Michael Snow and the cinema of gradual processes

Abstract

This paper proposes an interpretation of Wavelength (1967), by Michael Snow, that privileges the notion of process rather than the notion of structure, which has been a predominant concept in Snow’s extensive critical fortune. The hypothesis presented here is that we can better understand the proposal and implications of the film by contextualizing its procedures in the critical debate on process music and art in the 1960s, through a genealogical and comparative study.

Keywords Michael Snow; Wavelength process; process music; structural film