Summary

Fragments toward a definition of a motif — the smallest unit of an obsession — drawn from notebooks and three films that keep coming back.

Triggered by

Noticing that the same stairwell appears in four different projects, and that no one planned it.

Next move

Sit with Hotel Monterey’s stairwell until it says why it returns.

References

• Chantal Akerman — Hotel Monterey film, 1972
• Ed Ruscha — Twentysix Gasoline Stations book, 1963

Still open

• Is a motif discovered or installed?
• Where seriality becomes mannerism

Considered, rejected

• A definition by example, front-loaded — killed it before it read like a glossary

Also here

• The Serial Impulse
• On Standing Still