visionary in the way it collapses naturalistic pictorial space."[4]

References

  1. [1]
    Martha Schwendenerost (2015-10-15). "Aldo Tambellini's 'Atlantic in Brooklyn' Chronicles a Grittier Time". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2018-01-04. Retrieved 2018-01-04. Car headlights and taillights become abstract orbs, similar to Stan Brakhage's experimental film "The Text of Light" (1974)
  2. [2]
    "Stan Brakhage: The Text of Light". Museum of Modern Art. Archived from the original on 2018-01-04. Retrieved 2018-01-04.
  3. [3]
    Carroll, Noel, ed. (1998), "Text of Light", Interpreting the Moving Image, Cambridge Studies in Film, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 225–227, ISBN 978-0-521-58970-3, retrieved 2023-06-10
  4. [4]
    Watts, Jonathan P. "Into the light with JMW Turner – Tate Etc". Tate. Retrieved 2023-06-10.


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