Particles in Space

In his last great film, completed a few months before his death at the age of 78, Lye returned to the black-and-white techniques of Free Radicals and his “white ziggle-zag-splutter scratches in quite doodling fashion,” exploring some “particularly vibrant, ziggy little images” reminiscent of the freest and most vigorous forms of Abstract Expressionism. The soundtrack combines Jumping Dance Drums from the Bahamas with drum music by the Yoruba of Nigeria and the sounds of Lye’s metal kinetic sculptures. – Harvard Film Archive