Score for Wavelength. An Homage to Michael Snow

Abstract

Score for Wavelength.An Homage to Michael Snow Alexandra Karl (bio) PREAMBLE The following score outlines the sequence of a performance of Michael Snow's 1967 film Wavelength, available on YouTube. The following are listed: Stopwatch Minute denotes the real-time unfolding of the spoken word performance. Wavelength + time stamp denotes the time of Michael Snow's Wavelength. Spoken Word to be read aloud in a deliberate and steady voice. Stopwatch Minute 2–Wavelength 6m, 0s. Spoken Word: Wavelength is a forty-twominute continuous camera zoom from one end of a New York City loft to another. It was shot by Canadian artist Michael Snow in 1967. For years, the artist requested that the original film be screened in a darkened theater, but it is now available on YouTube. In film, a zoom is created when the lens of a camera changes smoothly from a long [End Page 510] shot to a close-up, or vice versa, by varying the focal length. I say this because today's digital cameras achieve this electronically instead of mechanically. Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 1. Michael Snow, still from Wavelength (1967). Image courtesy of the filmmaker. So technically speaking, Snow's camera took forty-two minutes to move the lens a few inches away from the celluloid film inside the camera obscura. In other words, it took forty-two minutes to go from the camera's widest possible field to the smallest final field. The film was shot during one week in 1966. It took Snow one year to plan for this forty-two-minute sequence. Stopwatch Minute 3–Wavelength 7m, 30s Spoken Word: When the film opens, the lens is at its smallest, the audience looks onto an eighty-foot expanse of a New York City loft. The room is sparsely furnished with three large windows on the adjacent wall. Over the forty-two minutes, the camera frame slowly approaches and eventually subsumes a black-and-white photograph located on a wall between two of the windows. This photo depicts an expanse of waves on a body of water. As the camera frame narrows over forty-two minutes, we witness the gradual [End Page 511] elimination of cinematic space as our gaze converges on the flat black-and-white photograph. So from three dimensions to two dimensions. Stopwatch Minute 4–Wavelength 8m, 10s Spoken Word: While the zoom progresses, millimeter by excruciating millimeter, it is pierced by what Snow calls "modulations." Theatrical events take place: a bookcase is delivered into the room by two women. Some glass is shattered. A man collapses and dies on the floor, and a woman places a call to have the body removed. Cinematic devices also intercede. The zoom is shot at different times of day and night, which impacts the lighting of the room. Different film stocks are used, affecting a range of colors and textures. Stopwatch Minute 5–Wavelength 9m, 3s Spoken Word: It should be noted that my description of the film is not true to the experience of the film. In short: I have given away the final scene and the punchline. Typically, the audience reaction begins with disinterest and apathy. Because the zoom is so slow, it is nearly imperceptible. Hence, the audience typically finds themselves sitting in a darkened theater, staring at another room, wondering when something is going to happen. Besides the few [End Page 512] Click for larger view View full resolution Figure 2. Michael Snow, still from Wavelength (1967). Image courtesy of the filmmaker. modulations mentioned earlier, nothing else really happens. Stopwatch Minute 6–Wavelength 10m, 47s Spoken word: (none). Stopwatch Minute 7–Wavelength 12m, 30s Spoken Word: That is, until an awakening occurs. At some point during the forty-two-minute screening, the audience acclimates. Perhaps they abandon their reliance on conventional narratives and realize that the camera is headed "somewhere." Aggravated by the increasingly irritating soundtrack, their apathy is suddenly replaced not just with anticipation, but with that most modern of preoccupations: anxiety. Stopwatch Minute 8—Wavelength 15m, 13s Spoken Word: When the work was first screened in 1967, it invited many readings. At the onset, it embodied the conceptualist's love of...