Contribution to the collection of newly commissioned essays by filmmakers and theorists on the subject of expanded forms of experimental animation. The essay analyses a number of 16mm film loop performances by the Brooklyn-based filmmaker Bruce McClure. McClure performs with camera-less loops that carry patterns of alternating black and white frames. The work is shown on modified projectors that are manipulated and repositioned during the event. The neologism ‘inanimation’ is used to analyse McClure’s imageless animations, in which there is no apparent moving image, and in which sound plays a major role. The deformation of the frame, its reduction to a small dim, flickering blur, while the sound is contrastingly overwhelming and dominant, leads to a revaluation of what film is and the extent to which it can be defined by its technological resources. This is in the light of the fact that McClure’s projectors are modified and their outputs supplemented by the use of dimmers, guitar effects pedals and other augmentations.
The essay draws in part on Theodor Adorno’s essay Transparencies on Film (1966) in relation to McClure’s reconfiguration of film technology in order to stimulate a reflection on the relationship between technology, medium and form in the context of experimental / artists’ filmmaking. It aims to make a contribution to ongoing debates around animation and the concept that all films are animations, of which ‘animation’ is one manifestation.