Filming at the skyscraper for 8 hours and screened for 8 hours with 0 editing, Empire incarnates how architecture and time exists side by side and compliment each other and what’s more, how time is spatialized. The idea was abstract, vague and indescribable when it first came to my mind, yet turns out clear after some deliberation. Time spatializes movement in photos with multiple exposure, different frames of movement is displayed in one single picture while it works the same for film except that film is a series of photo stuck together. Same for Empire, the building is changing every second, it has some unnoticeable change but still it’s moving, in short Empire is an expansion of multiple exposure photos. Another way to perceive the spatialization of time in Empire is the idea of unlocking a new place by yourself, from your own perspective and go through it all by yourself just like those gaming map. The skyscraper is a new building in every second as every second of it exists in a different time.The 3 dimensional coordinate of it maybe the same but not for it’s 4 dimensional’s. Watching this architecture for 8 hours is like unlocking a new map a new of it every second. We spectators spatialize it through time and time itself is also spatialized.
Li,Enid Geo 3035782023
It is an interesting reading of Empire with a summary of Bruno’s ideas. The film was revolutionary to present the Empire State Building at “the actual rhythm of a site” (2004, 83). The notion of time is essential in your response, and it would be great if you could unpack a little bit more with reference to the text – Warhol stated “My films are just a way of taking up time” (2004, 86) which encourages spacing out, subsequently creating a new landscape / geology within the film. You’ve mentioned a film is like “unlocking a new map” which is similar to a gaming map, is it possible if you can cite and describe other films as examples that presents the “map” in other ways? It would also be helpful to explain what “zero degree” of film is to add another dimension to your response – what is its relationship with time?