A Moving Which Is Not a Moving: Michael Snow's Wavelength

Abstract

Abstract:Michael Snow's canonical experimental film Wavelength is commonly understood to model cinematic apparatus theory. This essay reads Wavelength through a different apparatus, one used in physics' well-known double-slit experiment to demonstrate the wave theory of light. Reading the film via this quantum apparatus orients us to a different mode of spectatorship than cinema's apparatus theory—a mode of fascination. Reading Wavelength through fascination decenters the human subject, questions the tacit humanism of even materialist interpretations of the film, and opens up a new vantage on both the animacy in the film and its critical readings.