The Future Line of Cinema(tic) Spaces

Abstract

In 1983, Gilles Deleuze described cinema through a geometric system, closely resembling a vector: “the cinema is the system which reproduces movement as a function of any-instant-whatever that is, as a function of equidistant instants, selected to create an impression of continuity”. Cinema, the sum of instants, constructs a line of visual temporality, but to render this temporal line—this trajectory—it relies on another linear vector, another trajectory: the projection line, which brings images to life on the screen.

Cinema is a continuous flow that fundamentally orients architectural and urban space, establishing a necessary geometric identity, as an assemblage of moments/movements. This reflection thus proposes a brief journey of discovery towards the future of the cinema hall, using conditions/references from art’s universe: on the one hand, the cinematic ritual rupture, the absence of spectators, and the emptiness of cinema theatres, represented by Salcedo’s Shibboleth; on the other, the linearity of cinema, represented by Serra’s Áfangar and the words of Deleuze. Between these two domains lies the cinema hall of the future: the rediscovery of what cinema is as a substantial matter and a renewed interest in experimental forms of spectatorship, revealed by Iñárritu’s Sueño Perro through moving filmstrips, through the flickering of light in the smoke, through the dazzling colours of the luminous vector: we will discover new forms of cinema spaces emerged within different spatial conditions which will give us glimpses of possible futures.