the flicker (1966) is a film by tony conrad, best known for being one of the pioneers of musical minimalism and drone. in this first endeavor with cinema he explored the psychedelic potential of stroboscopic lights and flickering, visual phenomena which he had been extensively studying.

the flicker consists of different patterns of black and white frames which create a powerful strobe effect when projected. the film gives the viewer access to a myriad of visual hallucinations, colors, rotating fractals, rothkos, holes, exploding squares and melting spirals, all hidden inside the quick pulse of these empty b/w frames; an experience genuinely comparable to the effect of a psychedelic substance.

not only does the flicker strip cinema down to its elementary parts - light and time - but it transcends the film form in itself. when this film is played, it does not exist just inside the screen; it escapes the screen, it plays itself on the surrounding walls, on the viewer’s skin. it is watched and felt even with eyes closed. it creates images which exist only inside the brain, images which will be different and unique each time.

i am completely fascinated by its experimental and transcendental quality. it’s a radically unique approach to what was, at the time, the newest artform. conrad created something more than cinema, something maybe more aptly described as a film-object, or a film-machine. it is this train of thought that inspired me to reconstruct it digitally - a thought that conrad also shared, as it is known he recreated the flicker on an amiga computer, although he never released it to the public.

in order to recreate the film i used an algorithm to mark each frame of the original cut as either white or black. the resulting data was used to rebuild the film using solid #000000 and #ffffff colors, thus eliminating the imperfections of the film roll and mantaining the same rhythm and strobes of the original. this reconstruction also removes the introductory segment and music, in order to enhance its pure digital form. the format is 1920x1080 and it plays at the original speed of 24 fps.

(epilepsy warning)