Overview

Ken Jacobs has been making cinema for more than fifty years. Along with over thirty film and video works, he has created an array of shadow plays, sound pieces, installations, and magic lantern and film performances that have transformed how we look at and think about moving images. He is part of the permanent collections at MoMA and the Whitney, and his work has been celebrated in Europe and the U.S. While his importance is well-recognized, this is the first volume dedicated entirely to him. It includes essays by prominent film scholars along with photographs and personal pieces from artists and critics, all of which testify to the extraordinary variety and influence of his accomplishments. Anyone interested in cinema or experimental arts will be well-rewarded by a greater acquaintance with the genius, the innovation, and the optical antics of Ken Jacobs.

Full Product Details

Author:   Michele Pierson (Lecturer in Film Studies, Lecturer in Film Studies, King's College London) ,  David E. James (Professor of Film, Professor of Film, University of Southern California) ,  Paul Arthur (Professor of English and Film Studies, Professor of English and Film Studies, Montclair State University)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press Inc
Imprint:   Oxford University Press Inc
Dimensions:   Width: 25.40cm , Height: 2.50cm , Length: 18.00cm
Weight:   0.726kg
ISBN:  

9780195384970

ISBN 10:   0195384970
Pages:   312
Publication Date:   07 July 2011
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
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Table of Contents

"1: Michele Pierson: Introduction: Ken Jacobs-A Half-Century of Cinema 2: Paul Arthur: ""A Panorama Compounded of Great Human Suffering and Ecstatic Filmic Representation"": Texts On Ken Jacobs 3: Jonas Mekas: Texts On Ken Jacobs 4: Branden Joseph: A Mischievous Little-Boy Revolution: The Whirled 5: Richard Foreman: Ken Jacobs, Moralist 6: David E. James: The Sky Socialist: Film as an Instrument of Thought, Cinema as an Augury of Redemption 7: Larry Gottheim: Bigger Than Life: Between Ken Jacobs and Nicholas Ray 8: Eivind Røssaak: Acts of Delay: The Play between Stillness and Motion in Tom, Tom the Piper's Son 9: Abigail Child: The Piper's Son: Content and Performance in the Films of Ken Jacobs 10: Tony Pipolo: Ken Jacobs' Two Wrenching Departures 11: Flo Jacobs: Photo Essay 12: Amy Taubin: Flo Talks 13: Nicole Brenez: Recycling, Visual Study, Expanded Theory - Ken Jacobs, Theorist, or: The Long Song of the Sons 14: Art Spiegelman: ""Avant-Garde"" Filmmaker: Ken Jacobs 15: Scott MacDonald: Ken Jacobs and the Robert Flaherty Seminar 16: Phil Solomon: Nervous Ken: XCXHXEXRXRXIXEXSX and after 17: Michele Pierson: Jacobs' Bergsonism 18: Lewis Klahr: Ken Jacobs and Ecstatic Abstraction 19: Adrian Martin: Busby Berkeley, Ken Jacobs: A Precarious, Extravagant, Populist, and Constructivist Cinema 20: Christoph Girardet & Matthias Müller: Untitled (for Ken) 21: Federico Windhausen: Theories of Moving Pictures: Ken Jacobs after Hans Hofmann 22: Fred Worden: I Owe Ken Jacobs 23: Michael Zryd: Professor Ken 24: William Rose: Annotated Filmography and Performance History 25: Bibliography"

Reviews

<br> Above all else, Optic Antics has the rare distinction -- characteristic of Jacob's filmmaking itself -- of being at once philosophically intricate and ludicrously fun. --Film Comment<br><p><br> The contributors to Optic Antics are to be congratulated for chronicling the work of the artist Ken Jacobs and providing insightful interpretations of his extraordinary and multifaceted contributions to the art of the moving image. In his many films, performance works, and digital pieces, Jacobs has made a major contribution to contemporary art, and this book will be a real asset to scholars, artists, and curators. --John G. Hanhardt, Senior Curator, Nam June Paik Media Arts Center, Smithsonian American Art Museum<p><br> Optic Antics gives Jacobs devotees like myself and new audiences alike the chance to understand Ken in full context. Forget essential, Ken Jacobs is seminal cinema. --Andrew Lampert, Artist, Programmer, and Archivist, Anthology Film Archives<p><br>

<br> The contributors to Optic Antics are to be congratulated for chronicling the work of the artist Ken Jacobs and providing insightful interpretations of his extraordinary and multifaceted contributions to the art of the moving image. In his many films, performance works, and digital pieces, Jacobs has made a major contribution to contemporary art, and this book will be a real asset to scholars, artists, and curators. --John G. Hanhardt, Senior Curator, Nam June Paik Media Arts Center, Smithsonian American Art Museum<p><br> Optic Antics gives Jacobs devotees like myself and new audiences alike the chance to understand Ken in full context. Forget essential, Ken Jacobs is seminal cinema. --Andrew Lampert, Artist, Programmer, and Archivist, Anthology Film Archives<p><br>

Above all else, Optic Antics has the rare distinction -- characteristic of Jacob's filmmaking itself -- of being at once philosophically intricate and ludicrously fun. --Film Comment The contributors to Optic Antics are to be congratulated for chronicling the work of the artist Ken Jacobs and providing insightful interpretations of his extraordinary and multifaceted contributions to the art of the moving image. In his many films, performance works, and digital pieces, Jacobs has made a major contribution to contemporary art, and this book will be a real asset to scholars, artists, and curators. --John G. Hanhardt, Senior Curator, Nam June Paik Media Arts Center, Smithsonian American Art Museum Optic Antics gives Jacobs devotees like myself and new audiences alike the chance to understand Ken in full context. Forget essential, Ken Jacobs is seminal cinema. --Andrew Lampert, Artist, Programmer, and Archivist, Anthology Film Archives

Author Information

Michele Pierson is on the faculty of the Film Studies Department at King's College London. She is the author of Special Effects: Still in Search of Wonder. David E. James is on the faculty of the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern California. He is the author of Allegories of Cinema: American Film in the Sixties and The Most Typical Avant-Garde: History and Geography of Minor Cinemas in Los Angeles. Paul Arthur was Professor of English and Film Studies at Montclair State University. He is the author of Line Of Sight: American Avant-Garde Film Since 1965.

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