We looked at some of the history of early experimental film today especially the work of Han Richter and Man Ray. This is the entire collection that includes the films we watched as well as some others.
Hans Richter united all this work as Dadaist cinema in which he included three of his own films: Rythmus 21 (1921), Filmstudie (1926) & Vormittagspuk (Ghosts before breakfast, 1927) as well as Viktor Eggeling’s Symphonie diagonale (1921), Man Ray’s Retour a la raison (1924) & Emak Bakia (1926), Rene Clair & Francis Picabia’s Entr’Acte (1924) & Fernand Leger & Dudley Andrew’s Ballet Mechanique (1924). There is nonetheless a thread that runs through Dada: the deconstruction of the subject or, more precisely (to use an expression coined by Richter ), the Hunting of the Subject; subject being understood as the logical subject of the action taking place. You will notice the use of tone, movement, experimentation and playfulness in many of these works.
In your Kino Project we are looking to explore the notion of a film that is constructed to give a feeling rather than a meaning. Man Ray called his 1926 film Emak Bakia as he was bored of people asking him what his film imagery meant – Emak Bakia is Basque phrase for “piss off and leave me alone”.
By next Thursday you all need to have some imagery and text on your blog that explores the notions we discussed today. Some of the ideas and suggestions for images were really interesting but this is a project where you need to act first and think later. Explore the ideas of use of text, screen projections and make full use of each other. Keep the imagery simple, build up layers and use your Kino Eye.
MA 21st Century Media Practice 2017 