Hollis Frampton

Hollis Frampton questions narrative by showing examples of story telling and allusive ideas of a center, or focal point. He begins by retelling a story of a friend's dream where they are born to repeat the life of a wealthy famous woman through viewing films of her life. The man adopts the life of the woman through only a screen but continues to live in his own body - eventually passing of poor health with no idea of his own personality. Unfortunately, the man is destined to only follow a rich woman's narrative without the freedom to create his own.

Next Frampton gives an example of a Japanese city built around Mt. Fujiyama. From any location of the city the mountain becomes the focal point. The cities that were built would not be the same without the mountain. Meaning, that the mountain has influence over its surroundings. Everything that was built was built in relation to the overarching mountain.

Frampton speaks about Duchamp's thoughts on a waterfall and a flame. A waterfall and a flame cannot be objects because they are ever changing energies. They each move and do not reuse the same water or flame. Each second they would be comprised of entirely different molecules.

All in all, it seems that Frampton is trying to allude to the idea that a film cannot exist without a center point. And with every new action that is spurred from the center point new actions are made and so on. Eventually the actions, or narratives, begin to become more obscure. By decentering the film from the narrative there becomes more free form ideas that do not hinge on cause and effect. BY stepping away from conventional ideas of narratives a video can be experimental with images and energies not destined to repeat the actions of another.

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