Thoughts on Arnulf Rainer

I have been extremely fascinated by "Arnulf Rainer" for quite some time (ever since I first saw it, really). Not only is it an extremely important exercise for breaking film down to it's most basic elements, but also because of the disconnection of perception. Meaning, how the film sets up a synchronicity between black + silence and white + white noise, but then part of the way through the film it switches. I distinctly remember my first viewing seeing a moment of white when there is white noise in the middle of a black section and realizing it was my brain inserting a moment of white.

Of course, Conrad's film "The Flicker" and Paul Shairt's "T,O,U,C,H,I,N,G" both take this phenomenon to another level. But Arnulf Rainer completely represents a catalyst in experimental and structuralist film history and got people to think much more about the film gate and it's relation to the celluloid. Certainly there were people like Harry Smith working with pure celluloid with his hand-painted films, but it was often with [possible] indifference to the frame line.

Within all of my research on Arnulf Rainer I have never come across another flicker film that came before it. I believe there were some moments in Van der Beek and Brakhage films that were coming close, but not quite as purely structural.

I also think it's interesting how not many people consider Arnulf Rainer (and all flicker films) to be an animated film. During my entire time of studying for my MFA in Animation I was the only person (students and faculty) that would reference Arnulf Rainer. Some might say, "Well, that's what happens when you go to USC, the Hollywood University." Often people who say this are unaware that David James, Akira Lippit, Kathy Smith, Christine Panushka and many other notable avant-garde filmmakers and historians teach at USC. And within animation I certainly got my fair share of Brakhage, Smith, Breer and McLaren.

Even during my studies as an undergraduate student at NYU I took an experimental animation class where I made my first flicker film and I was berated by the other students for the film because it was "not animation". Now, that same professor, who I am still friends with, shows Sharits' "T,O,U,C,H,I,N,G" to every single class he has.

Maybe I'm thinking about it all wrong. Maybe flicker films are the only free area - it's not animation...and certainly not live-action. Maybe it's not even cinema...Maybe it's just a loose representation of an idea. That's very liberating. Who needs a camera?...who even needs a computer?! I know Arnulf Rainer was created from using a marker on a strip of clear celluloid. And, like Mothlight, it holds up as a work of art without a projector.

 

The Map

So, your likely reasoning for coming here: The "Arnulf Rainer map".  Please click the image blow and you should find a pdf document of my entire notes.  Be aware that I did not transfer this over to anything more official or professional.  I always meant to, but never got around to it and it became of such demand that I decided to put it out to the world as is.

If you decide to use this within a film, research or other public usage you should credit the Anthology Film Archives, John Mhiripiri (Director), Andrew Lampert (Archivist) and myself, Huckleberry Lain.  Also, if you would send me a copy, link or information about it I would be grateful and might even include it in this blog.  You may send me an email.

The way the map is read: Start with the 72 frames of title (refer to the key in the top left corner of page one). Continue to the next frame below - 1 frame of black, 1 frame of white, etc. Once you reach the bottom of a line continue to the next picture line to the right of the previous line. Soundtrack it treated the same way, but keep in mind the audio and picture do not correspond to each other exactly. For example, the title and the first frame of black both have silence to them which is under the 47 frames of silence. The next frame of noise corresponds to the white frame below the first frame of black. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Mapping Arnulf Rainer

About a year went by. I was happy with my tattoo, I was no longer working for Anthology on a regular basis, although I would visit occasionally and I was actually at a turning point in my career. I'd spent about 5 years making experimental film, but I wanted to become more successful both on a personal front artistically and vocationally. I was fairly frustrated as a projectionist. I wanted to find a more fulfilling career in the arts of filmmaking. I was accepted into the University of Southern California's Division of Animation and Digital Arts (DADA).

However, this created a ticking clock for me. I still had the footage that Bradley shot of my tattooing of Arnulf Rainer, but I had not done anything with it. I obviously (or maybe not so obviously) had an idea to "Arnulf Rainer" the footage, so to speak. I had seen the film "A flick film in which there appear Liz and Franky, is composed under the score of ARNULF RAINER by P. Kubelka on NTSC" (Ichiro Sueoka, 2000, video, 5 minutes). I can't say that I was thinking about that film at the time when I decided to make my rendition, but I also can't help to think that when I did see it that it unconsciously gave me a tool that I would some day pull out of my bag of tricks.

In any case, I knew I was going to use the original film "Arnulf Rainer" by Peter Kubelka as the blue print for my latest piece and I had to get this done before I left New York for Los Angeles. It was June or July at the time and I was leaving in late August. Therefore, I knew I had to start as soon as possible.

From previously working for and occasionally still covering shifts for projectionists at the Anthology Film Archives I knew John Mhiripiri the Executive Director and Andrew Lampert the Head Archivist for Anthology rather well and they allowed me to conduct my research. I'd heard from a few different people that there was a "code" or "score" of Arnulf Rainer somewhere, but no one knew exactly where. I spent an entire day sifting through the "Kubelka papers" in the library of Anthology to no avail. I found a "map" of "Unsere Afrikareise" (aka Our Trip to Africa) that was conducted by Paul Sharits and one of his interns, but that certainly did not help in pursuit of my goal.

Eventually, I realized that I had no choice, but to go though the film myself and map out the entire film from head to tail. I again, asked permission of Andrew and John who each gave their consent and I carved out a week in which I would spend most of my days using a synchronizer and count every single frame of "Arnulf Rainer".

It ended up only taking me two days - about 6 hours each day. The first day I went through the entire picture and the second day I went back and went through the entire sound track. It was really quite intensive and I did it all in a back room that I never even knew existed until my first day starting. It was very quite, therapeutic and relaxing, but at the same time after each day spent counting frames, making meticulous notes and being as delicate as I possibly could with the film I felt like I was walking out of a giant wind tunnel where I was forced to stare intensely at a small point at the other end of the tunnel all day long.

It wasn't necessarily very draining or exhausting, but it was like leaving a void or being slap-happy mixed with really bad jet-lag. I was a little delirious, energized and off balance. It was not very much like projecting a movie in a dark room, working under and animation down-shooter or from a computer for hours although all of which (usually) require spending hours and hours in a darkened room with one intense source of light as the general focus and little physical movement outside of basic motor skills.

But, I DID IT! I'd successfully mapped the entire film. My one regret is that I was not able to go back through the film to check my findings, but I also knew at that time and I remember now that that would have been impossible. It was just too intense for me to go through once again.

From there I edited together the content of video footage that Bradley Eros shot of my tattooing process. I had to create a key for the film, though. "Arnulf Rainer" is a film of black and white frames and silence and white noise. I had to convert that if I wanted to use actual footage with this. So, for this piece I made black = normal video frames, white = negative video frames, silence = normal audio and white noise = out of phase audio. I also specifically edited the exact instances when the tattoo needle is touching my skin and it turned out to be exactly the amount of footage I needed. I also had to convert things on a frame to frame basis. Meaning, "Arnulf Rainer" 35mm motion picture film to be played at 24 frames per second, but the footage I had was not film. It was video which plays back at 29.97 frames per second. So, the dilemma was - do I treat each frame regardless of the frame rate? I.e. one frame of black film = one frame of normal video, four frames of white = four frames of negative video. Or do I calculate out how each frame translates in a minutes and seconds basis? This way four frames of film is about 5 frames of video, but by the end both film and video would be the same length ( about 8 minutes).

I easily made the decision to go frame to frame mostly because that was the basic philosophy of both the original "Arnulf Rainer" film and my interpretation, but I cannot pretend that there wasn't another lazy factor involved. So, in the end my video piece is actually shorter then the original Peter Kubelka film by about a minute or more.

Remember that this is a flicker film, which contains a strobing effect.

BE AWARE - IF YOU SUFFER FROM EPILEPSY OR SIMILAR AILMENTS THIS VIDEO MAY INDUCE SEIZURES.

The idea

It was some time in 2004 or 2005. I was working for the Anthology Film Archives as a projectionist, and a few other institutions in New York City, that place that was established by Jonas Mekas, Stan Brakhage, Jerome Hill, P. Adam Sitney and Peter Kubelka, the maker of the film "Arnulf Rainer".

The project originally started out as an idea for a tattoo. Ever since I was about 16 years old I knew that it would like a tattoo, but I also knew it had to be the right tattoo or I didn't want one. Told myself that if I could come up with a good idea and sit on it for 6 months that it was worth putting on my body for the rest of my life.

Well, years went by and a few ideas came and went. Then finally one day, I don't even remember exactly how, it just hit me that I should get a tattoo of Arnulf Rainer. I didn't even have to sit on the idea. I knew right then and there that if I got that as a tattoo then it would be great from the day I got it until the day I die.

However, I eventually had to wait a few months anyway because I needed to save up for the tattoo. I wasn't sure how much it was gonna cost, but I was sure it would be a few hundred dollars.

After some time and a lot of confusion over how that tattoo would look I eventually worked out a simple arm band consisting of 13 frames and the title. After talking of this for sometime at the Anthology Film Archives, or Anthology, everyone knew about it and was excited to see the results. One person in particular was Bradley Eros, a somewhat well known filmmaker and generally pleasant character in the New York City experimental film world. At one point Bradley even asked to shoot the the tattooing process. "Sure," I said with ideas of being in a new film of Bradley's.

Later I found out that he only meant to shoot the process for me to maintain a copy. Still a great gesture and I am very glad he did so, but at the time I was under a different impression.

The tattooing process took over 4 hours and over two different sessions. It all took place at New York Adorned, a tattoo parlor just up the block from Anthology at the suggestion of another colleague who had many tattoos himself. Much of the first session was taken up by discussion with the artist, Yoni Zilber (who still works there), as to how the tattoo will look and how to get it done. I naively was thinking about that tattoo as a photograph and I wanted an exact 35mm film strip impression on my body. When in reality tattoos are obviously a drawing. So, after much deliberation Yoni came up with a good guide that I was happy with.

By the end of each session I was rather exhausted both physically and mentally. I have never been one who deals well with needles and of course I second guessed myself many times before and during the process, but eventually I made it though.

Now, 8 years later I am still very satisfied with the tattoo and I am still very glad I got it. Not only is it a representation of my passion for Arnulf Rainer the film, but also for cinema in general. The tattoo contains perforation, frame lines an optical soundtrack - all the elements you would expect on 35mm motion picture film.