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Language, Sound, and Image in Wallace Berman’s Aleph, 1956–1966

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View the page of Chelsea Behle Fralick

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Wallace Berman’s 8mm film Aleph (1956–1966) provides a flickering glimpse into a pivotal intersection of sound and visuality in the art of the 1960s. Chelsea Behle Fralick suggests Wallace Berman’s Aleph encompasses an age of sound that serves as an integral component to its visual expression.

Image courtesy of interviewee. June 17, 2024

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This video appears to be a detailed lecture or presentation discussing an academic study focused on Wallace Berman and his only film, "All If." The study expands on a book chapter and is based on the author's master's thesis from MIT, examining the themes of spiritual transmission, sound, and artistic expression within Berman's work.

Key points from the text include:

1. **Context of Study**: The study relates to Berman's film "All If," exploring its significance as a hybrid beat and countercultural document that reflects cultural and historical shifts of the 1950s and 60s, especially in California's counterculture.

2. **Cultural Context**: The film is positioned at the intersection of bebop jazz and 1960s rock and soul music, showcasing a dialogue between sound and silence, and examining the process of artistic creation through chance editing and the use of archival remnants.

3. **Wallace Berman's Influence**: Berman is characterized as a pivotal yet enigmatic figure in the beat art movement and is acknowledged for his various artistic practices, including assemblage, collage, and filmmaking.

4. **The Film "All If"**: The film serves as a representation of an ongoing artistic process. Its unfinished nature allows for multiple interpretations and emphasizes the randomness and dynamism in Berman's artistic approach. The film incorporates musical elements, visual rhythm, and layers of Hebrew letters influenced by Kabbalah, aligning the themes of sound with spiritual communication.

5. **Aesthetic Techniques**: The film’s innovative techniques include the application of paint on celluloid and the use of Verifax collages. It also features live performances from notable musicians, linking Berman's work to broader jazz and rock movements.

6. **Viewing Experience**: Berman’s film was never publicly shown during his lifetime; instead, it was screened in private settings, leading to different experiences each time, which reflects the nature of the creation process and audience interaction.

7. **Significance and Legacy**: The lecture argues for Berman’s significance in understanding beat culture and calls for further research on his connections to music and experimental filmmaking. It also highlights contemporary interest in Berman as part of a resurgence of interest in alternative spiritualities and artistic expressions from that era.

Overall, the text articulates the complex interplay between sound, silence, and visual art in Berman's work and situates him within the cultural narratives of the 20th century, advocating for a renewed exploration of his impact on art and culture.

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X-TIMESTAMP-MAP:LOCAL=00:00:00.000,MPEGTS=900000

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So the context of this study is based off

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of a book chapter, that I actually wrote in this book,

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the Global Sixties and Sound

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and Vision Media Counterculture Revolt in,

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which was published by Paul Graves,

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Paul Graves McMillan in 2014.

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And this book chapter is an expansion upon, portions

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of my master's thesis from MIT, which was published in 2012,

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which was titled,

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artist Love is God Wallace Burman In the Transmission

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of All If 1956 to 66.

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And, all If is, the only film made

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by this artist, Wallace Burman.

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And we'll get into what that means.

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So my master's thesis basically gives this deep dive into

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Olive through the concepts of spiritual transmission,

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particularly through the Hebrew system of Kabbalah,

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but also through, other aspects

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and ideas of transmission, including electrical noise

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and moving image and music making transmission.

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So radio frequencies and television.

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And I argue in that study in my thesis that all

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of is both a transmission

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and an unfinished, unstable art object that frames this kind

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of continual process where multiple meanings are carried.

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Um, and one of those aspects that kind

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of gets into a little bit of

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what I talk about in the book chapter is that it also,

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I argue, undergoes multiple procedures of chance editing

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by the artist and the archives

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that houses the film in its remnants.

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And the archives is anthology film archives in New York.

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So the aims of the book chapter in particular was

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to focus on Olive as this constantly shifting musical

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and art object that epitomizes these really important

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cultural and historical shifts and trends in the 1950s

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and sixties in California beat

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and countercultural movements.

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So this film really kind

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of moves from the bebop jazz era of the 1940s

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and fifties into the rock and soul era of the sixties

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and all if in particular this encompasses this kind

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of integral component of sound through its structure

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and its themes and its kind of experience of the film.

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So the main argument

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and kind of thrust within that is

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that Wallace Burman's only film, really exists

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as this hybrid beat

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and countercultural document kind

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of existing at the intersection of those two eras.

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And it records these musical pulses of the kind of fifties

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and sixties within this era of moving into the late sixties

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of this kind of experiential quality of

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what the countercultural movement was about.

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So my book really focuses on, a few areas.

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One is the dialogue of sound and silence in the film,

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and in Berman's life.

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Uh, the musical expressions also of music

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and sound in the visual form of Olive, the effect of visual

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and auditory rhythm exhibited in the structure, in the form

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of olive and the experience

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of sound in music in the viewing of Olive.

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So Wallace Berman was a really fascinating

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enigmatic character of the California beat

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and counter-cultural scenes in California.

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He really epitomized, what it was

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to be a beat artist and poet

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and what it was even to be an early hippie.

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So he was born in 1926 and died in 1976.

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He was actually featured on Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts

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Club Band album covered by the Beatles.

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Um, and so he, he's really kind of understood

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as this very central countercultural figure,

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but many people haven't really heard about him.

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Um, he was an artist, so primarily he worked in assemblage,

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in collage, in male art and in photography.

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He was also a poet at the time of the,

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California beat poets

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and beat poets in general in the United States.

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And he was a zine editor

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and publisher, particularly

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of a magazine called Semina Magazine.

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And I actually have an original copy here

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of a Semina magazine.

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This is Semina issue number two.

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And so you'll see with the image on the outside

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and then some of the images on the inside

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and the words that he was very,

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very interested in the intersection of art and language

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and the intersection of the written word as this kind

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of powerful structure.

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And then finally, he was a filmmaker

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and all if was the only film that he made in his life,

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and it was made over the course of about 10 years.

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The a the date range is approximate.

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Um, and I argue

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that the film was really this epitomizing aspect of all

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of the ways that he intersected in

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all of these different arenas.

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So within himself in California,

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he was this really pivotal figure that was very connected

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to many different worlds.

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He was in the beat beat poetry scene.

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He met Alan Ginsburg and Jack Kerouac.

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He was friends with Bob Alexander, David Meltzer,

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Robert Duncan other, poets.

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He knew a lot of people in the art world.

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So he met Andy Warhol.

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He actually, Andy Warhol actually filmed a experi,

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experimental film at his house.

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Um, and he knew he was friends with,

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people like John Altoon

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and the Ferris School in Los Angeles, ed Keen Holt

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and other, sculptors.

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He knew people in the film industry.

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He was friends with Dennis Hopper, Dean Stockwell,

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Russ Tamlin, a bunch of actors.

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And, in the experimental film scene, he,

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knew Stan Brack.

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He was really good friends with, Bruce Connor

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and knew as well, Kenneth Anger.

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And then finally in the jazz world, he,

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actually did an album artwork for a bebop album

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that was done by Dial Records.

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He wrote a jazz record with an,

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the singer Jimmy Witherspoon,

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and he met Charlie Bird Parker,

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who was a very well known bebop jazz saxophonist.

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So music and sound in particular were really, really central

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to Berman's life from a very early age.

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In his teenage years,

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he started hanging out on Central Avenue in la,

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which was this scene of this kind of rising

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la jazz renaissance, particularly

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around bebop jazz and bebop.

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Jazz is a really interesting form of jazz in this kind

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of 1940s and fifties timeframe in America.

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Um, he was really profoundly influenced by the ideas

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of bebop and the ideas of bebop carry into beat culture

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and then later even into hippie culture.

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So bebop has this highly improvisational structure,

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compared to most jazz at the time, which was sort

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of taken on by, white musicians and kind of whitewashed.

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Um, and it was also made up of a lot

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of skilled black musicians

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that were working together in collaboration

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and sharing knowledge and ideas with each other.

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And black jazz culture had, these many different aspects

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as well that fed into

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that eventually influenced beat culture such

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as drug experimentation, free love

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and sex,

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unfiltered lifestyles away from high commercialism,

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especially the whitewashed jazz of that timeframe.

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And so bebop by many researchers, understandings helped

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to usher in the seeds of white beat subculture.

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And this is an area that really kind of needs, I think,

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more exploration actually in terms of beat artists

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in general in the United States,

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but especially this was the case on the West coast in the

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late 1940s and early fifties.

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So free love, drug experimentation, anti-racist culture,

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anti-fascist culture, being against vice laws

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and Cold war cultural strictures.

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Um, these were all things

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that got fed into beaten later into the hippie culture

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of the late sixties and early seventies.

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So Berman was very, very profoundly influenced by bebop,

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but also many different kinds of music.

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Um, 1960s pop music,

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he was very interested in classic rock like the Rolling

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Stones and the Beatles funk and r and b like The Supremes

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and James Brown, classical music, world music.

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So he was kind of all over the place with his interests

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and music for him, especially alongside poetry,

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was this way to convey process

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and to kind of work through poetry and language

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and sound, which as this way to kind of convey

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and express movement and freedom and rhythm

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and this kind of activation of the written word.

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All if is a about eight minute long experimental film

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that was done from approximately 1956 to 66.

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The age range is a little bit, iffy in that,

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but, that age range

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or that that date range I should say,

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was really proposed by Toss Berman,

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who is Wallace is Berman's son

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and now the executor of his estate.

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And so that's the date range that we go with.

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So all of is this,

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I would argue this physical representation

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of this continual process.

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Um, and it has many different aspects embedded within it.

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So the making of this film, has this kind

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of continual additive and subtractive process

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because it was made over such a long period of time

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and Berman during his life.

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Uh, when he died in 1976, the film was sort of left,

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you know, seemingly unfinished.

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Um, this during his life.

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He kind of discussed it more in just terms of like,

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this is a film or a film in progress.

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And so he created a pamphlet, actually in one

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of his Semina magazines in Semina four that showed this kind

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of film in process with these different images.

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And in fact, most of the images

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that he showed in this pamphlet were not,

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are not actually seen in all of today.

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So that shows that this film is this additive

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and subtractive process.

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Um, one of the major components of the film

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that stands out when you watch it is the Hebrew

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letters that are in the film.

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Um, and he was a culturally Jewish person,

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did not practice, Judaism himself necessarily,

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but he was very interested in the Kabbalah.

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And so he understood the Hebrew letters

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through the understanding of the Kabbalah

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and the Kabbalah, is literally translated

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as reception or transmission.

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So that's where the term kind

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of transmission comes from in my thesis

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and transmission is this understanding of this transmission

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of a divine language

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and this spiritual process, especially

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through this movement of sound.

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Um, and so AIF is this really interesting document of

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aspects of Wallis' life

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and it kind of breaks down into pieces of his artwork,

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pieces of his, kind of films of people

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that were involved in his life, films

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of art objects within his life, and then music.

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Lots and lots of music was utilized in this

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film in the visual component.

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And then also I'll talk about the experiential component.

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Um, the name All If Itself actually also

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comes from Tosh Berman.

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Wallace changed the name throughout his lifetime

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and all if was is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet

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and is understood as Wallace's kind of personal monogram.

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Um, and it's also understood in the context of my argument

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as the Silence before Sound

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and Sound is the second letter

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of the Hebrew alphabet with Beth.

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So all of is kind of like the inhale

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before you speak, the first words,

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the first divine words of Beth.

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And so that's kind of important to the structure

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as well since the film actually starts with the letter Beth,

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as this kind of framework.

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So this is actually again, an unfinished document.

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There's an unfinished set of Hebrew letters.

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And so that's another reason that I argue

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that this film is a pro, as a film.

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This film is, kind of really a part of process

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and the process itself is this unstable process.

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Um, also as another important thing we'll get into some

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of the details of what the film looks like in terms

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of music, the experience

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of the film was really important to understand.

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So the film was never shown publicly in Wallace's lifetime.

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It was only shown within his home, usually just to friends

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whenever his friends came over and he felt like showing it.

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And so there was different experiences

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of the film each time it was shown, it was understood

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to be a silent film, but he would often show it with music

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and he would project it onto his, refrigerator

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or onto a wall, and he would just put on a record whatever

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he felt like putting on or just having it silent.

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And so each time that the film was screened to his friends,

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it was at a different stage of the process of its making.

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And so it's different every single time.

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And the music was changed each time.

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So the sound and and silence aspect was also

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I part a part of that.

12:56.025 --> 12:58.085
And then finally, one last really important thing

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to think about as well with the film,

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and you'll notice it when you're looking at the film itself,

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is the use of paint and CET application.

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And so paint is primarily applied, by Berman

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to the film Celluloid After Development,

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and particularly Red

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and Orange Hus is

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what you're gonna see when you're looking at the film

13:17.585 --> 13:19.845
and it's painted directly onto the celluloid.

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Um, and Let Set was also used Let Set is this kind

13:23.765 --> 13:24.965
of transfer letter process.

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And this layer of lettering was applied sometimes

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to a single frame of the film

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and sometimes to many multiple frames.

13:32.645 --> 13:35.525
And so when you look at the film laid out on a light bed,

13:35.525 --> 13:39.165
you'll see multiple words kind of strung along in the film,

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but you, when you're watching the film,

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you just see these kind of black smears

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sort of running through the film.

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And so I argue that this is this kind of poetic language,

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this kind of hidden poetic language

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and this visual painterly gesture that meshes

13:53.885 --> 13:55.365
and clashes with this understanding

13:55.385 --> 13:56.805
of the sound within the film.

13:57.135 --> 13:59.845
First I'm gonna talk about the Verifax Collage Works,

13:59.845 --> 14:01.165
which are a central part

14:01.185 --> 14:03.525
of Berman's artistic process within the film.

14:03.955 --> 14:06.445
Then I'm gonna talk a little bit about the visual themes

14:06.585 --> 14:07.645
of music and sound,

14:07.655 --> 14:10.685
which are broken down into the representation of musicians.

14:11.105 --> 14:12.525
The sections of Hebrew lettering,

14:12.525 --> 14:13.525
which I've already touched on,

14:13.585 --> 14:15.925
and the application of letter set transfer letters.

14:16.385 --> 14:20.725
So the Verifax is a, the Verifax was a,

14:21.585 --> 14:25.325
reprographic technology that was an early precursor

14:25.325 --> 14:26.885
to the Xerox photocopy.

14:27.065 --> 14:28.325
And in fact, I actually have

14:28.505 --> 14:32.405
behind me these are Verifax collage, reproductions

14:33.105 --> 14:34.205
of Berman's work.

14:34.345 --> 14:38.805
And so the Verifax was used for Berman, like a collage tool.

14:39.385 --> 14:42.045
And the most, frequent way

14:42.045 --> 14:45.605
that he used it was this hand within a transistor,

14:45.635 --> 14:47.085
hand covering a transistor radio

14:47.105 --> 14:48.405
or holding a transistor radio,

14:48.565 --> 14:50.645
a Sony transistor radio. And within

14:50.825 --> 14:52.725
The face of the transistor radio

14:53.645 --> 14:55.365
Berman would change the images.

14:56.065 --> 14:57.885
And so for the collages,

14:57.915 --> 14:59.445
this would all obviously be laid out

14:59.445 --> 15:00.605
in a two dimensional format.

15:00.785 --> 15:03.205
And so then you could see this kind of movement

15:03.205 --> 15:07.285
of different images from like a dog to a dancing person to

15:07.845 --> 15:12.125
a, Charlie Bird, Parker closeup, et cetera.

15:12.545 --> 15:15.045
But in the film, these are animated.

15:15.345 --> 15:19.165
So the transistor radio for, Berman was sort of this

15:19.925 --> 15:23.365
symbolic conveyor of the radio as this sort of conveyor

15:23.365 --> 15:25.325
of hidden messages and visual sounds.

15:25.905 --> 15:28.365
And especially in the context of the film.

15:28.905 --> 15:32.685
You see it in this kind of animated form where the hand

15:33.345 --> 15:36.485
is kind of stable and the image itself changes.

15:36.665 --> 15:38.605
So it's meant to look really continuous.

15:39.105 --> 15:41.525
And one can read this, and many scholars do read this

15:41.545 --> 15:44.565
as this kind of layer of this radio transmission, right?

15:44.565 --> 15:47.285
Like you're changing the dial of the transistor radio

15:47.505 --> 15:48.925
and it's turning you

15:48.945 --> 15:51.045
and turning you on into all these different sounds

15:51.145 --> 15:52.725
and visuals that are coming from it.

15:53.065 --> 15:55.685
So that's one really interesting way in which sound

15:55.745 --> 15:56.845
is conveyed in the film.

15:57.265 --> 15:59.645
And then there's the visual themes of music and sound.

15:59.665 --> 16:01.965
So the representation of musicians,

16:01.965 --> 16:06.165
this was especially broken down into jazz and rock.

16:06.425 --> 16:10.565
So Charlie Bird Parker, from the,

16:10.695 --> 16:13.325
bebop jazz time was depicted in the film.

16:13.635 --> 16:16.725
There's also, and also other jazz musicians.

16:16.985 --> 16:19.805
And then there's also live footage of the Rolling Stones,

16:20.085 --> 16:23.205
M**k Jagger, parti in particular spliced

16:23.205 --> 16:24.525
with Tammy Show.

16:24.745 --> 16:27.365
Um, the Tammy Show was a live performance

16:27.365 --> 16:30.405
that was done in 1964, so it was kind of spliced

16:30.405 --> 16:31.845
with this footage of audience

16:31.985 --> 16:35.245
and audience kind of reacting to a Rolling Stones concert.

16:35.625 --> 16:38.525
And then there's still images as well of the Rolling Stones.

16:38.785 --> 16:42.045
So it's these two eras of sound, 1950s jazz

16:42.185 --> 16:43.485
and 1960s rock kind

16:43.485 --> 16:45.245
of meshing together in that visual theme.

16:45.665 --> 16:48.005
And then the sections of Hebrew lettering, it begins

16:48.005 --> 16:49.685
with the second letter Beth

16:49.825 --> 16:51.845
and goes to the 11th letter Cough.

16:52.185 --> 16:55.165
So it's an unfinished set of the Hebrew alphabet.

16:55.705 --> 16:57.485
Um, and it is understood as this kind

16:57.485 --> 16:58.485
of universal transmission.

16:58.485 --> 17:01.485
And again, there's this understanding of as the silence,

17:02.275 --> 17:03.925
Beth, as the language of the world.

17:04.225 --> 17:05.525
So that's again, this kind

17:05.525 --> 17:07.085
of dialogue of the word and sound.

17:07.585 --> 17:09.925
And then the application of letterset transfer letters.

17:10.065 --> 17:11.405
So there were actual words

17:11.405 --> 17:15.005
and phrases that conveyed process like artwork, blueprint,

17:15.585 --> 17:17.165
et cetera, that were conveyed along the

17:17.165 --> 17:18.285
length of the celluloid.

17:18.745 --> 17:22.565
So again, it's the suggestion of unintelligible language

17:23.105 --> 17:26.565
and this inaudible noise in a sense that could be related

17:26.585 --> 17:28.045
to the understandings of the Kabbalah.

17:29.115 --> 17:30.695
And then in the effect of the visual

17:30.715 --> 17:34.255
and auditory rhythm of the film, we see,

17:34.645 --> 17:37.695
this understanding really conveyed of the many different,

17:37.875 --> 17:41.575
the way in which we understand one of the ways that when

17:41.805 --> 17:43.615
that we understand the word beat.

17:44.155 --> 17:46.815
So beat has many different,

17:46.955 --> 17:50.645
understandings in the kind of beat art era

17:50.665 --> 17:51.845
and beat poetry era,

17:52.185 --> 17:54.005
but the one that I focus in on is rhythm.

17:54.465 --> 17:57.725
So beat as it relates to Beat Bob Jazz is this kind of,

17:57.895 --> 18:02.205
again, this improvisational structure, very fast paced,

18:02.475 --> 18:06.285
kind of effects and pacing, and then this use of words

18:06.425 --> 18:08.725
and this very fast rhythmic kind of way.

18:09.305 --> 18:12.205
So the film would be, can be described

18:12.265 --> 18:14.045
as a fast-paced montage.

18:14.385 --> 18:18.165
And montage is such essentially a free association technique

18:18.165 --> 18:20.325
that's particularly, understood

18:20.325 --> 18:22.005
by the filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein,

18:22.215 --> 18:25.645
where if you place two images next to each other,

18:26.065 --> 18:27.765
and do them and, and go back

18:27.765 --> 18:29.165
and forth between them, you're going

18:29.165 --> 18:31.405
to get an association in your mind

18:31.535 --> 18:32.805
about the meaning of those.

18:33.265 --> 18:34.525
And so this is really,

18:34.525 --> 18:38.085
really employed in a extremely fast-paced way in Olive.

18:38.625 --> 18:41.885
Uh, the film only really slows down in these really key

18:41.885 --> 18:44.205
sections, which I'll get into that are related to dance

18:44.785 --> 18:46.125
and related to

18:46.565 --> 18:48.845
actually the Rolling Stone sequences as well.

18:48.905 --> 18:50.845
So the kind of television sequences.

18:51.425 --> 18:53.645
Um, so in the Fairfax depictions,

18:53.695 --> 18:57.165
we've again got this like fast-paced rhythm happening in

18:57.165 --> 18:58.205
the depictions of music.

18:58.425 --> 19:00.605
We have this understanding, again, of rhythm

19:01.405 --> 19:03.605
embedded in the visual imagery

19:03.665 --> 19:05.725
and also in the way that they're expressed in the film.

19:06.185 --> 19:08.045
And then finally, these depictions of dance.

19:08.585 --> 19:12.805
So dance was, really interestingly shown in this film.

19:12.905 --> 19:14.725
You can see through a few different

19:14.725 --> 19:15.965
figures in Berman's life.

19:16.315 --> 19:19.085
Didi Morrell, who's a poet, is seen dancing in the film

19:19.345 --> 19:22.165
as well as Shirley Berman, who was Wallace's wife.

19:22.515 --> 19:25.325
Then you also see the Tammy show audience members dancing.

19:25.945 --> 19:28.765
And then finally there's this long sequence at the end

19:28.765 --> 19:31.285
of the film of, Margot Fontaine

19:31.285 --> 19:34.525
and Rudolph Nev dancing Ballet to Swan Lake.

19:34.785 --> 19:36.365
And it's a TV broadcast.

19:36.425 --> 19:39.405
And so because it's a TV broadcast in its ballet,

19:39.665 --> 19:42.365
it has this really flowy rhythm

19:43.035 --> 19:45.725
that breaks the normal structure of the film

19:45.835 --> 19:49.325
that has this extremely high fast-paced understanding.

19:49.385 --> 19:51.285
And so it like really clashes

19:51.305 --> 19:54.325
and kind of brings the viewer into this really interesting

19:54.325 --> 19:56.805
understanding of rhythm that changes throughout the film.

19:57.465 --> 20:00.045
Um, and then finally, the experience of sound

20:00.225 --> 20:01.685
of viewing olive was really important.

20:01.695 --> 20:04.925
We've already talked a little bit about how the experience

20:04.925 --> 20:07.245
of the film was different every time, depending on the way

20:07.245 --> 20:10.365
that the music, was played or not played

20:10.465 --> 20:11.885
and where it was shown in the home

20:11.905 --> 20:15.925
and what stage that Berman was at in the filming of the,

20:15.925 --> 20:17.365
or in the creation of the film.

20:17.985 --> 20:22.405
Um, and so there's these also really interesting aspects

20:22.405 --> 20:26.605
that happen within these viewings that I call chance editing

20:26.745 --> 20:28.445
of the artist where

20:28.715 --> 20:33.085
because the film was so built up with let set lettering

20:33.185 --> 20:36.765
and paint, the film was really apt to break.

20:37.185 --> 20:38.405
It was not meant to do this.

20:38.925 --> 20:41.125
Stan Brack actually does this as well in his films.

20:41.665 --> 20:42.765
And so,

20:43.325 --> 20:45.085
Berman didn't do it in a way that was very careful.

20:45.265 --> 20:48.045
And so the film would break in the middle of projection.

20:48.065 --> 20:50.125
He would be film, he would be showing it to a friend,

20:50.625 --> 20:51.845
and then the film would break.

20:52.065 --> 20:54.085
And so there are anecdotes from his friends

20:54.095 --> 20:57.045
where the film would break, mid projection,

20:57.145 --> 20:58.685
and then Burma Berman would kind

20:58.685 --> 21:00.245
of take the film off the sprockets

21:00.245 --> 21:01.765
and he would cut out sections,

21:02.525 --> 21:03.685
splice them back together really quickly,

21:03.905 --> 21:05.845
let the glue dry from the splicing

21:06.105 --> 21:07.885
and then start the film again.

21:08.065 --> 21:10.605
So we have this film that's literally changing

21:10.945 --> 21:12.365
as it's being projected.

21:12.825 --> 21:16.685
So the rhythm of the film itself is constantly shifting in

21:16.685 --> 21:18.005
the way in which the film is understood,

21:18.005 --> 21:21.805
is constantly shifting the major conclusions of the study

21:21.815 --> 21:26.085
where really around the idea of olive being full of sound.

21:26.115 --> 21:28.885
This was actually a quote by, Tosh Berman.

21:29.385 --> 21:32.765
And I would argue also that olive is full of also full

21:32.765 --> 21:35.405
of silence and silence being indicative

21:35.405 --> 21:36.805
particularly of the letter Olive.

21:37.025 --> 21:40.085
But also thinking about the timeframe that we're,

21:40.085 --> 21:42.925
that we're discussing this film post World War II

21:43.445 --> 21:47.045
entering into the Vietnam era, into the Cold War era, this

21:47.605 --> 21:51.685
American contemplation and anxiety and reflection of war

21:51.865 --> 21:53.365
and the civil rights movement.

21:53.785 --> 21:57.125
So there's this profound silence that is indicative

21:57.125 --> 21:59.965
of this film in which I personally believe

21:59.965 --> 22:04.205
that Burman was asking us to reflect upon this era

22:04.705 --> 22:08.325
and the way in which this is embodied also within the sound

22:08.325 --> 22:09.765
and the spirit of the film.

22:10.265 --> 22:13.005
And so the title, the subtitle that I have

22:13.105 --> 22:15.965
of this book chapter is Musical and Magical Counterpoint.

22:16.305 --> 22:19.285
So music and Silence are these counterpoints

22:19.285 --> 22:21.045
and counterpoints are this kind of melodies

22:21.045 --> 22:22.365
that are in sync in music.

22:23.145 --> 22:26.045
And you can think of that through the lens of, you know,

22:26.045 --> 22:28.405
the Kabbalah and music depictions and in rhythm

22:29.105 --> 22:33.365
and also music is this therapeutic tool for berman,

22:33.505 --> 22:37.045
for people of, that timeframe and for all of us really.

22:37.705 --> 22:40.045
Um, and so all of is this kind

22:40.045 --> 22:43.285
of mutable transmission working within all of these eras.

22:43.865 --> 22:45.605
The implications for this research

22:45.605 --> 22:49.005
and other kind of moving into understandings of beat art

22:49.065 --> 22:53.325
and poetry is that Berman is now increasingly,

22:53.325 --> 22:54.925
especially in the last decade

22:55.025 --> 22:56.805
or so, being really understood

22:56.925 --> 22:59.765
as this central figure in not just the study

22:59.765 --> 23:00.765
of California beat,

23:00.765 --> 23:03.925
because Berman didn't actually ever show commercial,

23:04.185 --> 23:06.205
didn't really show much commercially during his life.

23:06.225 --> 23:09.285
He wasn't really interested in selling his art,

23:09.585 --> 23:12.325
and he was really kind of this enigmatic quiet figure.

23:12.505 --> 23:16.005
And so he wasn't really discussed as much as many others.

23:16.185 --> 23:18.845
And so, you know, obviously Alan Ginsburg, Jack Kerouac

23:18.845 --> 23:21.765
for Beat poetry, they really put themselves out there.

23:21.785 --> 23:24.045
And Berman has not been as discussed as much,

23:24.315 --> 23:27.685
however, in the last 10 years he's been become much more

23:27.755 --> 23:30.685
essential to the study of beat art and poetry.

23:31.025 --> 23:33.325
And he's this really interesting example as well

23:33.385 --> 23:37.365
of this multidisciplinary figure who was influential

23:37.365 --> 23:39.085
to multiple forms of art making

23:39.665 --> 23:41.605
in mid 20th century American art.

23:41.625 --> 23:43.685
So I think that's one of his major legacies.

23:44.105 --> 23:46.885
And as time goes on, I think he's going to become more

23:46.885 --> 23:48.925
and more of an essential figure for us to look at,

23:48.925 --> 23:52.405
particularly as, as he is, you know, representative

23:52.465 --> 23:54.845
of the fifties and sixties and early seventies.

23:55.225 --> 23:56.605
Um, and then areas

23:56.825 --> 23:58.925
of future research are really interesting within this

23:58.925 --> 24:02.405
because since I've written, this book chapter,

24:02.695 --> 24:04.845
there hasn't actually been a huge amount

24:04.865 --> 24:08.165
of other scholarly research done, particularly on Olive.

24:08.945 --> 24:11.245
Um, however lots

24:11.245 --> 24:13.525
of people know about his Fairfax collages now,

24:13.985 --> 24:16.405
and his Semina magazine as well is very,

24:16.405 --> 24:18.885
very well recognized in in research circles.

24:19.425 --> 24:22.765
Um, and he's actually becoming a really interesting figure

24:23.265 --> 24:25.965
in a new generation of artists and historians

24:26.225 --> 24:30.765
and the general public who are now in the, you know,

24:30.765 --> 24:35.405
really 20, 2020s being really interested in alternative

24:35.405 --> 24:39.045
spiritualities and in modern and contemporary art forms

24:39.185 --> 24:42.685
and their relation to occultism, to new age ideas,

24:42.825 --> 24:45.005
to utopian histories and to cult studies.

24:45.545 --> 24:47.325
And so I think his intersection

24:47.555 --> 24:50.005
with an interest in the Kabbalah in particular

24:50.555 --> 24:53.125
have made him much more interesting to this kind

24:53.125 --> 24:56.205
of new generation of, of artists and historians.

24:56.745 --> 24:59.565
Um, I would argue that more research needs

24:59.565 --> 25:01.885
to be done on Berman's direct connections

25:01.885 --> 25:05.325
to be bought musicians like his, album that he did

25:05.325 --> 25:06.965
with the singer Jimmy Witherspoon.

25:07.435 --> 25:10.365
It's cited in many places but not really elaborated upon.

25:10.505 --> 25:13.125
So that would be a very interesting, I think,

25:13.125 --> 25:16.085
further research for, you know, either my own research

25:16.085 --> 25:17.325
or others to go into.

25:18.205 --> 25:21.085
I also think that more research should be done on Olive's

25:21.085 --> 25:25.485
connections to its filmic remnants, which are,

25:26.025 --> 25:29.645
in part created into a film called Artifactual Films from

25:29.645 --> 25:33.005
the Wallace Berman collection from 2006 to 2007

25:33.265 --> 25:35.165
by anthology film archives.

25:35.625 --> 25:40.285
And this was a document that was, created out of a,

25:40.745 --> 25:45.285
out of parts of film that were left over in by Berman where

25:45.955 --> 25:47.485
upon his death, we,

25:48.275 --> 25:51.205
Tosh Berman discovered three cigar boxes filled

25:51.205 --> 25:52.205
with film remnants.

25:52.585 --> 25:54.685
And all of these film remnants were given

25:54.805 --> 25:56.245
to anthology film archives

25:56.245 --> 26:00.205
and anthology film archives essentially created these,

26:00.555 --> 26:03.325
this extra film document that shows these fragments.

26:03.745 --> 26:06.885
And so this was actually edited to

26:07.145 --> 26:09.285
and didn't include every remnant

26:09.285 --> 26:11.525
or fragment of Wallace Berman's collection.

26:11.525 --> 26:13.925
And so I think that there's more questions about

26:14.605 --> 26:17.205
Berman's intentions in the making of his film

26:17.205 --> 26:20.525
and his process, and also the ways in which archives

26:20.595 --> 26:23.325
influence experimental filmmaking and viewing

26:23.785 --> 26:26.045
and in the research for the wider public.

26:26.665 --> 26:29.005
Um, and then finally, I think also considerations

26:29.065 --> 26:32.005
for viewing of this film are really interesting.

26:32.185 --> 26:34.765
So the way in which this film,

26:34.865 --> 26:39.245
should preserve this understanding of its history within

26:39.925 --> 26:42.525
a very intimate home setting, I think

26:42.525 --> 26:46.205
that is being explored in more current exhibitions,

26:46.255 --> 26:48.805
where it's showing films in these kind of small rooms

26:48.995 --> 26:50.205
with just a few chairs.

26:50.345 --> 26:52.565
So it remains this kind of intimate setting.

26:53.145 --> 26:55.645
Um, but there's also ways in which this film has been viewed

26:55.785 --> 26:57.645
for a very large audience in a theater.

26:58.065 --> 27:01.205
And I think it should be known to those audiences

27:01.745 --> 27:04.365
and to the wider public that knows about this film,

27:04.795 --> 27:08.365
that this film is just one kind of iteration, I'd say,

27:08.465 --> 27:11.765
of the potential of what Berman was interested in.

27:12.025 --> 27:16.165
Um, and I think those connections as well within,

27:16.265 --> 27:21.085
for Berman within the 1960s, in this global area

27:21.665 --> 27:26.045
of the 1960s and thinking more about the wider influence of

27:26.045 --> 27:27.805
that era, on artists,

27:28.325 --> 27:30.845
I think he becomes a really central figure to think about.

00:00 - So the context of this study is based off of a book chapter, that I actually wrote in this book, the Global Sixties and Sound and Vision Media Counterculture Revolt in, which was published by Paul Graves, Paul Graves McMillan in 2014.

00:15 - And this book chapter is an expansion upon, portions of my master's thesis from MIT, which was published in 2012, which was titled, artist Love is God Wallace Burman In the Transmission of All If 1956 to 66. And, all If is, the only film made by this artist, Wallace Burman. And we'll get into what that means. So my master's thesis basically gives this deep dive into Olive through the concepts of spiritual transmission,

00:45 - particularly through the Hebrew system of Kabbalah, but also through, other aspects and ideas of transmission, including electrical noise and moving image and music making transmission. So radio frequencies and television. And I argue in that study in my thesis that all of is both a transmission and an unfinished, unstable art object that frames this kind of continual process where multiple meanings are carried. and one of those aspects that kind

01:16 - of gets into a little bit of what I talk about in the book chapter is that it also, I argue, undergoes multiple procedures of chance editing by the artist and the archives that houses the film in its remnants. And the archives is anthology film archives in New York. So the aims of the book chapter in particular was to focus on Olive as this constantly shifting musical and art object that epitomizes these really important cultural and historical shifts and trends in the 1950s

01:47 - and sixties in California beat and countercultural movements. So this film really kind of moves from the bebop jazz era of the 1940s and fifties into the rock and soul era of the sixties and all if in particular this encompasses this kind of integral component of sound through its structure and its themes and its kind of experience of the film. So the main argument and kind of thrust within that is

02:17 - that Wallace Burman's only film, really exists as this hybrid beat and countercultural document kind of existing at the intersection of those two eras. And it records these musical pulses of the kind of fifties and sixties within this era of moving into the late sixties of this kind of experiential quality of what the countercultural movement was about. So my book really focuses on, a few areas. One is the dialogue of sound and silence in the film,

02:50 - and in Berman's life. the musical expressions also of music and sound in the visual form of Olive, the effect of visual and auditory rhythm exhibited in the structure, in the form of olive and the experience of sound in music in the viewing of Olive. So Wallace Berman was a really fascinating enigmatic character of the California beat and counter-cultural scenes in California. He really epitomized, what it was

03:19 - to be a beat artist and poet and what it was even to be an early hippie. So he was born in 1926 and died in 1976. He was actually featured on Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album covered by the Beatles. and so he, he's really kind of understood as this very central countercultural figure, but many people haven't really heard about him. he was an artist, so primarily he worked in assemblage, in collage, in male art and in photography.

03:50 - He was also a poet at the time of the, California beat poets and beat poets in general in the United States. And he was a zine editor and publisher, particularly of a magazine called Semina Magazine. And I actually have an original copy here of a Semina magazine. This is Semina issue number two. And so you'll see with the image on the outside

04:11 - and then some of the images on the inside and the words that he was very, very interested in the intersection of art and language and the intersection of the written word as this kind of powerful structure. And then finally, he was a filmmaker and all if was the only film that he made in his life, and it was made over the course of about 10 years. The a the date range is approximate. and I argue

04:37 - that the film was really this epitomizing aspect of all of the ways that he intersected in all of these different arenas. So within himself in California, he was this really pivotal figure that was very connected to many different worlds. He was in the beat beat poetry scene. He met Alan Ginsburg and Jack Kerouac. He was friends with Bob Alexander, David Meltzer, Robert Duncan other, poets.

05:03 - He knew a lot of people in the art world. So he met Andy Warhol. He actually, Andy Warhol actually filmed a experi, experimental film at his house. and he knew he was friends with, people like John Altoon and the Ferris School in Los Angeles, ed Keen Holt and other, sculptors. He knew people in the film industry. He was friends with Dennis Hopper, Dean Stockwell,

05:28 - Russ Tamlin, a bunch of actors. And, in the experimental film scene, he, knew Stan Brack. He was really good friends with, Bruce Connor and knew as well, Kenneth Anger. And then finally in the jazz world, he, actually did an album artwork for a bebop album that was done by Dial Records. He wrote a jazz record with an, the singer Jimmy Witherspoon,

05:54 - and he met Charlie Bird Parker, who was a very well known bebop jazz saxophonist. So music and sound in particular were really, really central to Berman's life from a very early age. In his teenage years, he started hanging out on Central Avenue in la, which was this scene of this kind of rising la jazz renaissance, particularly around bebop jazz and bebop. Jazz is a really interesting form of jazz in this kind

06:24 - of 1940s and fifties timeframe in America. he was really profoundly influenced by the ideas of bebop and the ideas of bebop carry into beat culture and then later even into hippie culture. So bebop has this highly improvisational structure, compared to most jazz at the time, which was sort of taken on by, white musicians and kind of whitewashed. and it was also made up of a lot of skilled black musicians that were working together in collaboration

06:55 - and sharing knowledge and ideas with each other. And black jazz culture had, these many different aspects as well that fed into that eventually influenced beat culture such as drug experimentation, free love and sex, unfiltered lifestyles away from high commercialism, especially the whitewashed jazz of that timeframe. And so bebop by many researchers, understandings helped to usher in the seeds of white beat subculture.

07:22 - And this is an area that really kind of needs, I think, more exploration actually in terms of beat artists in general in the United States, but especially this was the case on the West coast in the late 1940s and early fifties. So free love, drug experimentation, anti-racist culture, anti-fascist culture, being against vice laws and Cold war cultural strictures. these were all things that got fed into beaten later into the hippie culture

07:52 - of the late sixties and early seventies. So Berman was very, very profoundly influenced by bebop, but also many different kinds of music. 1960s pop music, he was very interested in classic rock like the Rolling Stones and the Beatles funk and r and b like The Supremes and James Brown, classical music, world music. So he was kind of all over the place with his interests and music for him, especially alongside poetry, was this way to convey process

08:24 - and to kind of work through poetry and language and sound, which as this way to kind of convey and express movement and freedom and rhythm and this kind of activation of the written word. All if is a about eight minute long experimental film that was done from approximately 1956 to 66. The age range is a little bit, iffy in that, but, that age range or that that date range I should say, was really proposed by Toss Berman,

08:58 - who is Wallace is Berman's son and now the executor of his estate. And so that's the date range that we go with. So all of is this, I would argue this physical representation of this continual process. and it has many different aspects embedded within it. So the making of this film, has this kind of continual additive and subtractive process because it was made over such a long period of time

09:23 - and Berman during his life. when he died in 1976, the film was sort of left, you know, seemingly unfinished. this during his life. He kind of discussed it more in just terms of like, this is a film or a film in progress. And so he created a pamphlet, actually in one of his Semina magazines in Semina four that showed this kind of film in process with these different images. And in fact, most of the images

09:50 - that he showed in this pamphlet were not, are not actually seen in all of today. So that shows that this film is this additive and subtractive process. one of the major components of the film that stands out when you watch it is the Hebrew letters that are in the film. and he was a culturally Jewish person, did not practice, Judaism himself necessarily, but he was very interested in the Kabbalah.

10:18 - And so he understood the Hebrew letters through the understanding of the Kabbalah and the Kabbalah, is literally translated as reception or transmission. So that's where the term kind of transmission comes from in my thesis and transmission is this understanding of this transmission of a divine language and this spiritual process, especially through this movement of sound.

10:39 - and so AIF is this really interesting document of aspects of Wallis' life and it kind of breaks down into pieces of his artwork, pieces of his, kind of films of people that were involved in his life, films of art objects within his life, and then music. Lots and lots of music was utilized in this film in the visual component. And then also I'll talk about the experiential component. the name All If Itself actually also

11:08 - comes from Tosh Berman. Wallace changed the name throughout his lifetime and all if was is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet and is understood as Wallace's kind of personal monogram. and it's also understood in the context of my argument as the Silence before Sound and Sound is the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet with Beth. So all of is kind of like the inhale before you speak, the first words,

11:36 - the first divine words of Beth. And so that's kind of important to the structure as well since the film actually starts with the letter Beth, as this kind of framework. So this is actually again, an unfinished document. There's an unfinished set of Hebrew letters. And so that's another reason that I argue that this film is a pro, as a film. This film is, kind of really a part of process and the process itself is this unstable process.

12:03 - also as another important thing we'll get into some of the details of what the film looks like in terms of music, the experience of the film was really important to understand. So the film was never shown publicly in Wallace's lifetime. It was only shown within his home, usually just to friends whenever his friends came over and he felt like showing it. And so there was different experiences of the film each time it was shown, it was understood to be a silent film, but he would often show it with music

12:31 - and he would project it onto his, refrigerator or onto a wall, and he would just put on a record whatever he felt like putting on or just having it silent. And so each time that the film was screened to his friends, it was at a different stage of the process of its making. And so it's different every single time. And the music was changed each time. So the sound and and silence aspect was also I part a part of that. And then finally, one last really important thing

12:58 - to think about as well with the film, and you'll notice it when you're looking at the film itself, is the use of paint and CET application. And so paint is primarily applied, by Berman to the film Celluloid After Development, and particularly Red and Orange Hus is what you're gonna see when you're looking at the film and it's painted directly onto the celluloid. and Let Set was also used Let Set is this kind

13:23 - of transfer letter process. And this layer of lettering was applied sometimes to a single frame of the film and sometimes to many multiple frames. And so when you look at the film laid out on a light bed, you'll see multiple words kind of strung along in the film, but you, when you're watching the film, you just see these kind of black smears sort of running through the film. And so I argue that this is this kind of poetic language,

13:47 - this kind of hidden poetic language and this visual painterly gesture that meshes and clashes with this understanding of the sound within the film. First I'm gonna talk about the Verifax Collage Works, which are a central part of Berman's artistic process within the film. Then I'm gonna talk a little bit about the visual themes of music and sound, which are broken down into the representation of musicians.

14:11 - The sections of Hebrew lettering, which I've already touched on, and the application of letter set transfer letters. So the Verifax is a, the Verifax was a, reprographic technology that was an early precursor to the Xerox photocopy. And in fact, I actually have behind me these are Verifax collage, reproductions of Berman's work. And so the Verifax was used for Berman, like a collage tool.

14:39 - And the most, frequent way that he used it was this hand within a transistor, hand covering a transistor radio or holding a transistor radio, a Sony transistor radio. And within The face of the transistor radio Berman would change the images. And so for the collages, this would all obviously be laid out in a two dimensional format.

15:00 - And so then you could see this kind of movement of different images from like a dog to a dancing person to a, Charlie Bird, Parker closeup, et cetera. But in the film, these are animated. So the transistor radio for, Berman was sort of this symbolic conveyor of the radio as this sort of conveyor of hidden messages and visual sounds. And especially in the context of the film. You see it in this kind of animated form where the hand is kind of stable and the image itself changes.

15:36 - So it's meant to look really continuous. And one can read this, and many scholars do read this as this kind of layer of this radio transmission, right? Like you're changing the dial of the transistor radio and it's turning you and turning you on into all these different sounds and visuals that are coming from it. So that's one really interesting way in which sound is conveyed in the film. And then there's the visual themes of music and sound.

15:59 - So the representation of musicians, this was especially broken down into jazz and rock. So Charlie Bird Parker, from the, bebop jazz time was depicted in the film. There's also, and also other jazz musicians. And then there's also live footage of the Rolling Stones, M**k Jagger, parti in particular spliced with Tammy Show. the Tammy Show was a live performance that was done in 1964, so it was kind of spliced

16:30 - with this footage of audience and audience kind of reacting to a Rolling Stones concert. And then there's still images as well of the Rolling Stones. So it's these two eras of sound, 1950s jazz and 1960s rock kind of meshing together in that visual theme. And then the sections of Hebrew lettering, it begins with the second letter Beth and goes to the 11th letter Cough. So it's an unfinished set of the Hebrew alphabet.

16:55 - and it is understood as this kind of universal transmission. And again, there's this understanding of as the silence, Beth, as the language of the world. So that's again, this kind of dialogue of the word and sound. And then the application of letterset transfer letters. So there were actual words and phrases that conveyed process like artwork, blueprint, et cetera, that were conveyed along the

17:17 - length of the celluloid. So again, it's the suggestion of unintelligible language and this inaudible noise in a sense that could be related to the understandings of the Kabbalah. And then in the effect of the visual and auditory rhythm of the film, we see, this understanding really conveyed of the many different, the way in which we understand one of the ways that when that we understand the word beat. So beat has many different,

17:46 - understandings in the kind of beat art era and beat poetry era, but the one that I focus in on is rhythm. So beat as it relates to Beat Bob Jazz is this kind of, again, this improvisational structure, very fast paced, kind of effects and pacing, and then this use of words and this very fast rhythmic kind of way. So the film would be, can be described as a fast-paced montage. And montage is such essentially a free association technique

18:18 - that's particularly, understood by the filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein, where if you place two images next to each other, and do them and, and go back and forth between them, you're going to get an association in your mind about the meaning of those. And so this is really, really employed in a extremely fast-paced way in Olive. the film only really slows down in these really key

18:41 - sections, which I'll get into that are related to dance and related to actually the Rolling Stone sequences as well. So the kind of television sequences. so in the Fairfax depictions, we've again got this like fast-paced rhythm happening in the depictions of music. We have this understanding, again, of rhythm embedded in the visual imagery and also in the way that they're expressed in the film.

19:06 - And then finally, these depictions of dance. So dance was, really interestingly shown in this film. You can see through a few different figures in Berman's life. Didi Morrell, who's a poet, is seen dancing in the film as well as Shirley Berman, who was Wallace's wife. Then you also see the Tammy show audience members dancing. And then finally there's this long sequence at the end of the film of, Margot Fontaine and Rudolph Nev dancing Ballet to Swan Lake.

19:34 - And it's a TV broadcast. And so because it's a TV broadcast in its ballet, it has this really flowy rhythm that breaks the normal structure of the film that has this extremely high fast-paced understanding. And so it like really clashes and kind of brings the viewer into this really interesting understanding of rhythm that changes throughout the film. and then finally, the experience of sound of viewing olive was really important.

20:01 - We've already talked a little bit about how the experience of the film was different every time, depending on the way that the music, was played or not played and where it was shown in the home and what stage that Berman was at in the filming of the, or in the creation of the film. and so there's these also really interesting aspects that happen within these viewings that I call chance editing of the artist where because the film was so built up with let set lettering

20:33 - and paint, the film was really apt to break. It was not meant to do this. Stan Brack actually does this as well in his films. And so, Berman didn't do it in a way that was very careful. And so the film would break in the middle of projection. He would be film, he would be showing it to a friend, and then the film would break. And so there are anecdotes from his friends where the film would break, mid projection,

20:57 - and then Burma Berman would kind of take the film off the sprockets and he would cut out sections, splice them back together really quickly, let the glue dry from the splicing and then start the film again. So we have this film that's literally changing as it's being projected. So the rhythm of the film itself is constantly shifting in the way in which the film is understood,

21:18 - is constantly shifting the major conclusions of the study where really around the idea of olive being full of sound. This was actually a quote by, Tosh Berman. And I would argue also that olive is full of also full of silence and silence being indicative particularly of the letter Olive. But also thinking about the timeframe that we're, that we're discussing this film post World War II entering into the Vietnam era, into the Cold War era, this American contemplation and anxiety and reflection of war

21:51 - and the civil rights movement. So there's this profound silence that is indicative of this film in which I personally believe that Burman was asking us to reflect upon this era and the way in which this is embodied also within the sound and the spirit of the film. And so the title, the subtitle that I have of this book chapter is Musical and Magical Counterpoint. So music and Silence are these counterpoints and counterpoints are this kind of melodies

22:21 - that are in sync in music. And you can think of that through the lens of, you know, the Kabbalah and music depictions and in rhythm and also music is this therapeutic tool for berman, for people of, that timeframe and for all of us really. and so all of is this kind of mutable transmission working within all of these eras. The implications for this research and other kind of moving into understandings of beat art and poetry is that Berman is now increasingly,

22:53 - especially in the last decade or so, being really understood as this central figure in not just the study of California beat, because Berman didn't actually ever show commercial, didn't really show much commercially during his life. He wasn't really interested in selling his art, and he was really kind of this enigmatic quiet figure. And so he wasn't really discussed as much as many others. And so, you know, obviously Alan Ginsburg, Jack Kerouac

23:18 - for Beat poetry, they really put themselves out there. And Berman has not been as discussed as much, however, in the last 10 years he's been become much more essential to the study of beat art and poetry. And he's this really interesting example as well of this multidisciplinary figure who was influential to multiple forms of art making in mid 20th century American art. So I think that's one of his major legacies. And as time goes on, I think he's going to become more

23:46 - and more of an essential figure for us to look at, particularly as, as he is, you know, representative of the fifties and sixties and early seventies. and then areas of future research are really interesting within this because since I've written, this book chapter, there hasn't actually been a huge amount of other scholarly research done, particularly on Olive. however lots of people know about his Fairfax collages now,

24:13 - and his Semina magazine as well is very, very well recognized in in research circles. and he's actually becoming a really interesting figure in a new generation of artists and historians and the general public who are now in the, you know, really 20, 2020s being really interested in alternative spiritualities and in modern and contemporary art forms and their relation to occultism, to new age ideas, to utopian histories and to cult studies. And so I think his intersection

24:47 - with an interest in the Kabbalah in particular have made him much more interesting to this kind of new generation of, of artists and historians. I would argue that more research needs to be done on Berman's direct connections to be bought musicians like his, album that he did with the singer Jimmy Witherspoon. It's cited in many places but not really elaborated upon. So that would be a very interesting, I think, further research for, you know, either my own research

25:16 - or others to go into. I also think that more research should be done on Olive's connections to its filmic remnants, which are, in part created into a film called Artifactual Films from the Wallace Berman collection from 2006 to 2007 by anthology film archives. And this was a document that was, created out of a, out of parts of film that were left over in by Berman where upon his death, we, Tosh Berman discovered three cigar boxes filled

25:51 - with film remnants. And all of these film remnants were given to anthology film archives and anthology film archives essentially created these, this extra film document that shows these fragments. And so this was actually edited to and didn't include every remnant or fragment of Wallace Berman's collection. And so I think that there's more questions about Berman's intentions in the making of his film

26:17 - and his process, and also the ways in which archives influence experimental filmmaking and viewing and in the research for the wider public. and then finally, I think also considerations for viewing of this film are really interesting. So the way in which this film, should preserve this understanding of its history within a very intimate home setting, I think that is being explored in more current exhibitions, where it's showing films in these kind of small rooms

26:48 - with just a few chairs. So it remains this kind of intimate setting. but there's also ways in which this film has been viewed for a very large audience in a theater. And I think it should be known to those audiences and to the wider public that knows about this film, that this film is just one kind of iteration, I'd say, of the potential of what Berman was interested in. and I think those connections as well within, for Berman within the 1960s, in this global area

27:21 - of the 1960s and thinking more about the wider influence of that era, on artists, I think he becomes a really central figure to think about.

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