jetzt

"NOW, now and only now, now and only now, now and still

now, now is the now only now that is only now and yet now

is, only now and yet now, now that is now, not now that is

now is not now is now that now is when it is now, not

now as it is not now, not now as it is not now now,

now that's not now isn't now, now isn't, now isn't yet,

but now that is not yet now when it is now, now that is now

is no longer now when it is now and now that is now

when it is not now, this now, only this now, only this now

now is now"

Max Bense



The poem inspired Georg Bense, Rainer Wössner and Hansjörg Mayer in 1962 to make a film whose strict structure corresponds to the words of the text. The length of the shots was determined by the number of the words' syllables. The length for the word "now" (one syllable) was defined as one meter of film. Words with two syllables have double length.

The film »Jetzt« (16-mm film, b/w, sound, 00:13:00) is also in the collection of the ZKM.