It could mean having two (or more) images side-by-side on the screen, projecting in an unorthodox manner without a screen, films that incorporate live performances, even light pieces that do not use any film at all. Projectors are often placed in the room with the audience (not hidden away in a booth at the back) and become part of the overall event.

Often, the subversive action of showing such films in a conventional cinema added to the artistic statement. As with the structural / materialist films, this was another way of questioning the role of the spectator. Sometimes, what happened across the room was more important than what was up on the screen.

The Co-op cinema was always a flat, open room with no fixed seating. In this space, filmmakers were free to experiment with projectors, demonstrating that the moment of projection can be as much a part of the whole work as the original concept, filming, editing and processing. Expanded Cinema also explores the transience of the medium. With these works, no two projections were ever the same.

See Line Describing a Cone (Anthony McCall) Diagonal (William Raban) Man With Mirror (Guy Sherwin)