Four Square1971

Co-maker Tony Conrad.

Note: A four-screen film. Stereo 1/2-track tape–will produce stereo on 1/4-track machines–included, along with complete setup and projection instruction, four separate film reels, and a diagrammatic program note.

"FOUR SQUARE is designed for simultaneous projection by four projectors, on four screens arranged in a square which encloses the audience. In practice it is sometimes necessary to conform the distribution of projectors and screens to the available space. In so doing, a rule of thumb should be that the screens should be separated from one another as much and as symmetrically as possible, and the projectors should roughly face one another, in pairs. The audience, if seated, would do best to sit where it is possible to see two screens ahead and two off to the sides. A diagram of one such arrangement is included with the projectionist's instructions. The two loud-speakers should be widely separated and at opposite sides of the audience.

"This film extends the viewer-film relationship out into the space of the environment. Colors are introduced in such a way that they unbalance the normal receptivity of the viewer's eye to color. Then, throughout the simultaneity of very short events in different areas of the viewing area, relationships are developed around the varying speed of perception in different areas of the viewer's visual field.

"FOUR SQUARE is basically a film about Red, the space, and time. The sound is a tape of composition, 'Emergency Landing', which supports the free in interpolation of atmospheric events into the ambient space" – Tony & Beverly Conrad