The Way Things Go, (aka Der Lauf der Dinge, 1987) by artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss, shows an extended chain reaction of stuff and nonsense. The artists built, and then put into motion, a Rube Goldberg set with ramps and wheels, balloons, cascading water and bubbles, fire, wind-ups, and explosions. The camera documents thirty seemingly continuous minutes of hypnotic mayhem with a few discreet edits.
Update: The music video by the band OK Go, This Too Shall Pass, features an elaborate chain-reaction set-up that is similar to The Way Things Go, but with more color, lots of consumer objects and toys, and an ambition to shoot in one continuous take.
