DVD "MA/間: A Japanese Concept"

Four films about <MA> -Art, Documentation, Animation, and Abstraction-, Takahiko iimura �ﾏ Scroll to the right A Japanese concept of MA was not so familiar to me. The meaning of "MA" was not clear, yet we could use it in many situations. It was, indeed, a very mysterious word. Frankly to say, it was too Japanese to handle it. However, in 1970s, I found an interest in the concept of MA, when I thought a lot on time in film. Because the time in film was considered as a duration of time rather than a clock time of N+1. It is a kind of duration that Henry Bergson called "DUREE". This concept was a starting point in the film-making. I produced a film titled "1 to 60 seconds" in 1973, which scratched on un-developed (black) film only the numbers from 1 to 60 on a single frame adding every time the individual duration of the number. [For instance, 2 at 3 seconds clock time adding 1+2, 3 at 6 seconds adding 1+2+3. The rests are all black]. It takes 30 minutes 30 seconds to see the entire film.

MA (INTERVALS) 1977, 16mm, B&W & Color, 10min.(Auto Play), 22min.(Single Play) A complete abstract film in which I used black film, which blocks light, and clear film, which is totally transparent, as the basic materials. These materials were measured in every second, a length of 1,2,3 seconds individually as a basic unit. I composed the intervals of < MA> according to the seconds between light (white), darkness (black) and the central straight lines, and tried to clarify ＜MA> in an interval of their relations by giving a certain measure to the irrational time/space. (T.I.)

MA: SPACE/TIME IN THE GARDEN OF RYOAN-JI 1989, 16mm, Color, 16min. Sound Produced: Program for Art on Film, New York, with support from Metropolitan Museum for Art, New York, & J. Paul Getty Trust, Los Angeles Music: Takehisa Kosugi, Text: Arata Isozaki An art film in which I made a filmic interpretation of <MA> as a theme with the classic art of Ryoan-ji. In this production, I did not illustrate <MA> as an usual instructional art-film, but a realization of experiencing <MA> by watching a film. Especially, the concept of "MA" as an indivisible state of time and space.(T.I.) “Ma appears to apply itself to an infinity of cases, figures, occurrences, it comes from an elementary structural strategy that defines the ideogram's double emblem well enough, a sun in the embrasure of a door.” - Daniel Charles (The author of John Cage) “Original, personal..to integrate a philosophical agenda with a visual one” - Nadine Covert ed. Art On Screen 'Architecture' Award of UNESCO International Festival of Film on Art, 1991

THE MAKING OF <MA> IN RYOAN-JI 1989, Video, B/W & Color, 10min., Sound <The Making...> showed not only the process of film-making, but also the creation of <MA> as a work. For example, the repeated dolly car scenes together with the ones, which were shot on the dolly, represent the relationships of <see/be seen> in <MA>.(T.I.)

MA: THE STONES HAVE MOVED 2004, Video, B/W & Color, 10min., Silent Co-produced: Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, Ca., USA An animation film in which the outline of the image of stone garden was traced on computer. While the camera-crews moved in actual film-making, the stone, the drew-line moved in animation. The outline of stones was drawn continuously like <Ippitsu-ga>(one stroked drawing) with a breath and made fade-in/fade-out effects in every one second. There was a continuous rhythm like breathing. The rhythm of <Ippitsu-ga> would be found in their pulsations of drawing with fade-in/fade-out effects.(T.I.)

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