Experimental Cinema

Structures, Systems and Strategies

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by Simon Payne

Type

Studies

Subject

Genre > Experimental

Keywords

experimental, Great Britain

Publishing date

2026 (May 28, 2026)

Publisher

BFI Publishing

Language

English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Hardcover • 256 pages
6 ½ x 9 ½ inches (16.5 x 24 cm)

ISBN

978-1-83902-647-8

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Book Presentation:
Experimental Cinema examines a range of structures, systems and strategies that film and video artists have developed from the late 1960s to the present. Over the decades, artists have responded to the ever-changing medium of cinema and its technological advances, as well as taking inspiration from painting, sculpture and music.

Simon Payne argues that the evolution of methodical strategies in experimental cinema goes back to the first avant-garde films made a century ago, in the 1920s. He shows how key figures internationally have formed part of this picture since then, but suggests that the most thorough formal exploration of cinema can be credited to a generation of artists that began making films in Britain in the 1960s and 1970s.

Payne analyses the work of numerous influential artists including Peter Gidal, David Hall, Malcolm Le Grice, Annabel Nicolson, Jayne Parker and Guy Sherwin. He discusses recent and lesser-known works as well as canonical films, videos and expanded cinema. He also pays close attention to younger artists including Jenny Baines, Neil Henderson, Jennifer Nightingale and Samantha Rebello.

Experimental Cinema traces a lineage that has defined some of the central preoccupations of artists' film and video, which continue to test our expectations of cinema, television and the moving image.

About the Author:
Simon Payne is a video artist whose work has shown in numerous international film festivals, cinemas and art galleries, including Tate Modern, the Serpentine Gallery, The Hermitage, St Petersburg and the London, Edinburgh and Rotterdam Film Festivals. He has written widely on experimental cinema, co-edited the book Kurt Kren: Structural Films (2016) and edited Fields of View: Film, Art and Spectatorship (2020), a posthumous book by A.L. Rees. He is Associate Professor in Film and Media at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK.

Press Reviews:
"Simon's book is that rare thing, a work of serious scholarship that is also a joy to read. Reviewing the work of many of the UK's major film and video artists, he draws on his deep knowledge of the arts to make new connections and question many long-held assumptions. A superb achievement." ―David Curtis, author of Experimental Cinema (1971) and Artists' Film (2021)

"This is one of the most accessible texts on experimental cinema, written in a lively and highly engaging style. Payne's unique perspective as a filmmaker, curator and scholar brings historical depth and analytical precision to key works of the British avant-garde." ―Kim Knowles, Senior Lecturer in Alternative and Experimental Film, Aberystwyth University, UK

See the publisher website: BFI Publishing