FM4 - Spectatorship - Experimental and Expanded Film/Video

Definition of the ‘avant-garde’:

Rupture with Tradition: Characterised by an impulse to "make it new" and by an anti-traditionalism. A total rupture with tradition and attack on the institutions of Art and Literature within bourgeois society. A rejection of all absolute aesthetic conventions and considerations of taste. Characterised by intellectual playfulness and mystification.

Formal Subversion: Culture and its norms were viewed as an artificial arrangement to be subverted, parodied and transgressed. Shock tactics and anti-art gestures were used to shake the public out of its apathetic acceptance of outmoded values. 'Avant-garde' art decomposed old frames of reference; it values fragments, curious collections and unexpected juxtapositions - erotic, exotic, and unconscious. Spontaneous, the primitive and the irrational were prized. Breaks down barriers between conscious and unconscious and liberates the imagination bringing about new perceptions and new social relations.

Thematic Nihilism: A general loss of faith in absolutes: God, Man, Reason, Truth, Beauty, Honour, Authority, Reason, logic, language and accepted social values were all rejected. They defined themselves in opposition to the dominant conservative forces within society often seeing themselves as aesthetic terrorists antagonistic to accepted social ideals and values.

Examples

[USA]

Andy Warhol

• ‘Sleep’ (1963) - Avant-garde/Static camera/Edited/Silent/Non-narrative

• ‘Empire’ (1964) - Avant-garde/Static camera/Silent/Non-narrative

Kenneth Anger

• ‘Fireworks’ (1947) - Avant-garde/Homosexual Drama/Music

• ‘Rabbit’s Moon’ (1950) - Avant-garde/Commedia Del’arte/Music

• ‘Scorpio Rising’ (1964)

Maya Deren

• ‘Meshes Of The Afternoon’ (1943)

Stan Brakhage

• ‘Mothlight’ (1963)

• ‘Stellar’ (1993)

Godfrey Reggio

• ‘Koyaanisqatsi’(1982)- Narrative inferred by images/Music/Environmental

The Quay Brothers

• ‘The Cabinet of Jan Svankmajer’ (1984)

[UK]

Simon Pummell

• ‘Bodysong’ (2003) – Stock footage/Narrative inferred by images/Music

[France]

Chris Marker

• ‘La Jettee’ (1962) – B&W Stills/Photo narrative/Voice over narrative

Surrealist examples

[Spain/France]

Luis Bunuel

• ‘Un Chien Andalou’ (1929) – Surreal/No narrative logic/Aesthetic

[Czech]

Jan Svankmajer

• ‘Darkness Light Darkness’ (1990) – Surreal/Narrative/Stop-motion animation

[USA]

David Lynch

• ‘Eraserhead’ (1977)

Music Videos

Music videos frequently draw upon techniques from experimental filmmaking. Experimental films differ from regular fiction filmmaking. They use narrative form, but they also have other distinctive tactics. Experimental films often draw upon two other types of form: "abstract" and "associational”. Abstract, and associational form are intended as ways of describing how different types of form have profound effects on the way spectators perceive films.

Examples

Muse

• ‘Super Massive Blackhole’ – Floria Sigismondi

Bjork

• ‘Human Behaviour’ – Michel Gondry