Technology and the Making of Experimental Film Culture

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In 1972, filmmaker John Luther Schofill invited students Bill Brand and Louis Hock to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago to join its new film department. Brand was eager to use the school's optical printer for creative transformations of his images through rephotography. However, upon arrival, he discovered that no printer existed; he was tasked with building one instead. Hock, needing financial support, joined Brand in this endeavor, working to convert a newly purchased Mauer camera and a heavy industrial lathe into a DIY optical printer. This initiative reflected a broader trend, as homemade optical printers were emerging at various schools, granting the first generation of experimental film students easier access to this technology. Within a decade, the optical printer became essential in MFA programs and filmmaker cooperatives, as integral to avant-garde practice as Bolex cameras and reversal stocks. The practice became routinized, a skill that filmmakers could acquire. P. Adams Sitney noted that just as rapid editing signified aesthetic authority in the early sixties, optical printing represented technical mastery in the seventies. This evolution highlights how technical sophistication became a key distinction in experimental filmmaking, embodying aesthetic, cultural, and philosophical values. What were these values, and where did they originate?