Small Foveal Fields, a continuation of my work with abstract filmic imagery, is primarily concerned with the mystery and elemental poetry of visual perception. Structurally, this film consists of ten separate-but- related episodes in which kinetic atmospheric light emerges from darkness, creates and activates color images and color space, then fades into black. Each of these ten mobile color fields interacts with a static grid system of white dots which provides a geometric reference and counterpoint to the film’s amorphic evolution. This interaction of opposing visual elements is designed to create a dialogue that contrasts motion with inactivity, symmetry with imbalance, and surface tension with depth. In a larger sense, my aim in producing Small Foveal Fields was to explore the nature and content of cinematic light and to create a sensory experience which is meaningful and real, yet totally devoid of exterior subject matter or outer-world associations. Technically, Small Foveal Fields was produced using an improvised (home-made) optical bench about six feet in length. Mounted on the bench between the camera and the light source was (1) a system of rotors consisting of various kinds of patterned glass assembled on three turntables, (2) an array of colored gels and (3) distortion lenses which were made by heating and shaping pieces of clear plexiglas. High intensity color was achieved in the film by pointing the camera directly at the light source which was mounted behind the translucent optical materials.

The sound track for Small Foveal Fields consists of edited excerpts from an electronic composition by Iannis Xenakis. Basically, I have used these edited effects, or linked passages of sound, to parallel and amplify the space, color and movement produced in the visual part of the film.

Notes taken from Robert Russett: A retrospective survey, University Art Museum, University of Southwestern Louisiana, 1989.