Conceptual Cinema and Your Family

The software project HF Critical Mass appropriates the structure of conceptual filmmaker Hollis Frampton's 1971 film (called, of course, Critical Mass), in which a short clip of a couple's argument is fragmented and repeated for 25 minutes. Programmer Barbara Lattanza applies the same methodology to an interface that plays Quicktime movies. The complex playback pattern algorithm makes familiar narratives strange and unsettling. So, upload your family's holiday video, watch it stutter, repeat, and fall apart. Tell yourself the creeping malaise you feel is just about narrative, not family.