An Algorithm, 1977, 7 minutes

‘An Algorithm’ is composed of three images of a woman diving into a swimming pool. Each time she dives, the length (in frames) of the dive is different. Dive 1 has 160 frames, dive 2 has 140 frames, and dive 3 has 120 frames. The film is further complicated because each dive has a corresponding shot in color reversal or negative.

The dive is created in the viewer’s mind, memory, and on the screen. The film is then about illusion and incompleteness. This frustrates the viewer’s desire for completion and narrative closure. But the film becomes about the dive rather than the woman as the focus of a diving spectacle/performance.