Thursday, April 9, 2009

Reading Response Nine

1. What has changed in the gallery art world that allows Barney to describe his work as “sculpture”? In other words, how has the definition of sculpture changed since the 1960s, and why?

The definition of "sculpture" in the gallery art world has loosened since the 1960s and before, when it was generally relegated to describing statues and the like. As the art world evolved, so did the category of sculpture, including readymades and architecture, as well as media-related installations and performance pieces, which brings in the question of the "art object". Minimalist sculpture has drawn the emphasis of sculpture away from an art object to more performance/activity-based art practices.

2. Tricky but important question: Why was minimalist sculpture seen as a reaction against the “modernist hymns to the purity and specificity of aesthetic experience.” Hint: Do not confuse this with our discussion of structural / minimal film as modernist; they are essentially saying that minimalist sculpture is post-modernist.

Without having much background knowledge in postmodern gallery art, I'll try my best...Minimalist sculpture in the 60s made the viewer of this simplified art object see the arbitrariness of the "object" both physical and its intrinsic "meaning"; the viewing public interact with the art, and this process creates the meaning of the art as experience, not so much "object". Is this close enough? I read the passage carefully and think I understand, but it seems hard to tease out the meaning in simple terms.

3. Describe the role of the body in the works of Vito Acconci and Chris Burden.

Acconci and Burden both place the body in the centre of their performance art. Their works are visceral, foregrounding the physical body as object/sculpture as well as mediator of the performance. Their art is often endurance based, portraying their bodies as passive objects (as in Bed Piece, where Burden lay in a bed in the gallery for 22 days on end.)

4. What do the authors mean when they say that Cremaster’s “genealogy in endurance works has a dual articulation”? What are the two influences?

This 'dual articulation' is the endurance of physicality and the endurance of temporality; the body is pushed to its physical limits in the performance art of Acconci and Burden, who are one influence on Barney, and the other is the nature of enduring time in avant-garde film, such as Michael Snow and Warhol.

5. In the opinion of the authors, what are the key differences between performance art of the1960s/1970s and Barney’s Cremaster cycle?

Performance art of the 60s/70s was very aware of the presentation of the body as object, and its articulation in the performance as a temporal moment of experience, or "performance for its own sake". In contrast, the Cremaster cycle is highly stylised, glamourising the body in a pleasing way to the viewer.

1. What are the so-called two worlds of film art that Walley intends to describe in this article? What is the basic difference between the two?

The first world of filmic art is the usual avant-garde/experimental filmmaking which is what we have been studying for the most part in this class and other film studies classes. The other is the realm of "artist's film/video" designed specifically for gallery exhibition, not theatrical exhibition.

3. What are some of the key differences between the experimental and gallery art worlds in terms of production and distribution?

The experimental film mode of practice is generally referred to as 'artisanal', a personal craft of a single individual artist, as in the case of Brakhage/Anger/Deren/etc. Usually the distribution is done through rentals of prints, played in universities and independent art theatres. In the world of gallery film, the production is collaborative, but described in an auteurist way (ie the Cremaster films are Matthew Barney's, like in the art cinema world of Bergman, Antonioni, etc.). The money is generally backed from gallery sponsorship and the sale of art objects. Distribution is very different from avant-garde distribution, in which prints are sold in very limited editions, and one can only see the works in gallery exhibitions if one doesn't own a print.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Reading Response Eight

1. Name at least three similarities between the punk music scene and
the punk/no-wave filmmaking scene, in terms of technology, style and
community.


The no wave film scene used Super 8 cameras, which were generally
considered by pros to be amateur/only fit for home videos. Super 8 was
cheap (combining audio & video recording which eliminated need for
sound recording equipment and post-production), and contributed to the
grainy aesthetic of the films produced in the scene. The filmmakers
didn't have training, going about it in a quick/loose/inventive way,
with no rules imposed. Influenced by the Nouvelle Vague movement in
France, these filmmakers captured their environment on their own terms
in their films. All those involved (the majority also working in the no
wave music scene at the same time) contributed in various roles in each
other's work, creating the films together in a tight-knit community.

2. In what ways was punk/no wave filmmaking a reaction to the
avant-garde film institutionalisation of the 1970s?


The no wave filmmakers avoided structure and intentional artiness in
their work, instead aiming for a visceral, raw scene informed by the
music they were also involved in.

3. Which filmmakers are cited as influences on Amos Poe, Eric Mitchell,
and Vivienne Dick (to the point that they "re-worked" earlier films)?

Jean-Luc Godard (especially Breathless, which Unmade Beds is a loose
remake of); Andy Warhol was a big influence (Vinyl is the source of
Kidnapped, which is also a minimal film taking place in a convined
area; Dick's film Gueriliere Talks has a similar structure to his
Screen Tests).

4. What were the exhibition venues for punk/no wave films such as those
by Beth B. and Scott B., and how did the venues affect film content and
style?


Max's Kansas City, a rock club in NYC, was the major venue to show the
no wave films. The B's took advantage of the setting, making The
Offenders
a serial film to be shown in instalments at the club,
creating each piece the week it was to be shown (using the money
garnered from the previous showing to finance it). Black Box used the
club's acoustics and sound system to create a closed-in wall-of-sound
environment, adding poignancy to the political message of their film.

5. What does Zryd mean by "double voicing" and what does Baldwin mean
by "Fake right, go left"?


"Double voicing" is implied as the ironic technique Baldwin uses with
the voice-over in Tribulation 99; the paranoid voice which espouts one
obvious meaning actually veils the implicit, ironic meaning underneath.
Baldwin's quote "fake right, go left" means the idea behind the work:
he uses this rabidly right-wing voice-over which is so overt in its
portrayal as to be ironic, actually voicing the leftist ideas which are
critiquing the right-wing policies in this film. A modern, easily
understandable pop example would be Stephen Colbert's Colbert Report.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Reading Response 7

4. The trickiest part of Sitney’s chapter is to understand the similarities and differences between Warhol and the structural filmmakers. He argues that Warhol in a sense is anti-Romantic and stands in opposition to the visionary tradition represented by psychodrama/mythopoeic/lyrical films. But for Sitney’s central argument to make sense, he needs to place structural film within the tradition of psychodrama/mythopoeic/lyrical films. Trace the steps in this argument by following the following questions:

a. Why does Sitney call Warhol anti-Romantic?

Warhol created films (and other works of art) which Warhol (and by proxy Sitney) calls "anti-Romantic" because his films ignore the both the techniques and the underlying meaning utilised by the lyrical/Expressionistic filmmakers (like Brakhage). Instead of being the driving force behind the camera and the films' meaning, Warhol simply turned the camera on and let things occur, something unthinkable to the likes of Brakhage, who placed himself in his art as much as possible. Warhol let the films take shape without him, leaving in mistakes (out of focus bits, etc.) and his films hold no meaning beyond what he creates: mundane activities rendered as art, because anything can be art to Andy.

b. Why does Sitney argue that spiritually the distance between Warhol and structural filmmakers such as Michael Snow or Ernie Gehr cannot be reconciled?

Warhol utilised the techniques found in later structural films (particularly the fixed camera) for their own ends: because it was unheard of in the film circles he wasn't really a part of (the Brakhage school, basically) and eventually he left this technique behind after perfecting it in Empire. The structural filmmakers utilise these same techniques for a deeper meaning, to focus on a portion of space, usually seen in a mystical or spiritual light.

c. What is meant by the phrase “conscious ontology of the viewing experience”? How does this relate to Warhol’s films? How does this relate to structural films?

“Conscious ontology of the viewing experience” means becoming aware of the act or experience of viewing, in this case usually because of duration. Warhol used this awareness in his films due to their sheer length [well over the usual viewing time, up to eight hours] and the mundaneness of the nature of what is being filmed. The structural films also use this in their length, but generally many of these filmmakers insert markers of duration, so the audience also knows what point the films are at (though they may not know exactly when it will end, it gives an idea.)

d. Why does Sitney argue that structural film is related to the psychodrama/mythopoeic/lyrical tradition, and in fact responds to Warhol’s attack on that tradition by using Warhol’s own tactics?

Structural film has a meaning behind its patterns, which is asserted by the filmmaker, linking this movement to the previously discussed ones. Though it has a different agenda and form, these films also show the filmmakers' personal vision (Sitney's point of departure for his book) and as Warhol was responding/reacting to this filmmaking tradition, the very act of doing so inserts him into this tradition of avant-garde filmmaking.

Note to self: get around to doing the rest to study over spring break!

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Reading Response 6

Sorry this is late! I've be gobsmacked with work and sickness this week.

1. How does this work relate to our discussion of intermedia and expanded cinema in the 1960s?

Prune Flat stands a piece of art which cannot be repurposed and commodified; the unique performance and everything it entails is an extremely important part of the piece. Combining the film elements with live performance, Whitman creates an artwork which is similar to the intermedia/expanded cinema scene discussed in class, in that the act of participating in the 'film/performance/art' IS the true work of value on its terms.

2. Describe a passage from Prune Flat in very concrete terms, and explain how film and performance are combined to create different images and/or illusions.

The moment which struck me the most was when the clip in which two people dressed in white coats raise and lower a lightbulb is displayed, and the two live performers, dressed similarly, actually mimic the actions occuring on the screen, layered over the flat surface, giving it depth yet at the same time pointing out the sheer two-dimensionality of the film. The brightness of the actual lightbulb obliterates much of the film projected behind it, creating a visual of the grayscale backdrop of the silver screen.

3. How does Edie Sedgewick end up "stealing" the scene in Vinyl?

Edie Sedgwick was a quintessential "it" girl; she has charisma and screen presence, even when she is not the focus of the camera. During the film, she simply sits on a trunk to the right of the frame, occasionally smoking/drinking and sometimes interacting with the main action occurring in the middle of the frame (like flicking ash on someone, or taking a hit on a joint passed to her by a main player.) When all else around her vies for the camera's eye, she holds it through no real "performance"; she is simply there to be seen, as herself.

4. In what ways did the underground film begin to "crossover" into the mainstream in 1965-1966?

During that year, mainstream magazines (such as Playboy) ran articles on the phenomenon of underground cinema. The spark which caused the hubbub was Warhol's Chelsea Girls; his name was already well-known outside the "art crowd" so once released a somewhat more commercially viable film, the public became curious.

5. How was John Getz an important figure in the crossover of the underground?

Getz acted as a vehicle to spread experimental films outside of art meccas (eg NYC), starting Cinema Theatre in Los Angeles and creating a distribution centre for underground films by having them shown in theatres run by his uncle.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Xmas on Earth/Chelsea Girls Response

Barbara Rubin's Christmas on Earth was quite beautiful. From the article description, I was kind of wary--I expected it to be very very amateur porno with artsy accoutrements slapped over it. But instead, my mind was boggled by the whole experience of it. The interactive aspect was the most thrilling part; knowing that OUR showing of it will never be the exact same as other showings, made it a unique film-watching experience. The painted woman who stares out of the frame throughout the first several minutes was haunting, especially with the overlay of differently coloured filters. Creating a film that is so candid yet so intriguingly composed, Rubin left her mark on film history.

Andy Warhol's Chelsea Girls is frankly not a film I could ever see myself watching all the way through [this coming from someone that LOVES Satantango!] I think I just feel slightly disgusted or annoyed by how histrionic most of the Factory crowd is, and the fact that they aren't particularly riveting people [besides Pope Ondine] makes such a long run-time a feat, to me. The first scene with the boy's stripping created a kind of awkward tension with the lack of great lighting and muffled sound, and the fact that he is trying to be sexy and frankly not pulling it off. The second scene was much more involving, as the dear Pope Ondine was a riot for the majority of his episode, even when he was flipping out and getting violent. Though I would listen intently to him, my visual attention was drawn to Nico on the left, simply because of the beauty of the shot of her. The light and colour and masks creating shadows over her face was too pretty to look away from.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Reading Response #5


1. Chapter 4: What are some of the reasons suggested for Smith’s obsession with Maria Montez? What are some of your responses to the clips from the Montez films (especially Cobra Woman)?

The general consensus of those interviewed seems to be that Jack Smith was enamoured by Maria Montez’s presence; she was a diva, an exaggerated form of femininity lavished onscreen, akin to the drag queens Smith would film. In the clips shown, I find Maria Montez’s performance to be quite campy and stilted, and the Cobra Woman costume to be the height of outlandish—right up Jack Smith’s alley.

2. Chapter 5: What were some attributes of the New York art community in the 1960s, and what was the relationship between the economics of the time and the materials that Smith incorporated into his work and films? [How could Smith survive and make art if he was so poor in the city?]

According to those interviewed who were a part of the 1960s New York art community, it was a close-knit group, where everybody knew everyone else. In spite of the notoriously high prices of today’s NYC, parts of Manhattan in the 1960s were terribly affordable [apartments in Tribeca and the Village for only $20-$40 a MONTH!] Many props and accoutrements utilized in Jack Smith’s films could be found in department store dumpsters, free for the taking, and Jack Smith loved trash.

3. Chapter 6: What problems emerged after the obscenity charges against Flaming Creatures in the relationship between Jack Smith and Jonas Mekas? What metaphor emerged from the conflict between Smith and Mekas?

Jonas Mekas championed the cause against censorship following the charges, making Flaming Creatures a poster-child-film[?] to advance his career as the most famous underground film distributor in the US. Jack Smith saw Mekas as an opportunist who didn’t give credit [or monetary royalties] to the filmmakers whose films he screened. Smith also felt Mekas’s cause sucked all the life and beauty from his film. Ultimately, Mekas was called a “lobster” by Smith, symbolizing a scavenger who takes what he needs to profit off a situation.

5. Chapter 8: What are some arguments about the relationship between Jack Smith’s artistic practice and Andy Warhol’s artistic practice?

Warhol himself says that Jack Smith is “the only person I would ever copy,” and this is evident in the structure of Warhol’s Factory, Screen Tests, and his ‘borrowing’ of Smith’s regular actors, including Mario Montez. Jack Smith appeared in several of Warhol’s films, including Camp, as well. Robert Heide describes Warhol as detached and separate from his art, while Jack Smith was always in the midst of what he created. Others say Warhol was creating something ‘hip’ to be consumed, while Smith really didn’t care if anyone outside himself loved his films—he was building his dream world.

6. Chapter 9 & 10: In what ways did Jack Smith become “uncommercial film personified”? What is meant by the slogan “no more masterpieces” and how did Smith resist commodification (or the production of art products)?

Jack Smith decided to never truly ‘finish’ a film, to protect it from being banned [like Flaming Creatures was.] He traveled with prints of his films at showings, and would edit the films live as well as choose the records to play at that moment, subject to change upon his whim. Jack Smith wanted to transform life into art, instead of creating an ‘artistic commodity’ to be consumed by the spectators. A ‘masterpiece’ in this light is unappealing: it connotes an entirely finished product, something definitive and in many cases easily mass-reproduced. He was strongly anti-capitalism and this showed through in his life and work. In the 70s, he held free performance art shows in his loft, and even if no one showed up, Smith would perform as to a packed house. In this case, here was no product or concrete item to be declared “this is a work of art” but instead his life and its ethereality became his art.

7. Name at least three important friends/relationships Barbara Rubin had in the world of art and music in the early 1960s.

Barbara Rubin was friends with Beat poet Allen Ginsberg (she even wished to marry him for a time), worked closely with Andy Warhol and the Velvet Underground, particularly in the Up-Tight series, and she was Jonas Mekas’s close assistant at the Film-Maker’s Co-Op.

8. Briefly describe Rubin’s production and exhibition practices for Christmas on Earth. Why does Belasco argue that Christmas on Earth cannot be reproduced electronically or in other forms?

Rubin shot Christmas On Earth over a single weekend on a 16mm Bolex camera borrowed from Jonas Mekas, with five friends taking part in an orgy. After the quick shooting, she spent three months editing the film on whim. She created two separate reels, one to be projected at about a third its original size, overlapping the other, full-size, reel. During exhibitions, Rubin would sometimes project one reel upside down or show them in succession, or superimposed on another film. Filters colourised her black and white films, which would be randomly changed by the projectionists. She also specified that the film was to be played silent, with the accompaniment of a loud rock radio station, whatever happens to be on the air at that moment. Belasco argues that the film cannot be reproduced properly because of its unique dual-projection format as well as the use of live radio and colour filters over the film; only a single showing of it could ever be recorded, and each time it would be different, akin to videotaping a piece of live performance, like dance.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Reading Response #4

Fluxfilm viewing response:

George Maciuna's 10 Feet was a playful exercise, showing the viewer exactly how quickly ten feet of film passes through the projector at a normal frame rate. The blackness is only interrupted by the flashing white numbers denoting the length that has been shown.
Yoko Ono's One is a beautiful film. The high-speed camera captures every flicker of motion and amplifies it, slowing the act of striking a match down to take up several seconds, letting the viewer absorb every detail of her hand, the dancing flame, and the chiaroscuro of the shadows around it.
Paul Sharits's Wrist Trick is completely different; I had no idea what I was looking at most of the time, as the negative images flashed in split-seconds across the screen, creating an illusion of movement. I know there were hands, and a banana-shaped thing. The energy of it was exhilarating.

1. What films did Jonas Mekas associate with “Baudelairean Cinema,” and why did he call it that? [Yes, I’m implicitly asking you to look up Baudelaire.]

I've read Baudelaire, so I didn't need to look him up! Baudelaire was associated with the so-called Decandence movement in French literature during the mid-19th century, a reaction against the Romanticism of the past and a forerunner to Modernism. I've read a lot of writers from that period [Huysmans, Rimbaud, de Nerval, etc.] and from what I've read, "Decadence" refers to the championing of the artificial, including outrageous content [rape, murder, sex are all fair game.] Getting back to the question at hand, Jonas Mekas's term "Baudelairean Cinema" refers then to the "beautiful and terrible," to quote Mekas, showing something horrid through the lens of its decaying beauty. Mekas named Flaming Creatures, Blond Cobra, Little Stabs at Happiness, and The Queen of Sheba Meets the Atom Man as Baudelairean.

2. How did Jonas Mekas’s views on experimental cinema change between 1955 and 1961?

Mekas lambasted the early American avant-garde films of the 40s-50s as degenerative and pretentious, saying in his magazine Film Culture that such artists as Brakhage and Deren were pushing for new techniques, not deeper meaning or new themes in their work. When John Cassavetes' Shadows was released, he began to come around to the American avant-garde, awarding it and Pull My Daisy. Mekas was greatly influenced by the Nouvelle Vague movement in France in the late 50s-early 60s; their spirit and innovation made him re-evaluate his earlier condemnation of American avant-garde film, since without it, this new cinema may not have come to fruition.

3. How did Mekas’s interest in performance and improvisation shape his views of the New American Cinema in the 1960s?

Mekas was always interested in acting, as he was a member of a theatre in Lithuania before he moved to the US, studying the Stanislavsky method. He believed not so much in acting a role, as performance--when the actor merges with his role, and the difference between the two becomes unclear. He was especially impressed by improvisational films, such as Shadows and Pull My Daisy, which have a loose script.

6. How does Angell characterize the first major period of Warhol’s filmmaking career? What are some of the films from this period?

Warhol's early films were silent, minimalist works with a usually static camera. These include Sleep, Eat, Blowjob, and his masterpiece of his long minimalist films, Empire.

7. What role did the Screen Tests play in the routines at the Factory and in Warhol’s filmmaking?

Screen Tests were shot over an extensive period, of basically every person who visited the Factory during that time. They were each three-minutes long, and the person was told to be very still, making these films little portraits. These Screen Tests also helped to segue into Warhol's next era of filmmaking, that of serials.

8. How does Angell characterize the first period of sound films in Warhol’s filmmaking career? What are some of the films from this period?

Warhol's first sound films include Harlot, Poor Little Rich Girl and Vinyl. These sound films are characterised by a loose narrative, lack of editing, and creating a film as a full experience. Warhol refused to cut mistakes from the finished films, leaving in out-of-focus shots, and making sure the actors did not know their lines. Whatever the camera captured was the film.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Reading Response #3

Compare/contrast one European film & one American film:

Man Ray's L'Etoile de Mer may be my favourite avant-garde film I've ever seen. The use of Surrealist poetry to construct the film's imagery gives it an ephemeral air, emphasized through the use of distorted lenses in certain shots, obscuring the characters as they interact in altogether odd ways. The absurdity of the film is strung together by very striking, at times sheerly beautiful shots [when the woman steps onto the open book, for instance.] Qu'elle est belle! On the other hand, Joseph Cornell's Rose Hobart stands as a kind of cultural oddity, a man's personal obsession with an obscure star. I've been a big fan of found film/collage film for a few years now, and how Cornell isolated beautiful moments in an otherwise unremarkable film/performance shows how a filmmaker can manipulate so-called film reality with ease. The personality of Rose/her character is revealed in Cornell's film and his use of silent-speed, unlike how clouded and unknown the characters in L'Etoile de Mer are. I also loved the monkey, like any normal person would.

1. What are the characteristics of vision according to Brakhage's revival of the Romantic dialectics of sight and imagination?

Brakhage upholds sight as a full-blown experience, denouncing what we are taught to see and relying on true vision, what we actually see, both with our eyes open as well as closed (what he calls "brain movies" and the play of colour over one's closed eyelids), memories of sights seen, and dream-sight. Stripping vision of its analytical aspects, Brakhage wishes to express how a child sees before it is taught the world of traditional perspectives and sight acting solely as information.

2. Why does Sitney argue, "It was Brakhage, of all the major American avant-garde filmmakers, who first embraced the formal directives and verbal aesthetics of Abstract Expressionism."

Brakhage rejected the conventional mode of filmmaking (even within avant-garde filmmaking at the time) by his use of painting/scratching directly on the film, intentionally flattening the space, utilising freewheeling camera movements to elude to the emotions of the filmmaker, and generally evading the traditional storytelling mode of film in exchange for an emotional/visceral personal experience crafted by the filmmaker. This is closely tied to the Abstract Expressionist painters, and how let paintings come alive through the movements of their brush-wielding hand. In particular, Brakhage's hand-painting over film is abstract and as full of energy and emotion as the Abstract Expressionist painters, as they tried to evoke the emotion of an action/memory/etc itself, as opposed to representing it through recognizable paint forms on the canvas.

3. Why does Sitney argue that synecdoche plays a major role in Christopher Maclaine's The End, and how does the film anticipate later achievements by Brakhage and the mythopoeic form?

In Maclaine's film, synecdoche is used to allude to actions which are never shown, taking a partial piece to represent the entirety of something. This is used to grim effect by showing the young man Charles in combination with shots of the Golden Gate Bridge; through our knowledge of his past acts, we infer that he has committed suicide. Maclaine's film, according to Sitney was so ambitious in its scope of what it tried to do in prior to the proper birth of the mythopoeic form, that it may have influenced Brakhage, who saw it before he moved from trance films to his mythopoeic films.

4. What are some similarities and differences between the apocalyptic visions of Christopher Maclaine and Bruce Conner?

Maclaine's vision of the apocalypse in The End is characterised by its contradictory tentative glimpses of hope and its quite pessimistic conclusion, creating a mostly straight-forward, and as Sitney puts it, naive take on his apocalypse. Conner, on the other hand, plays with the audience, creating humour through juxtaposition and pacing, such as the famous periscope/nude false eyeline match. Conner exerts complete control over his film, establishing his unique blend of irony, beauty and destruction.

5. Why are the films of Ron Rice (The Flower Thief) and Robert Nelson (The Great Blondino) examples of Beat sensibility and what Sitney calls the picaresque form?

Using absurd, outlandish, anarchistic imagery, these films depict young, naive heroes galavanting about their insane/inane world; these films are indicative of the subculture that produced them in San Francisco at the time.

6. How and why were the anti-art Fluxfilms reactions against the avant-garde films of Stan Brakhage and Kenneth Anger? [Hint: think about Fluxus in relation to earlier anti-art such as Dada]

Fluxfilms were a direct call to arms against the too-serious, poetic/personal avant-garde films of Brakhage and Anger. Fluxfilms championed the film form as ideal for collective production through its inherently mechanical aspects, in opposition to the single-creator filmmakers like Brakhage. Some films were made in obvious parody of Brakhage and his cohorts' personal/autobiographical poetic mode, such as Invocation of Canyons and Boulders for Stan Brakhage. In the various Fluxfilms, parodic/ironic baring of the film medium was utilized to combat the poetic avant-garde mode. Fluxfilms can be seen as a successor to Dada as anti-art backlash against the pretentiousness of high art/film at the time.

7. What does Jenkins mean by the democratization of production in the Fluxfilms?

In Fluxfilms, most were produced by a team of artists (many of which were not filmmakers, but often composers or writers) as opposed to the single visionary artist dichotomy of figures such as Brakhage. Personal/individual films were not the point of Fluxus; instead, they strived to mock this mode, and create films which played with the film medium itself, as well as duration and audience expectations.

8. Why does Jenkins argue that Nam June Paik's Zen for Film "fixed the material and aesthetic terms for the production of subsequent Fluxfilms"? How does it use the materials of the cinema? What kind of aesthetic experience does it offer?

Paik's film does not use regular film stock, but instead only clear 16mm leader, projected unaltered as a "film". This act makes one question what constitutes a "film", and how it can be produced by anyone, since a camera was not used in any way. As the film accumulated dust and scratches, the film changed over time and screenings.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Reading Response #2

1. What conditions in Europe made the avant-garde film movement possible after World War I?

Post-war Europe was prime ground for the evolution of the 1920s avant-garde film movement, due in part to the predominance of political and economical unrest. What with revolutions occurring all over Europe, new, more radical thought was tolerated/encouraged, and with this new freedom the art world flourished. Economically, many areas saw a short rise in prosperity due to inflation, and this could be channeled into filmmaking. The avant-garde film movement also marked a backlash against the old mode of "canned theatre" predominant in the 1900s-1910s, and the avant-garde artists/filmmakers turned to creating films which pursued the form on its own terms. Also, cine-clubs/film societies were established in many countries to support the burgeoning movement at arthouse theatres. The film movement directly reflected what was going on in the world of high art/painting as well, with the popularity of Dadism, Cubism, and other abstract art movements informing the film world, and with many artists [Like Richter himself] who became filmmakers during this period.

2. If the goal of Impressionist art is "Nature Interpreted by Temperament", what are the goals of abstract art?

In abstract art, the artist/filmmaker must seek the "plastic value" of this work, exploring the very form and mode of creation utilised. Abstract art wanted to express universal feeling [as opposed to the artist's own emotional expression of Impressionism] through the use and control of abstract forms understood on an instinctual level.

3. On what grounds does Fischinger argue that "there is nothing of an absolute creative sense" in conventional cinematography? (At least 2 important reasons.)

Fischinger claims that conventional filmmaking is the act of "photographed realism"--by focusing on only the outer, natural realism seen, the popular film denies the idea of relating on a deeper, more personal level to the creative possibilities of filmmaking. Fischinger also denounces popular film as an assembly-line product, with the original vision of the artist getting lost or removed by the many staff of helpers which are required to churn out the consumable finished film; Fischinger states that "the creative artist...always works at his best alone."

4. While Brakhage's Reflections on Black is a trance film, why does Sitney argue that it anticipates the lyrical film?

Reflections on Black is a trance film which anticipates Brakhage's development of the lyrical film in its beginnings of equating the filmmaking process as a personal experience and the filmmaker's search for consciousness within the art and himself, utilising the medium itself, by scratching directly on the film stock, over the blind man's eyes. Connecting the internal landscape of the blind man with the aesthetics created and filmed, Brakhage tries to push the boundaries of the trance film.

5. What are the key characteristics of the lyrical film (the first example of which was Anticipation of the Night.)

The lyrical film is defined as the expression of the filmmaker him/herself as the protagonist of the film, with the artist showing the viewer what he sees; the lyrical film is a very artist-driven mode of filmmaking, in which the filmmaker's personal vision and presence are always at the forefront of the film experience. In the lyrical film, there is no "hero", but simply movement onscreen, which reflects the act of vision which the filmmaker is sharing with the viewer. The use of space in the lyrical film is akin the that of abstract Expressionism, with the depth of field being flattened, and using this to advantage to reflect the properties of the silver screen projecting the film.

6. Which filmmaker was highly influential on Brakhage's move to lyrical film in terms of film style, and why?

Marie Menken informed Brakhage's blossoming lyrical style, especially in her inclusion of herself within fragments of her films, for example her hand creating the act filmed in Raindrops, or reflections of herself behind the camera, incorporating this personal touch in the rhythm of her films. Brakhage pushed this use of the artist's observation of the film being created in his exploration of the lyrical film mode.

(I might answer the rest of the questions after class, once I've revisited some of Brakhage's films, for my own benefit if not for credit!)

Monday, January 19, 2009

Reading Response #1

1. According to Sitney, what are some of the important differences between Meshes of the Afternoon and Un Chien Andalou?


Un Chien Andalou is a landmark example of the 1920s Surrealist movement, while Meshes established the "trance film"/psycho-drama as a major method of avant garde filmmaking in the US at the time. Meshes is a personal journey within the dream realm of Deren's character; Un Chien Andalou, in Sitney's words, “attempts to provide us with a broken, violent, spatially and temporally unstable world, without final reference to a more conventional actuality;" the film uses techniques and imagery which reflect the mechanics and irrationality of dream-logic for its own ends, whereas Meshes "offers an extended view of a mind in which there is a terrible ambivalence between stable actuality and subconscious violence.” Deren's film has a meaning, no matter how obscure, behind its logic--that of the dreaming protagonist's mind. Sitney also terms the difference between the two films as instructive, i.e., Meshes has no metaphors and instead is pregnant with symbolic meaning, while Un Chien Andalou is rife with metaphors. Also, the space within Meshes is "rounded and linear," with most movement taking place within a closed frame, across the screen. In Un Chien Andalou, the space of the film is deep, with movement occuring across the planes as well as vertically and virtually (eg behind doors and between unrelated spaces.)

2. What are some characteristics of the American psychodrama in the 1940s?

The psychodrama or trance film focuses on a journey of self-realisation of the invisible, isolated protagonist, emphasising the self and its inner workings. This protagonist's movements are stylised and symbolic, and s/he cannot interact with fellow characters within the film. The act of watching/seeing is more important than performing actions within the psychodrama. Ultimately, interpretation of trance films is very open.

3. What does Sitney mean by an "imagist" structure replacing narrative structure in Choreography for the Camera?

In Choreography for the Camera, Deren isolates "a single gesture as a complete film form." Focusing a single movement of the dancer across space and time through the use of different matches on action, the film is imagist because it expounds upon this simple gesture, expounding on its aesthetic depth.

4. According to Sitney, Ritual in Transfigured Time represents a transition between psychodrama and what kind of film?

Deren's film Ritual marks the transition between the trance film and the mythopoeic film.

6. Paraphrase the paragraph on p. 90 that begins "The filmic dream constituted..." in your own words.

The "filmic dream" Sitney speaks of stands, for such filmmakers as Anger and Deren, as a way to create a highly personal and subjective film as both main actor in the film and as the creative force behind the lens.

7. According to Sitney, what is the ultimate result at the end of Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome?

The end of Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome, according to Sitney, marks the subsuming of the characters/all gods into the Magus, the ultimate god created by their ritual and combining these separate characteristics into one amalgation of power.

9. What kind of venues rented Kenneth Anger's Fireworks?

Anger's film was rented by such venues as universities, art/film societies, museums, and individuals.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Response: Sidney Peterson's The Cage

Sidney Peterson's film The Cage has an intriguing though sometimes distressing rhythm. The narrative itself, thinking back upon it, is relatively straightforward compared to some of its avant-garde brothers. A young artist with a crazed look about him ends up removing his own eye, and his lady, a doctor, and a few others set about trying to find this offending object as it rolls through San Francisco. Using a quietly absurdist humour, The Cage creates the 'bohemian artist' world, the setting being a shabby apartment in disarray, with the artist painting bread and eating it, or staring into a mirror (both before and after he loses his eye.)

The film emphasizes the act of seeing and unique vision through the use of repetition of shots and imagery (such as the nude woman running down a hall with her back to the camera, and the image of the young man with his head in a birdcage.) This repetition helps to build the rhythm of the film, as does the dream-like quality of the crowds shot walking backwards. My interpretation of these sequences along the streets of San Francisco was that these crowds might represent the backwardness of conventional society. I could be way off, though.

The eyeball's point-of-view shots use distortions of the lens, conveying a feeling of disjunction and overall madness. The point-of-view shots in which the eye crazily spins, revolving the world it sees at a breakneck speed, were a little too much for me and made me feel a bit motion-sick, and I usually have a strong stomach while viewing films with odd camera movements.

Overall, I'd like to see more by Peterson, and my favourite image in the film is the quiet moment when the split-artist wearing his eyepatch ponders his dual reflection in the mirror, and though each face is different, the two actors give off a feeling of satisfied, inevilitable dread, if that makes any sense.