Some time ago I was browsing new media arts networking site www.rhizome.org. Surfing the site, I stumbled upon a video uploaded by John Michael Boling entitled Time Piece (1964) by Jim Henson. This eight-minute video is one of the experimental works that I consider as an early version of music video as we see today. I was quite surprised with the video, to discover that Jim Henson—widely known by children from across the globe as a puppeteer, creator of The Muppet Show and Sesame Street—was apparently an experimental film director.

Time Piece begins with a male character lying in a hospital bed when a doctor visits him to check on his heart rate. From his stethoscope, the doctor listens to the patient’s heartbeat. From then on, the film starts to venture on a time-lapsing adventure. The film is filled with rhythmic beats forming its own musical composition. Image switches from heartbeat, to eyes, to clock, to abstract shapes shown intermittently during intervals between scenes.

The main character in the film is then pictured in various situations: in cityscape, inside office interior, during transcations, in sexually suggestive situations, in the woods, during war, and in death. Situations depicted in Time Piece may well be regarded as a representation of critique towards America’s social scene during the 1960s. One of the most apparent hints is how Jim Henson depict a state of war by picturing a missile launch consecutively to a popping champagne cork, the Liberty statue’s torch, followed by a scene where the main character flies and gets shot. The man yelps, “Help.” Time Piece is a critique of minimum words. The interweaving scenes undergone by the main character in the film always end with the word “help”. Jim experimented with visual languages commonly used by television media and in film. In Time Piece he also inserted footages from films and television programs.

Some of his works are accessible online, namely Ripples (1967), The Cube (1969, which was a collaboration with Jerry Juhl and Limbo, The Organized Mind (1974). He also produced a number of fantasy films such as The Dark Crystal (1982)—available in ten parts in YouTube. In 1986, Jim Henson directed Labyrinth together with George Lucas.

From several of his films that I watched, The Cube is the most compelling. It has well-executed artistic achievement and Jim Henson’s very philosophical content. It tells the reality of man’s conflict with technological perspective, existence, man-to-man relationship, sick souls, public interest and racial issues. The film was produced in cooperation with NBC television network and broadcasted in February 23, 1969. The Cube affirmed Jim Henson as experimental director that elaborated artistic styles with modern social issues.

From the literature I found, Jim Henson was not an activist of any pro-change movement rapidly growing and had become a sort of trend for American and European youth during the time. This puppeteer did not march the streets in protest. He was an outsider who chose to produce educational program for television. His obsession for film and art is an inseparable part of Jim Hensom’s life which in turn contributed to his significance as one of American experimental film directors. Very few observers are aware of his reputation as an important artist and director during his time, besides as the mindmaster behind The Muppet Show and Sesame Street.

Jim Henson is one of American cultural icon alongside the ones we already know: Walt Disney, Chaplin, Griffit and Jonas Mekas. He was considered as a developer of educational television program for children. According to Paul Wenglowsky, curator of education for the History Center, “Jim Henson was a visionary genius. He taught us visual thinking through his puppetry, photography, television program and also his experimental films.”

Jim Henson was born in Greenville, Mississippi, on September 24, 1936, a second son to Paulus and Betty Henson. He spent his early years in Leland where his father worked for US Department of Agriculture. With his grandmother’s support, young Jim developed an interest in art, television and communication field. With his brother Paul, the Henson brothers started to experiment in the artistic world. In 1954—during high school—Jim began his television career in puppetry for WTOP-TV, Washington, DC. When he was a student in the University of Maryland, he seized the opportunity to create a puppetry television show aired twice a day, each five-minute long. The show was called Sam and Friends and broadcasted by local NBC channel. Jim, together with Jane Nebel—whom he met in the university and wed later on —developed Sam and Friends into a puppet show combined with music, education and trickery inventions for television show, and also presented guests in the show. Through Sam and Friends Jim gave birth to a character which would later become the most celebrated puppet in the world, Kermit the Frog.

The success of Sam and Friends brought them to national television shows. From the profit they received from the show, Jim and Jane moved to New York and signed a long-term contract with Jerry Juhl, Don Shalin and Frank Oz to create a television program The Jimmy Dean Show (1963-1966). At the end of this period, Jim met Joan Ganz Cooney—a producer of a public television—who asked Jim to develop a puppetry television show Sesame Street. During this period Jim created more characters namely Ernie, Bert, Oscar the Grouch, Grover, Cookie Monster and, of course, the legendary Big Bird. As an accomplished artist and experimental film director for having developed Sesame Street, Jim Henson produced more experimental films and animations that affirmed his position as a prominent figure in the cinema world.

In 1975, in collaboration with a television channel in London, England, Jim started to develop The Muppet Show which introduced a number of famous characters including Miss Piggy, Gonzo the Great and Rizzo the Rat. Its great success was followed by several productions of widescreen films such as The Muppet Movie, The Great Muppet Caper, The Muppets Take Manhattan, The Muppet Christmas Carol and Muppet Treasure Island.

Jim Henson also developed a complex animation project in his puppet shows. He initiated Animatronic, an intricate puppet character development project that later gave rise to The Jim Henson Creature Shop, a workshop specializing in producing mechanic puppet characters. This project highly influenced George Lucas in producing the worldwide renowned film Star Wars. Jim received four Emmys from the television shows he produced.

Jim Henson died in May 16, 1990 in New York after a prolonged illness. His legacy is now managed by The Jim Henson Company and Sesame Workshop, The Muppets Holding Company, and The Jim Henson Foundation.

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