Thumbnail Sketches1977

Like many of my films THUMBNAIL SKETCHES began as a flipbook. However this particular book didn't really flip. Each page instead of being one phase in a series (like a frame of film), contained a complete cycle of 8 drawings arranged in a rectangular ring. The reader had to construct the information conceptually not just optically as if it were a mosaic of abstract comic strip panels. The film begins with a 'live' prologue documenting the book's original form; then follows its destruction by scissors, a brief autopsy illustrating the mechanics of movement, and its eventual animated rebirth. The animation is accomplished by displacing the panels in virtual space so that all 8 phases are visible simultaneously, a technique in opposition to image replacemant which tricks the viewer into assuming that movement is a continuos flow. This scheme suggests that each unit of time construction need not to be subordinate to the total hypnotic river of illusuion, that in fact a 'moving' line is not as simple as it may seem.–G. G.