08. A Color Box (Len Lye, 1935)

Fabulous to have this available here.  He was so far ahead of his time.

It feels like you can actually see music notes..

It's a shame for the bad quality of the video, in a good resolution it looks incredible!! It just fresh paint on celuloide canvas, and scratching to make the lines.

What's getting me is this film seems to have a commercial message for a Post Office jammed in at the end! Oh, if a couple of commercials airing today were like this!

Len Lye and Norman McLaren should get a lot more attention + credit- that's too often solely given to Brakhage.

Too early.

Yeah- with this one, he painted directly onto a piece of clear film. If you like this, you ought to watch some of Norman McLaren's stuff. Alot of his earlier work is done in the same way..

Yep, seen it, in fact he might have been who I had in mind - but what I wondered was - directly onto 35mm? I think he did, which makes it mind-boggling it would be hard enough in these days of computers.

I kind of think it seems easier! You just draw directly on, a bit like a flip-book. However, I think I remember reading that, when he made this particular reading, Len Lye didn't stick to individual frames. He just painted right onto the film strip, regardless of where the frames where- just sort of playing around with shapes and patterns etc. But his stuff like "Free Radicals" seems like it was alot more difficult!

That's what I thought. Having to wear reading glasses myself makes me think 'how crazy is that'.