Arnulf Rainer
Peter Kubelka, 1960

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Kubelka's work contextualized

Peter Kubelka's film, Arnulf Rainer, alternates between pure black and white frames at varying, structurally determined rhythms, to the effect that only the film's form can suggest its content. At moments, the film flickers black and then white with each successive frame while, at others, a binary state may hold for a full 24 seconds. As film critic, Fred Camper, describes the experience, "during the long sections of darkness one waits in nervous anticipation for the flicker to return, without knowing precisely which form it will take."

In a nettime post, Florian Cramer offered the argument that this film could be considered a non-electronic work of digital art, which struck me as a compelling thought. One can't help but consider what other works confound our attempts to force categorical labels on artistic practices. I certainly still feel distant from an understanding of what exactly constitutes interactive art or, moreover, interactivity itself. Perhaps, then, the limit of understanding is constituted by a multiplicity of perspectives and by these exceptions that "prove the rule."

Submitted by
Brett Schultz

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