Three-screen movie breaks new ground for The Tape-beatles

The Grand Delusion in “expanded cinema”

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sample clips
from our movies

DISCOGRAPHY FILMOGRAPHY
Audio • Minneapolis Summit (MiniCD) • Numbers (9-inch EP) • Good Times • Matter • The Grand Delusion • Music with Sound • A subtle buoyancy of pulse
Video • Minneapolis Summit (Mini VideoCD) • Matter (video) • The Grand Delusion (video)

Produced in 1993, The Grand Delusion is one of our most completely realized works. In addition to taking the usual form of a Tape-beatles release (a CD), The Grand Delusion was also delivered in the form of an ‘expanded cinema’ presentation involving three-screen motion picture projections and sound. The screen space for this production is intended to be three times the width of the normal 3 to 4 "Edison" aspect ratio of 16mm. The presentation only uses the full width intermittently, so transitions from one form to the next has been translated here by means of a video effect.

As a live performance presentation, The Grand Delusion has been screened in dozens of venues across North America and Europe.

Grant Samuelson, writing in Chicago’s Projector states:

The Tape-beatles might be considered a product of the art movements of the 20th century. They borrow the new meanings and absurd juxtapositions of Surrealism, Dada, cut-up poetry and collage. They employ the shock value and social concerns of the early days of performance art. They use poetic montages of found footage with the dexterity and sense of discovery of Stan Brakhage and the American underground filmmakers of the 1960s. They take apart the abstract expressionists’ vision of America as a place of unlimited freedom and unbridled expression, and remind us that it’s simply not that easy. What they do appears to be cutting-edge multi-media art but it doesn’t share the tech-artists love affair with hard drives and video projectors.

You can see it for your self if you order the video, or simply preview it in your browser.