Hollis Frampton's "Noctiluca" was a film designed to be shown on the second day of the Magellan cycle, the filmmaker's unfinished magnum opus work consisting of a series of films intended to be shown in certain sequences, several for each day of the year. While the project was largely populated by the "Pan" films, seven-hundred and twenty of shorts made to shown for two each day as part of "Straits of Magellan", this was one of the exceptions in its (presumed) connection with "The Birth of Magellan: Cadenza I" earlier on in the cycle. Unlike those films, which were only one-minute in length largely, "Noctiluca" (sometimes with the added subtitle "Magellan's Toys: #1") is quite stand-alone for being part of this greater context and works on many levels with its simple yet unique abstraction. The basic visual itself is different enough to be interesting, and the unique images that the film presents are dreamlike and surreal in their simplicity.
The short depicts a series of circular shapes resembling binocular lenses that consist of several colors and which are overshadowed by other objects, shown in a black void. It's hard to see how it was made and the abstraction of it is marvelously executed, with the basic visuals and the chaotic camera movement both contributing. Furthermore, while different in presenting its images, it's undeniable that the abstraction itself resembles one of the filmmaker's earlier works "Information" from 1966, although not as mesmerizing as that effort. Visually unique and/or beautiful, and it remains a puzzle to this day how Frampton accomplished the effect.