AUDIENCE - Passive viewers classed as a collective who watch a text without questioning the content. A mass audience will be attracted to mainstream films (High concept, High budget, Hollywood)

SPECTATOR - An individual's experience of a given text. The spectator will question what they have witnessed/experienced, actively engaging with messages/values which may need to be explored further and can be interpreted in different ways. (Experimental and Expanded Cinema)

Michele Aaron - Spectatorship: The Power of Looking on (2007): http://goo.gl/KgQOAq

'the individual's own role and activity in participating in the pleasure of the text, in determining the meaning of a film and, even, the meaningfulness of cinema'

The individual spectator will view texts differently depending on their previous experiences and background. Their defining characteristics will have an impact of their connection to a text and the messages throughout. Different spectators will interpret ideologies in varied ways, and use their own criteria to actively define what they experience.

These characteristics may include -

Sexuality
Race
Gender
Disability
Age
Ethnicity
Class
Nationality
Experience

Examples include -

Age -

Stan Brakage - will effect how the spectator reflects on the text (childlike views through images - Dogstarman)

Kenneth Anger - relationship to 60s Biker/70s Glam Rock iconograppy (Link to soundtrack - Scorpio Rising/Lucifer Rising)

Experience

Anger - Followers of Thelma or counter-culture religion may relate to Lucifer Rising and make connections with Crowley

Bill Viola - Attitudes towards death, spectator may relate to Oceans without a shore if they have experienced loss

Gender

Anger - Male orientated and male identity, discussions of power and what it is to be masculine (Scorpio Rising)

Maya Deren - May be easier for women to relate to Deren's character in Meshes of the Afternoon, as there is a clear focus on feminism (perhaps even more so for women in the 1940s)

Sexuality

Anger - focus on homosexuality in the 60s, different experience for gay men at the time having to keep their sexuality a secret from society. Connections made to underground cultures and the occult (Scorpio Rising)

Disability

Matthew Barney - A disabled person may connect differently with the cheetah character in The Order. The may be inspired by the work of Aimee Mullins or feel empathetic towards her character

The Cremaster Cycle official website: http://www.cremaster.net/

In order for spectators to try to understand experimental film and expanded cinema, they must actively engage with the questioning and analysing of given texts. Matthew Barney's The Cremaster Cycle (1994-2002) combines five feature length films, performance pieces, photographs, drawings, sculptures and books through a non-linear, free-flowing form. Barney himself does not believe that the entire Cremaster Cycle should be released, as the experience is highly affected by viewing the piece in it's original setting, believing this would question the integrity of the artwork. In trying to understand the work, it is important for spectators to research into Barney's history and the meaning behind particular aspects, such as the cremaster muscle (and it's function), the chosen location and Celtic traditions.

When discussing Expanded Cinema, William Raban notes, 'This degree of openness and reflexivity, of publicly showing works in progress, changed the way in which the audience was involved in the work. No longer passive consumers, audiences became actively engaged in the process of production. The co-op felt like a 'creative laboratory' where experiments were conducted in the scientific sense and a negative outcome was equally as valid as a positive result in showing the way forward' [From Expanded Cinema, 2011, Rees et al. (eds.)].
Think about the relevance of this quote in relation to Expanded Cinema. What does Raban mean by 'a negative outcome was equally as valid as a positive result'? How can you link this to the chosen texts?

Cremaster 3 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaS4yFs40vE

Areas to think about...

LOCATION - The location of the text, the viewing location - where did you view the text? Where was the film originally shown and how did this affect the spectator experience?

PREVIOUS KNOWLEDGE OF ARTIST - Barney's history, his influences

STRUCTURE - The structure of the text (film, sculpture, photographs), narrative structure (or lack of?), the physical structure of the building - what does this reflect/relate to?

VISCERAL AND CEREBRAL - Think about both your visceral (gut reaction) and cerebral (intellectual questioning) responses to the text - did this change with multiple viewings?

When considering experimental film and expanded cinema, which arguments can you form for both sides of this debate - is experimental film and expanded cinema style over substance?