Popeye Sees 3D

Forum Expanded 2017

Studying painting with Hans Hofmann had sensitized me to depth phenomena, to strange readings of depth including the most unnatural: flat. In 1964, I learned of the Pulfrich Effect and gained access to wholly illusionistic depth way beyond indication. This led in 1975 to my partner Flo and I beginning to explore the Nervous System, performing with two stop-motion film projectors to superimpose sequential film frames showing different perspectives for extended periods of time. A spinning shutter between projectors activated the compound image onscreen, introducing depths available even to a single eye but strange, uncanny; nuts. In 2000 we switched to digital processes, we patented our discoveries for the new medium and exploration continued, continues. Eternalisms show stereo photographs, their two close perspectives joined via computer to display as a single ongoing dimensional image that can be seen without glasses. Not to be trusted for a moment but interesting. Popeye Sees 3D is a display of some of these images.

by Ken Jacobs USA 2016 Silent 21’ Colour

Crew

Director	Ken Jacobs
Cinematography	Ken Jacobs
Editing	Ken Jacobs
Production Manager	Ken Jacobs
Producer	Ken Jacobs

Produced by

Ken Jacobs

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Ken Jacobs

Ken Jacobs was born in 1933 in New York, USA. He studied painting with Hans Hofmann from 1956 to 1957. He started making films in 1955. In 1966, Jacobs founded the Millennium Film Workshop, of which he was the director until 1968. A year later he started the Department of Cinema at the State University of New York in Binghamton. He taught there from 1974 until his retirement in 2000. Along with teaching cinema, he has made a number of experimental films and videos, which have been shown worldwide. In addition, he has presented a series of film performances under the names “The Nervous System” since the mid 1970s and “The Nervous Magic Lantern” since 2000.
The Whole Shebang continues his series of Eternalisms: indefinitely moving screen-images that not only appear in three-dimensional depth on 2D monitors but are also available to even a single eye – no glasses needed.

Filmography (selection)

1955 Orchard Street · Orchard Street; 12 min., Forum Expanded 2015 1959 Star Spangled to Death 1963 The Whirled · The Whirled; 27 min. 1960 Little Stabs at Happiness · Little Stabs at Happiness; 18 min. 1963 Blonde Cobra · Blonde Cobra; 30 min. · Baud’larian Capers · Baud’larian Capers; 25 min. 1964 Window · Window; 12 min. · The Winter Footage; 50 min. · The Winter Footage 1967 Air Shaft; 4 min. · Air Shaft 1968 Soft Rain · Soft Rain; 12 min. · Nissan Ariana Window; 15 min. · Nissan Ariana Window 1969 Tom, Tom the Piper’s Son; 115 min. · Tom, Tom the Piper’s Son · Globe · Globe; 22 min. 1975 Urban Peasants; 50 min. · Urban Peasants 1978 The Doctor’s Dream · The Doctor’s Dream; 27 min. 1985 Perfect Film; 27 min. · Perfect Film · The Winter Footage; 50 min. · The Winter Footage 1990 Opening the Nineteenth Century: 1896; 11 min. · Opening the Nineteenth Century: 1896 1991 Keaton’s Cops; 23 min. · Keaton’s Cops 1995 The Georgetown Loop · The Georgetown Loop; 11 min. · Disorient Express; 30 min. · Disorient Express 1999 Flo Rounds a Corner 2002 A Tom Tom Chaser 1999 Flo Rounds a Corner; 6 min. 2002 A Tom Tom Chaser; 10 min. · Circling Zero: Part One, We See Absence · Circling Zero: Part One, We See Absence; 114 min. 2003 Keeping an Eye on Stan · Capitalism: Slavery · Keeping an Eye on Stan; 117 min. · Capitalism: Slavery; 3 min. 2004 Celestial Subway Lines/Salvaging Noise · Mountaineer Spinning · Celestial Subway Lines/Salvaging Noise; 108 min. · Mountaineer Spinning; 26 min. · Star Spangled to Death 2006 New York Ghetto Fishmarket 1903 2004 Star Spangled to Death; 420 min. 2005 Spiral Nebula; 45 min., Forum 2006 2007 Let There Be Whistleblowers 2006 New York Ghetto Fishmarket 1903; 132 min. 2007 Razzle Dazzle (The Lost World) · Capitalism: Child Labor · Let There Be Whistleblowers; 18 min., Forum Expanded 2007 · Razzle Dazzle (The Lost World); 92 min. · Anaglyph Tom (Tom with Puffy Cheeks) · Capitalism: Child Labor; 14 min. · Anaglyph Tom (Tom with Puffy Cheeks); 108 min. 2009 What Happened on 23rd Street in 1901 · What Happened on 23rd Street in 1901; 14 min. 2011 Seeking the Monkey King 2012 Street Vendor · Cyclopean 3D Life with a Beautiful Woman 2011 Seeking the Monkey King; 39 min., Forum Expanded 2012 2012 Street Vendor; 6 min. · Blankets for Indians 3D 2013 A Primer in Sky Socialism 2012 Cyclopean 3D Life with a Beautiful Woman; 47 min. · Blankets for Indians 3D; 57 min. 2013 Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus · The Guests · A Primer in Sky Socialism; 58 min., Forum Expanded 2014 · Joys of Waiting for the Broadway Bus; 180 min. 2014 Pygmalion Cubed 2013 The Guests; 73 min., Forum 2014 2014 Canopy · Pygmalion Cubed; 100 min. · Cyclops Observes the Celestial Bodies · Canopy; 4 min. 2016 Popeye Sees 3D · Ulysses in the Subway; 59 Min., Forum Expanded 2017, with Flo Jacobs, Marc Downie, and Paul Kaiser 2014 Cyclops Observes the Celestial Bodies; 15 min., Forum Expanded 2015 2017 Shelley Duvall is Olive Oyl 2016 Popeye Sees 3D; 21 min., Forum Expanded 2017 · Ulysses in the Subway; 59 Min., Forum Expanded 2017, with Flo Jacobs, Marc Downie, and Paul Kaiser 2017 Shelley Duvall is Olive Oyl 2019 The Whole Shebang; 6 min.

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2020