Bruce Conner's CROSSROADS and
THE EXPLODING DIGITAL INEVITABLE
Bruce Conner, BOMBHEAD (1991)
Illustrated lecture; part one originally presented at the AMIA Reel Thing Technical Symposium, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (LA), 2013. Part two originally presented at Museum of Modern Art (NY), Oct. 28 2013. Lecture made possible with the generous assistance of NT Picture and Sound.
Accompanied by the text essay, "Conservation at a Crossroads"
in Artforum, October 2013
In 1976 groundbreaking artist and filmmaker Bruce Conner released what was to be his magnum opus, a 36 minute assemblage of atomic bomb test footage shot at the Bikini Atoll on July 25, 1946. The film was accompanied by a brilliant dual score by legendary composer Terry Riley and synthesizer pioneer Patrick Gleeson, which, in tandem with a surreal beauty latent in the devastating images, comprised one of the most profound meditations on the nuclear era extant.
Twenty years later, in 1996, the Pacific Film Archive in collaboration with the Academy Film Archive embarked on a then-authoritative preservation of the film in consultation with Conner, under the directorship of Michael Friend. Now the UCLA Film & Television Archive, in a joint project with the Conner Family Trust and the Michael Kohn Gallery, has created a unique edition that seeks to faithfully interpret the film in digital presentation while simultaneously honoring the previous work and addressing traditional archival imperatives to respect medium specificity. This undertaking involved a multi-tiered strategy of versioning, with different iterations intentionally created for different media forms and exhibition contexts.
Of particular importance to the interpretive process was a 2003 standard definition video remastering conducted under the direct supervision of Conner. This version not only included slight editorial changes, but critically, went back to the original 1/4" audio recordings made at Patrick Gleeson's Different Fur Studios. Terry Riley's composition had been recorded in stereo, but the film was released in mono in 1976 as the industry had not yet widely integrated the Dolby Stereo format. The current project closely examined the 2003 remastering, the 1996 preservation, and the original 1976 production in generating its versions. This presentation discusses CROSSROADS' unique production history, as well as the archival issues surrounding the broad industrial changes that led to a significant new remastering and reconstruction of the film.
CROSSROADS (Bruce Conner (1976): Digitally remastered, reconstructed, and restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive in partnership with the Conner Family Trust and the Michael Kohn Gallery. Laboratory work by Cinetech and NT Picture and Sound. Sound Restoration by Audio Mechanics.
Thanks to: Dave Cetra, Grover Crisp, Michael Friend, Chris Horak, Shawn Jones, John Polito, Michelle Silva.
see list of restored films here
see list of essays and lectures here