Abstract Film

Starting from the premiss that the central aesthetic
feature of non-representational moving images (visual music)
is their structuring of reception time, the function of the
accompanying music in contributing to the total (combined)
temporal structure of the resulting artwork is discussed.
A taxonomy of the different roles that music can play
in the production and reception of visual music consisting
of three basic categories is presented and examples
are given:
> ‘Music translations’: certain parameters of the accompanying
music are transcoded into certain visual parameters, the
accompanying music thereby provides the temporal structure
of the audiovisual artwork.
> ‘Synthetic structures’: the music and the images provide
different temporal informations with enough coincidences
to be synthesised into a combined audiovisual strucuture
by the viewer/listener.
> ‘Mutual disturbance’: the aforementioned process fails
to be realised due to a lack of sufficient points of
synchronisation. As a result the accompanying music will
disrupt the recognition of the temporal structure of the
images and vice versa.

Im Zentrum stehen frühe Konzeptionen von Film als Symbiose optischer und akustischer künstlerischer Ausdrucksformen, die sich auf experimentelle Weise der Frage von Synästhesie und der Schaffung eines intermedialen Gesamtkunstwerks annähern. Dabei werden auch die Einflüsse einer sich über alle Bereiche der Kunst hinweg verbreitenden und in einer radikalen Veränderung der ästhetischen Theorie mündenden modernistischen Denkrichtung ab dem ausgehenden 19. Jahrhundert auf das Verhältnis von Künstler, Werk und Betrachter erfasst.

Seit seinem ersten Auftreten zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts hat sich der Begriff der Visual Music inzwischen zu einem Sammelbecken für viele unterschiedliche Spielarten früherer und zeitgenössischer audiovisueller Medienkunst entwickelt. Im Zuge dieser Arbeit soll die Visual Music jedoch zu ihrem historischen Ursprung in der Anfangsphase des Films zurückgeführt werden, als dessen Positionierung innerhalb des Gefüges der etablierten bildenden Künste erst noch verhandelt werden musste und zahlreiche Experimente zwischen Optik und Akustik stattfanden. Entlang einzelner Werkbeispiele abstrakter Filme von Walter Ruttmann, Hans Richter, Viking Eggeling, Oskar Fischinger und Len Lye werden im Folgenden verschiedene künstlerische Ansätze gegenübergestellt, deren gemeinsames Ziel in einem Exzess der Sinne bestand.

Animation film, being an art with the greatest possibilities of some individual styles, artistic expression
encompasses a variety of styles and forms: from classical animation of Walt Disney to surrealist experiments.
Animator’s experiments have opened up new paths in the filmic language, as well as in animation techniques
and methods. Some techniques have remained unique, as well as the pin screen, invented by Alexandre Alexeieff,
others found their followers and successors. In this context, the reference name is that of the Canadian Norman
McLaren (1914–1987), nicknamed the genius of animation. His discoveries in the field of abstract film, inclusive
of the realization of the design techniques directly on film, pixilation, sound drew were taken along by a number
of directors. Significant is the fact that direct animation technique has been explored and the performers, starting
with movies of Natalia Bodiul (The Scale and Elegy) and continuing with the films of Alexander Glagashev and
Nadejda Aslanova (The Old Man and the Cat, Experiments, The World Inside Out etc.).

"В статье об эссенциалистских стратегиях в искусстве предлагается рассмотреть интерпретацию проблемы сущности художниками и киноавангардистами. Она связана с их частичным или полным отказом от репрезентации реальности. Предпринят анализ основных концепций авангарда, кото- рый позволяет показать проблематику как взаимодействие между представителями художественного и кино-авангарда.

Interpetation of the problem of essence in avant-garde is proposed in this article on essentialist strategies in art. Interpretation is connected with partial or full denial of reality representation. Analysis of basic conceptions of avant-garde is undertaken. It allows to understand this problem as an interaction between avant-garde painters and cinema avant-garde."

U članku se razmatra specifična svrha postupaka i doživljaja koje nastoje generirati različite eksperimentalističko-filmske struje apstraktnog filma. Namjera je prikazati na koji način apstraktni film zaokuplja našu pažnju te pokazati kako on upravo i računa na tip raspoloženja u situacijama odmaka od nužde snalaženja (kauzalne logike), na prepuštanje percepciji neobičnih vizualno-zvukovnih nadražaja koji potiču drugačija emotivna i asocijativna polja. Analizirat će se izlagački elementi različitih struja apstraktnog filma, oslanjajući se prvenstveno na klasične primjere apstraktnog filma i animacije (braća Whitney, McLaren, Richter i Eggeling i dr.).

The paper elaborates specific perceptive purposes and structural procedures generated by the various experimental abstract films and shows the ways how abstract film engages spectator’s attention. By “liberating” our visual system from representational (daily visual) experience, the abstract film encourages us to cultivate different sensory and sensual sensibility, explore new associations and alternative paths for moods and emotions. Various streams of abstract film will be analysed, relying primarily on classical abstract films (Whitney brothers, McLaren, Richter,
and Eggeling, etc.).

Starting from the premiss that the central aesthetic feature of non-representational moving images (visual music) is their structuring of reception time, the function of the accompanying music in contributing to the total (combined) temporal structure of the resulting artwork is discussed. A taxonomy of the different roles that music can play in the production and reception of visual music consisting of three basic categories is presented and examples are given: > ‘Music translations’: certain parameters of the accompanying music are transcoded into certain visual parameters, the accompanying music thereby provides the temporal structure of the audiovisual artwork. > ‘Synthetic structures’: the music and the images provide different temporal informations with enough coincidences to be synthesised into a combined audiovisual strucuture by the viewer/listener. > ‘Mutual disturbance’: the aforementioned process fails to be realised due to a lack of sufficient points of synchronisation. As a result the accompanying music will disrupt the recognition of the temporal structure of the images and vice versa.

Kao i u slikarstvu, i u filmu se je odricanje od registracije svijeta držalo krajnjom granicom do koje avangardizam može doći. Tako je bilo i s hrvatskim avangardnim filmom početkom šezdesetih. U njemu nije bilo mnogo tzv. apstraktnih, tj. nemimetičkih filmova, ali bilo ih je dovoljno da uzburkaju ionako uzbuđenu atmosferu oko antifilskih radikalnosti. Najzloglasniji apstraktni film bio je K3-čisto nebo bez oblaka Mihovila Pansinija, koji se je sastojao od praznog filma, tzv. blanka, povremeno blago obojenog. Činilo se da je protufilmska mašta tu došla do svoje krajnosti-do pokazivanja gotovo ničega. Ali, slobodarski duh koji omogućio takav film širom je otvorio mogućnosti da se pribjegne bilo kojem postupku, s time da inventivnost i osjetljivost autora bude ta koja će opravdati izabrani postupak. Sličice iz filma K4-čisto nebo bez oblaka, 1963, Mihovil Pansini, Zagreb: Kino-klub Zagreb * Članak je napisan kao popratni tekst uz filmski prilog za emisiju Fatamorgana, Televizije Zagreb, 1999. Ovdje su dodane fotografije iz filmova, i dodan je dio o Aleksandru Srnecu .

While almost everyone has seen avant-garde paintings by Picasso and Pollock, few have ever had the opportunity to see an avant-garde film by Buñuel or Brakhage. This post features short descriptions of ten key experimental films for those who are interested in exploring this cinematic terrain.