Re: [microsound] Tony Conrad's The Flicker

[ndk <ndkent@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> For those who don't know, it's a film made up entirely of black and white frames in various strobe patterns which can
> potentially cause epileptic seizures (didn't happen in the screening I was at, but several people had to leave). The sound
> seems like it might be using pulse generators...it sounds analogous to the visual strobe effect.


I haven't seen it (though I did see it's presumed predecessor "Arnulf Rainer")

I'm guessing here- (but I have used similar technology for films and
live performances)

One would assume if it sounds like pulse generators then the optical
soundtrack playing alternate black and white frames (and or blacked out
portions of frames) in lieu of a "properly" recorded optical soundtrack.
For what it's worth 16mm still employs an optical track as a standard
for sound reproduction. 35mm did too but most 35mm since the 1970s uses
a magnetic soundtrack (first analog then digital) but then again people
working in film on the cheap routinely use 30 to 50 year old equipment
from an era when stuff was for the most part built to last.  

back in the 1950s Norman McClaren of the National Film Board of Canada
took the concept further with photographing/animating images to the
optical soundtrack for more refined and composable timbres. Prior to
that Soviet experimenters also worked with such concepts in the 30s but
their results if any aren't widely available. Later the Soviet
experimenters ("Solaris" soundtrack) and Mattel built instruments using
optical sound reading technology though no longer using film as a media.


nicholas kent

www.artskool.biz/jem/ndkent/holidaymoog.html

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