2001 – Upwards Compatible. 2001 Opening Scene

2001 Opening Credits

The opening credits sequence of the film 2001 A Space Odyssey, directed by Stanley Kubrick in 1968, shown as a projection with great presence in the gallery space, both for the size of the images and for the quality and volume of the sound. The names of the actors, the film and the crew appear rhythmically on the screen, moving in time with the music. The work was conceived as an addition to the film 2001 A Space Odyssey, directed by Stanley Kubrick in 1968. The original film lacks an opening credits sequence. In fact, the names of the actors and technicians who worked on the 1968 film are credited on this tape.

The tape lasts 6 minutes and is projected on a continuous loop in the room. It consists of 18 takes of London Underground stations on the Jubilee Line. Each of them corresponds to a title of the credits of the Kubrick film. The letters move on the screen over the images of the spaces of the stations until, at the end of each take, they compose the complete text of each of the credits. The spaces of these stations are spectacular for their dimensions and their structures, as if they belonged to a fictional spaceship.

In relation to the chosen artistic genre and its relation to contemporary art, the use of a minor genre that, taken out of context, is placed in a situation where its function changes.

The credits are a small part of a film production. They are essentially utilitarian, dedicated to providing information and promoting the film and its participants. Usually they are considered by the average viewer as a boring prelude to the film. In this case, it is the main theme of the work: what is essentially a fragment is given complete autonomy. The artistic quality of the works is intensified in the blurred boundaries between artistic and non-artistic disciplines.

In the context of Kubrick's film, this work can be seen as an homage, a joke, a critical comment or an enhancement. The structure of the work makes it resemble the introduction of a Hollywood film, where the names of the actors are the claim and therefore the first to appear on the screen. However, in the credits of Stanley Kubrick's films, the Hollywood system is not followed and the 'authorial' character of the film is reaffirmed, there are no initial titles and the names of the actors are relegated to the background. In this sense, we can say that this work is a 'credits sequence fiction', a genre that was probably born with this work.

It also has a conceptual dimension with regard to the issue of copyright, since all the visual and sound material shown in this piece was created specifically for this new work and doesn't use any element of the original film that could be protected by copyright. The names of the actors and technicians are the only thing that links it to the film, and are they protected? Probably not, since it is common practice to quote sentences, statements or actions of individuals without asking for permission. The work only confirms that these people carried out this work in this film.

From a formal point of view, the development of an interesting relationship between the projected spaces and the actual exhibition space, as if the screen could at a moment fulfil the role of a mirror.

The use of cinematographic means to transform an everyday environment into a fictional space.

Upwards compatible: Usable with a later or more powerful version of a product. The term is most often used to described products that have been superseded (in the supplier's terms) by a new one. If the superseded product is described as upwards compatible with the new version, it means that procedures and programs developed to operate with that earlier version will continue to operate properly, without modification, with the new version, but not vice versa.