Day 44: LECTURE RESPONSE

Today in Lecture we focused on the theme of sequence and narrative. After briefly covering Davin Antin's basic theories of narrative, we looked at the many works of Duane Michaels, Jim Goldberg, Bill Watterson, Chris Marker, along with many others, looking at the diverse ways that narrative are approached. My favorite works that we looked at were Michaels' Alice's Mirror and Take One and See Mt. Fujiyama. Bothe of these pieces approached telling stories through small sequences of photos that play with the changing perceptions of the viewer, making for an almost active viewer experience, something not very common in the medium of photography. We ended class by looking at a short 27 minute film by Chris Marker entitled La Jetee. Kip prefaced this video as the inspiration for big hollywood movies like Terminator, so, naturally, it wasn't quite what I expected...but even better. The film consisted of stills, and a single video image, edited together with some great narration and subtle sound effects telling the story of a man who is the subject of human scientific experience with time travel, who visits his love throughout the past, yet cannot remain happily with her. At first, I was slightly apprehensive towards the editing of the stills, yet they grew on me throughout the short, and ended up, in retrospect, working perhaps better, and more moving, than had it been all video.