Simultaneous or Poly-Cinema

Title

Simultaneous or Poly-Cinema

Description

Another suggestion for changing the projection screens might be: one in the shape of a segment of a sphere instead of the present rectangular one. This projection screen should have a very large radius and therefore very little depth and should be placed at an angle of sight of about 45° for the viewer. More than one film (perhaps two in the first trials) would be played on this projection screen; and they would not, indeed, be projected on to a fixed spot but would range continually from left to right or from right to left, up and down, down and up, etc. This process will enable us to present two or more events which start independently of one another but will later by calculation combine and present parallel and coinciding episodes. …

I give a schematic drawing to make my meaning quite clear:

The film about Mr A runs from left to right: birth, course of life. The film about the lady B runs from the bottom upwards: birth, course of her life. The projection surfaces of the two films intersect: love, marriage, etc. The two films can then.either proceed by intersecting in translucent sequences of events or can run parallel; or a single new film about the two people may take the place of the original two. Another film, the third or fourth, about Mr C could run simultaneously with the episodes A and B from the top downwards or from right to left or even in another direction until it
can properly intersect or merge with the other films, etc.

Such a scheme will, of course, be just as suitable, if not more so, for nonobjective light-projections in the manner of the photogram. If colour effects are used, still richer creative possibilities will arise.

Designer

Moholoy-Nagy, Lazlo

Date

1925

Source

Painting, Photography, Film

Bibliographic Citation

Moholoy-Nagy, Lazlo. 2019. Painting, Photography, Film. Bauhausbücher. Volume 8. Lars Müller Publishers. Page 34.

Moholoy-Nagy, Lazlo.1925. Malerei, Fotografie, Film. Bauhausbücher. Volume 8. Albert Langen Verlag.