Expanded cinema artists broke the flat rectangular screen to create spatial, immersive, and multi-sensory projection experiences

The expanded cinema movement (1960s–70s, Jeffrey Shaw, Valie Export, Stan VanDerBeek et al.) responded to cinema’s standardisation by extending projection beyond the flat rectangular frame: multiple simultaneous screens, projection onto bodies, smoke, domes, and architectural surfaces; activating senses of smell, touch, and hearing in addition to sight. This movement directly prefigures projection mapping, media facades, and immersive installation in contemporary live cinema. The key conceptual move: the screen is not a given — it is a design choice that shapes the spatial experience.

Examples

Jeffrey Shaw’s inflatable dome projections (1960s); contemporary projection mapping onto building facades as expanded cinema in a venue context.

Assessment

List two constraints of the standard flat cinema screen and explain how expanded cinema broke each one. Propose how a contemporary live set could incorporate one expanded cinema technique.