Plan for cinema (1936)

n *~"i*~-* TOWARDS A SOLID CINEMA 1 25 ^*> fact, precisely the reverse occurs. Looking into the frame automatically entails a fixed orientation of viewpoint. We never see more than one side of the picture : to all intents and purposes, in this sense, it is a twodimensional picture, despite the presence of real depth, because it is flat by virtue of the fact that when we look at any scene we are aware, from our fixed viewpoint, of its surface texture primarily, not of its depth and solidity. If, now, we enclose a scene, for purposes of argument suppose a dancing figure, in a circle, and we move around the circle's periphery as the figure's dance proceeds, we shall be very much more aware of the figure's solidity than we should if we looked at it from one fixed viewpoint. In viewing a piece of sculpture or a building, we walk round it. Our changing viewpoint through three hundred and sixty degrees means we see all the aspects, in the horizontal plane, of an object's surface texture. Thus do we appreciate it more fully because we know more of it than we would from one viewpoint only; the greater the sense-data we perceive the greater our cognizance. We cannot, however, in an arena theatre walk round the periphery of the arena. We are still very firmly planted in our seat at a fixed point. Where, therefore, does the arena have so great an advantage? In this: that it is the best approach towards a psychologically ideal theatre. The mere fact that the action takes place in a circle and we as spectators are ranged around it, brings us collectively nearer the event, thus each one of us individually nearer, too. The action occurring