Square Roots, 1972-1973

In my investigation into experimental film I felt that I had narrowed my scope by looking at artists from around the same time period of the early 20th century. To combat this I wanted to look for something technologically daring from later in the development of film as a creative medium. This is when I discovered Manfred Mohr, one of the very first film makers that experimented with computer generated film. One of his earliest films, Square Roots, stood out to me in particular as it presents the technological cutting edge he was working with while still being early in his personal development as an artist. Mohr states that he created this film by programming it into a FORTRAN IV and run on a CDC 6400 computer before using a DATAGRAPHIX 4460 microfilm camera to render the data onto a roll of 16mm film. Mohr himself was not happy with the film as he felt it was too narrative in structure and began producing more abstract works in response, I however felt that the film was dazzling. I am uncertain of my ability to achieve something as technically daring as this must have been at the time, but I may have to consider using new technology in the future when I am more comfortable with experimental filmmaking.


Leave a comment