Media Art Film Studies: Avant Garde

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In 1911, Italian writer Ricciotto Canudo who is deemed the first theorist of film considered cinema as “the Seventh Art”. He had the understanding that film incorporated the distinctive elements of both the spatial arts and temporal arts (architecture, sculpture, painting on one side and music and dance on another). He later introduced poetry to the list in 1923, as a renowned manifesto entitled “Reflections on The Seventh Art”.

In 1920s, and the subsequent years, “the seventh art” was a common reference to the movies world. Presently, almost 150 years after Canudo’s manifesto, video games have emulated “new art”, or the “Eighth Art”. They have introduced some new elements of film, to the profound and crucial aspect – interactivity.

The first time a film was introduced to the public, most movie lovers, were at first were drawn to the theatres by the whole technology of gigantic moving pictures. In the same case, today, most game stars are motivated by interactivity in their various games. However, it is evident that film audiences have complained of boredom with the simple spectacle of moving pictures in the same way gamers become fatigued by game play alone within video games and which prompts them to look for more satisfaction elsewhere (Aitken, 2001).

Futurism is a social movement with an artistic content from Italy, around the early 20th century. Its emphasis was glorifying all themes associated with new concepts of the future, where technology, speed, lifestyle objects, airplanes, cars, and the industrial cities are included. Futurism was considered largely as an Italian phenomenon though other places like England and Russia staged similar movements.

The futurists participated in every medium of art, such as , sculpture, ceramics, painting, graphic and industrial design, interior design, theatre and film, fashion, textiles, literature, music, and architecture. In the early 1910s, most contemporary artists associated with Modernism joined the film industry as part of embracing new technology (Umbro, 2001).

This saw the artists animate their images and most Italian futurists issuing a prospective on the possibilities of Futurist cinema in 1916. Major Futurist films appear to have lost popularity but contrary to this, 1912’s Bruno Corra essay gave a detailed inside story of animation work. Bruno bypassed the camera by painting directly on celluloid and his work attracted very little attention that forced this method of direct film making to be reinvented two decades later.

Various futurists came up with infamous statements, which brought about much controversy within the contemporary film industry. For instance, the ‘Un chien Andalou’ film, which was produced in France at around 1928, was considered to advocate for murder by Futurist Luis Bunuel.

Either way, it was the film manifestos, which dictated the comprehension of experimental films as well as the avant-garde films. It was through these manifestos that alternative films such as video as well as television later featured within the cinema history. In addition, the manifestos comprised of the initial film theories, which were existent within the film industry.

In that perspective, it can be observed that the manifesto, which was formulated by Ricciotto Canudo (who is a renowned futurist) which is popularly known as the ‘Sixth Art’ manifesto, introduced the radical film theories. Moreover, the Soviet manifesto formulated by Futurists Sergei Eisenstein, Grigori Alexandrov in the accompaniment of Vsevolod Pudovkin, which emphasized on sound marks, brought about harsh discussions on the idea of relating image to sound within film production.

A great number of people do not comprehend video games’ as a major element. Some people allege that it is technology, others video, while a few others insist that it is audio. The art film industry however, proposes that narratives are the key element in video games. A close examination of historical trends in the film industry puts it clear that within games, narratives are the most predominant aspects.

It is expected that as the film industry attains maturity as an art, narrative shall probably eclipse other aspects of games, visual spectacle, and technology game play. Actually, several people fail to comprehend the reason behind the spontaneous production of manifestos. During the early 1900s until the start of the 2000s, film manifesto proliferation along with television as well as video manifesto proliferation was considered colossal.

Nevertheless, they have not brought about any significant ‘effects’. In the course of the cinema’s history, reactionaries and radicals put forward the major political along with aesthetic objectives (O’Pray, 2003).

During the start of 1920s, a good number of Italian Futurists developed film manifestos, which stated their various philosophical, artistic along with political ideologies. The film manifestos formulated by the futurists were aimed at advocating for consciousness revolution within the artistic field. They were also focused on redefining the cinema culture in a radical procedure.

Film manifestos, which were mostly done by various futurists, are also associated with the emergence of the documentary movement within Britain, which is commonly termed as surrealism. The manifestos contributed towards educational films’ development. Subsequently, every artistic movement, which proclaimed the establishment of new art film concepts and the overhauling of the previous film concept always, did so using manifestos.

A good number of futurists advocated for the experimental cinema. Experimental films make use of distinctive visual arts to make the cinema picture better. Experimental cinemas were firstly introduced by the avant-garde faction, which had its base in Europe. Various film critics such as Adams Sitney formulated theoretical texts, which resulted to the development of Experimental cinema.

The distribution of these films was mainly done by organizations, which were not interested in making profits, and thus the films realized great success within the art film history. Experimental films are usually produced through diverse filmmaking procedures thereby making them quite different from the conventional commercial films. Initially, these films were described by avant-garde but as at present, the “experimental cinema” exists on its own (O’Pray, 2003).

In the 1920s, and for some time afterwards, “the seventh art” was a common reference in the movies world. Presently, almost 150 years after Canudo’s manifesto, video games have emulated “new art”, or the “Eighth Art”. They have introduced some new elements of film, to the profound and crucial aspect – interactivity.

Various aspects characterize experimental films. First, there are no linear narratives in this genre of films. In addition, these films make use of diverse abstracting procedures such as rapid editing as well as film scratching. They also do not feature sound tracks but mostly employ asynchronous sounds. Their main objective is to capture the attention of the film viewers by indulging them in thoughtful relations.

During the years of 1960s, the experimental films were mostly in great opposition of the conventional film culture. In overall, such films are produced at low costs and do not feature a big crew as they are self-financed (Umbro, 2001).

However, a number of film critics allege that the experimental films cannot be considered as purely “experimental” because they have almost assimilated the conventional films. Nevertheless, they are ‘experimental’ because their construction is purely non-narrative and they are mainly based on impressionistic approaches.

Actually, the avant-garde concept defines the marginalized art film producers whose productions are in great opposition of the conventional commercial values. In most of the cases, their concept is founded on social edges, which are considered quite abrasive. In the course of the modernism years, various theorists as well as critics proposed various allegations about the vanguard culture.

Vanguard culture not only dismissed the ‘conventional culture’ but also it opposed the artificially formulated mass culture, which had emerged because of industrialization. Nevertheless, the emerging media can be viewed as the Capitalism product, which is focused on accruing large profits, which are not actually the factual art ideals. For instance, the 1930s were earmarked by the incorporation of the surrealism visual mannerisms within the advertising sector.

It should not however be assumed that the advertising photographs produced within this year were mostly bizarre. It was the lack of substance within their style. It is thus quite challenging to differentiate the avant-garde inventions from the fashions, which were commercially oriented. It is also difficult to overlook the fresh consumer culture, which has been accustomed to the novel manufactured stylistic innovations (Aitken, 2001).

In the real sense, since time immemorial, cinema has always existed together with film manifestos. Various young artists dealing with film production came up with a distinct avant-garde discourse, which was quite different from the previous discourse, which had been introduced by Maya Deren along with Alexander Hammid within their film entitled ‘Meshes of the Afternoon’. For quite some time, the avant-garde art films have been focused on artistic aesthetics.

However, other futurists such as Thornton allege that artists should be identified through the production of cultural works, which are based on critical perspectives. She also alleged that art film works should be viewed as methods of addressing the targeted audience. Such allegations indicate the degree within which the artists are responsible by engaging within diverse cultural debates.

Nevertheless, the avant-garde film producers came up with fresh thinking ways touching on the film production during the years of 1980s. Consequently, new films were released which earmarked the generational change. The fresh aesthetics introduced by this group is associated with the emergence of novel art film theories.

The Futurists were mainly concerned with the reinvention of the art autonomy. In their own perspective, they held the view that the art autonomy should always be different from life’s economic, ethical, or even political issues. In their perspective, they wanted to have an art which was ‘relevant’ to emerging generational transformations while still staying quite free from any form of propaganda. Much of these predispositions were featured within the 19^th Century doctrine entitled ‘l’art pours l’art’.

This doctrine was also seconded by other Futurists’ works such as the ‘Critique of Judgement’, which was authored by Kant. However, the outcome made an indication that the art film coexisted with other societal cultures and it could not survive on its own. It turned out that separating the art film from the renowned mass culture could only bring about devastating effects.

The modern art film made use of ‘experimental’ techniques to make it distinct from the conventional art film. The futurists were concerned with the development of distinct art film principles, which could bring along films, which are not similar to the commercial films. The new films could also be focused on modern aspects while at the same time presenting meaningful universal myths thereby passing special messages to the targeted audience (Umbro, 2001).

The futurists held the view that the emerging film audience was more sophisticated as well as knowledgeable and had sufficient skills to interpret films and thus the modern art films had to be produced in an ideal manner. In accordance to Camper, the fresh art films had to be designed in an understandable procedure so that every person is in a position of finding them out as satisfactory both emotionally as well as intellectually.

Besides, it had to be known that due to the various technological advancements, the target audience could actually be regarded as “elite”. In spite of the various arguments brought about by Futurists such as Adorno along with Greenberg alongside many more others, “avant-garde” was incorporated within the film industry within the years of 1960s.

Even though a bit of its application was appropriate, it has been discovered that some artists had applied it with the wrong intentions. For instance, some of them took it as the chance to market commercial cinema. As a result, the true meaning of avant-garde has been forgotten and thus the film producers who achieved great success within the film industry are currently described with this term (avant-garde) in most of the cases.

On top of all these arguments, another set of theorists who believe that the thinking ways which are commonly termed as modernist have already been replaced by the novel age which can be properly described as post-modern modern. These were the sentiments of futurist such as Hans Bertens who authored the articled entitled ‘The Idea of the Postmodern: A History’ which was released to the public in the year 1995.

However other previous futurists, for example Matei Calinescu had earlier on, within the year of 1987, presented the same sentiments in his article which was known by the name ‘Five Faces of Modernity: Modernism, Avant-garde, Decadence, Kitsch, Postmodernism’. Within the U.S., theorists such as Harold Rosenberg brought up a lot of criticism concerning ideas of various futurists.

Rosenberg alleged that the futurists had negatively influenced the art film industry to the extent that it had failed in fulfilling its initially formulated adversarial role. Rosenberg argued that the ‘avant-garde ghosts’ along with the transforming mass culture had greatly impacted on the art film industry. Even though, the futurists had foreseen a fresh art film culture, which could be quite different from the commercial cinema, their dreams are yet to be fully realized (Aitken, 2001).

On another perspective, futurists such as Bordwell allege that the art film narrative is usually based on two main principles; that is the authorial expressivity along with realism. The current art films have actually deviated from the previous mainstream film making norms and thus their narrative structure can be considered episodic in nature. In addition, they tend to loosen the cause along with effect sequence of the mainstream films.

Moreover, the upcoming art films are usually concerned with the internal drama-taking place within the character’s psyche, for instance, the psychological issues featuring the character’s personal identity. Besides, the new art films are also concerned with identifying various moral dilemmas as well as problems of personality identity even though these aspects are usually revealed within the film’s final episodes.

Moreover, the investigation along with probation of the dilemmas featured within the fresh art films are done within a fashion, which can be considered to be pensive unlike the commercial films even though within the final parts of the movies they usually exhibit an unclear resolution (O’Pray, 2003).

The films’ main characters are especially presented as individuals whom re subjected to alienation and who are doubtful. Besides, within most of the new art films, the principal character’s fantasies, as well as their dream cycle is depicted in an internal procedure. In other rare cases, those directing the new art films opt to apply absurd depictions while in the process of expressing the philosophical concept of the film, which can be simply termed as existentialism.

As at present, art film has undergone various transformations. The evaluation, as well as, scrutiny of the art film is commonly termed as film criticism. The art film works criticism is usually split to two diverse classes. The first category is academic criticism carried out by renowned film scholars.

On the other hand, there is the journalistic criticism of art film featured within the print media such as the newspapers, journals along with magazines. In most of the cases, the journalistic criticism of art film is usually carried out by film critics, who are employed by various media houses dealing with the printing of newspapers and journals as well as the broadcasting companies. This group of critics is usually concerned with the analysis of the newly released films.

Much of the criticism done by this group is usually premature. This is due to the fact that upon going through the film at least once, they are usually expected to present their opinions within a short time span (almost within a single day) before the film reaches a wider audience within the global arena.

Nevertheless, this genre of critics cannot be avoided as it plays a significant role within the present art film arena. It usually assists in the better understanding of specific art film genres. Most film scholars hold the belief that the film critics from the journalism field should only be regarded as movie reviewers. This group of individuals is of the perspective that the realm film critics should be the persons whose approach to the film is purely academic.

The film critics who approach the film analysis in an academic manner are usually concerned with film studies and are quite knowledgeable on the diverse film theories. The group is well informed on the diverse filming techniques as well as the manner by which they are received by the audience.

The academic film reviewers do not feature their analysis within the print media or even the broadcast houses but they mostly present their ideas within articles, which are publicized through different scholarly articles along with the widely circulated entertainment magazines (Umbro, 2001). In addition, this group of reviewers has connections with certain colleges along with universities, which offer film studies.

However, it has currently turned out that various film genres such as the comedy films along with the action movies, which are specifically marketed en masse, are not affected at great magnitudes by the judgments released by the journalistic critics. The film analysis is usually focused on the film’s plot summary along with a precise film description and it greatly dictates the manner in which people will be interested in watching the film.

It has been realized that the various films types are affected differently by the reviews released by journalists to the public. For instance, the success of most of the films whose concept is based on drama is highly dependent on the nature of the analysis presented by journalists within the print media or broadcast houses (Aitken, 2001).

Film reviews, which are negative or done in a haphazard manner, lead to financial losses to the film producers, as it will receive a low number of audiences. Such allegations indicate the degree within which the artists are responsible by engaging within diverse cultural debates.

Within the contemporary culture, film artists are expected to exploit as well as criticize the art works produced by their colleagues either culturally or politically. Either way, there exist specific exceptions regarding the generational gap, which affects the adoption of the fresh discourse.

This is confirmed by the Thornton’s theory, which affirms that the new art film form did not completely reject every aspect of the initial art film. It is however, remains debatable the manner in which film reviews whether from the futurists’ side or even the journalistic field affects the performance of the given film within the market segment.

A group of individuals believes that with the aspect of movie marketing being properly established; it is unnecessary to reconsider the effect of reviewers on the success of various films. In the event that the marketing of the films is sufficiently financed, the comments made by various reviewers become insignificant in determining the film’s success.

However, in some occasions, films, which have been widely promoted, have failed to receive a good audience within the market segment because of the harsh criticism released by different film reviewers (O’Pray, 2003).

On the other side, independent film works which have not been widely marketed have realized great success due to the positive reviews accorded to them form diverse sectors. Films, which could remain unknown with the film industry, have actually risen to fame due to the positive reviewing accorded to them by various critics.

In other cases, film producers opt to avoid sending their newly produced film copies to the reviewers in advance to make it certain that the films success will not be affected in any way by their reviews, which may be either positive or negative.

This kind of behavior is usually exhibited by the producers who have little confidence with their work. This habit can however turn out as detrimental to the marketing of the film in question because the reviewers may allege that the film was not reviewed because it does not deserve to be watched under any circumstances.

Within the year of 1979, David Bordwell attempted to define the term “art film” in the process of trying to differentiate it from the commercial cinemas, which are usually produced in great magnitudes within Hollywood.

Most of the films produced in the Hollywood-style are usually organized within unique narrative types, which are connected to the current activities taking place within the world in a casual way. Each scene within the film is specifically directed towards a certain objective. On the other hand, mainstream films usually have plots, which are developed within a protagonist manner.

They especially feature characters whose roles are clearly set out (Umbro, 2001). Their logic is mostly based on routines, which are focused on resolving problems. In the final phase, soundtracks, which are musical, are incorporated within the film to capture the attention of the targeted audience in an emotional way.

Prior to releasing them to the market, seamless editing is undertaken to make them tight as well as vastly paced. In most of occasions, the new art films are usually characterized by generic images along with verbal expressions accompanied by diverse plots thereby making them different from the commercial cinemas.

Other futurists such as Bordwell allege that there are unique conventions within the novel art film thereby making it a distinct genre. These sediments were also offered support by Robert Sam. Both of them propose that the novel art film is founded on the emerging artistic techniques and is not aimed at introducing star performers, as it is the case with the commercial cinemas. Putting in place significant change measures is complicated.

Not only should one address the specific barriers hindering change but also the film dynamics, which mostly thwart the efforts of implementing, change (Aitken, 2001). In accordance to the Howard Gardner’s book entitled Changing Minds, most bureaucracies desire to avoid spending energies and finally incur blame.

It is easier to view the absence of strong opposition to specific action plans as a sign of positive support while forgetting that those who doubt the proposed changes may have made the decision to remain silent. This group of people assumes that those proposing the changes are well equipped with the information required for successful implementation process of changes or try keeping way from pointing out mistakes. That is why it remains vital to reconsider the organization’s culture while formulating an inclusive change plan.

The bigger part of the resistance faced while attempting to implement fresh art film culture can be avoided if effective measures are taken at the very beginning. Even though resistance is considered the natural human reaction to change, effective explanation can bring a greater percentage of the resistance under control.

Various change management techniques should be applied in order to manage overcoming resistance. For instance, in the course of initiating the changes, the approach should be well structured from the very beginning. Besides, from the initial stage, renowned film stakeholders should participate actively as well as visibly (Umbro, 2001). Moreover, the change should from the start enjoy the support of every individual within the sector.

The antagonism emerging between words in relation to images cannot be regarded as novel within the film industry. In most scenarios, the antipathy affecting these two aspects of art film is viewed to be closely related to cultural as well as political resentments. It overlooks the boundaries established within the populist art film industry.

It actually, comes about as the resultant of the raging debates between realists along with formalist in their attempts to criticize the futurists’ ideas on the use of narratives within the novel art film. Consequently, there has been a great magnitude of tension between the conventional art film works and the newly introduced novel art film videos.

The lack of satisfaction with the binarism affecting the film theories was instigated by various futurist’s essays such as those released by Wollen within the course of 1972. The Wollen’s essays which were entitled as “Godard and Counter Cinema” along with the “The Two Avant Gardes” were in great opposition of the avant-gardes’ theories. Within the premier essay, Wollen proposed various “counter cinema” codes, which were in great opposition with the already established dominant cinema codes.

However, as we advance in years, it has come to be discovered that Wollen’s oppositions was of insignificant value as it only had tentative effect on the arising issues within the art film sector. In the same manner, the “two” avant-gardes which were actually politically as well as idealist structured are no longer evident within the present art film scenario. It can actually be concluded that the binarisms had theatrical or even painterly origins and thus were only temporarily relevant to the industry.

Even though the tentative models were mostly dissatisfying, it is almost impossible to get them replaced by the cluster of differences proposed by different theorists. The Wollen’s argument was that the tentative models were all-inclusive and made assumptions on any emerging omniscient problems.

Besides, other theorists, such as Silverman made remarks, which were remarkably erroneous. The remarks made by Silverman lumped together “modernism” together with avant-garde thereby summating the experimental cinema to inversion, in addition to denial terms. In other different terms, these can be described as the withdrawal of politics from the “modernisms” associated with the fine arts of bourgeois.

In general, overviews, Silverman allegations can be described as the process, which is simply “reactive” and aggravated by the emerging crisis within the art film culture (Hatfield, 2006). For other theorists such as Jameson, the formal subversion proposed by various futurists was just nothing but the elitist society’s daydreams. Jameson did not identify any impact brought along by the futurists with the art film culture.

He actually alleges that the products of futurism within the art film sector were merely diverse kinds of compensatory structures. In that perspective, the concept of Silverman regarding the literally preconditions affecting art film can be easily comprehended.

On the other hand, models, which can be termed as psycho-linguistic, have been formulated to justify the essence of the avant-garde films. The model was concerned with the introduction of the economics discussion as well as political relations within the avant-garde films (O’Pray, 2003).

However, it is essential to avoid falsifying the “new narrative” within the film theories while objecting the futurists’ ideas. In addition, an assessment has to be undertaken on various genres of film theories in the coming days. Nevertheless, in the process of identifying the viable models it is important to conduct hypothetical analysis within the film art practices.

The film theory dilemma is not just present within its in-built contradictions along with the irrelevance of most of the practices film art practices, but it is also evident in its dominant status. The status is established in such a way that it is impossible to overlook the dominant orders.

Concerning the modernism, along with post modernism theories, the experimental films can be branded as the reality of the avant-gardes. In addition, the ‘Marxology’ along with ‘Freudology’ concepts affirm that it is actually the experimental films, which actualize the film theories in general. In most of the times, ‘theoretical combat’ neutralizes as well as displaces the film theories’ realities.

The ‘theoretical combat’ is said to originate from various academic institutions along with art film conferences. For instance, academicians such as Guattari allege that film theories can be viewed as established orders, which are in great contrast with the avant-garde film practices (Umbro, 2001).

Guattari can thus be termed to be in disagreement with the proposed avant-garde art-film practices. It should not however be assumed that the film theories have problems or inconsistencies; the opposing allegations come up because in every practice there must always emerge theories which are defiant to the proposed sediments. It should also be noted that the problems are being experienced in formulating a theory, which properly as well as adequately describes the experimental film narratives.

The need of implementing the change should be communicated to every artist along with its effect on the audience along with the benefits associated with the change.

It is evident that more still needs to be done if the new films will have to become more different from the commercial cinema. The futurists were concerned with the development of distinct art film principles, which could bring along films, which are not similar to the commercial films.

The new films could also be focused on modern aspects while at the same time presenting meaningful universal myths thereby passing special messages to the targeted audience. Unless the current film producers put into to consideration the futurists’ ideas, it will be difficult to differentiate the fresh art characteristics from the commercial media. Unlike the commercial cinema, which is, profit oriented, the fresh art film is aimed at displaying high-class talent.

From the beginning to the end of all the proposed theories, it appears as if there is no any theory (either modern or conventional) which sufficiently describes the greater part of the avant-gardes’ films. Based on the neurosis nature of language, psychoanalysis has distanced itself from the binarist reductions.

It has on the contrary made use of the structural linguistics to discredit these reductions, which were brought about by binarism. Moreover, the proposed film theories have fallen short of describing the avant-garde films in relation to the reasonable, artistic, and political in addition to reproduction aspects.

The theories did not also elaborate much on the avant-garde films’ production dialectics. In addition, the avant-garde arena is still marred by the bourgeois’ art works complicity issues along with the alteration of the already dominating culture (Aitken, 2001).

In overall, in order to resolve the issues affecting the experimental film along with other futurists’ ideas, it is necessary that most of the post-modernist alongside modernist speculations are disregarded. This is due to the fact that most of them are mainly concerned with finding out ‘realities’ of the proposed film theories instead of coming up with appropriate resolutions. Finally, it should be well known that the futurists ideas are vital in establishing the avant-gardes’ symptomatic value.

Reference List

Aitken, I. (2001). European film theory and cinema: a critical introduction. Scotland: Edinburgh University Press.

Hatfield, J. (2006). Experimental Film and Video. New York, NY: John Libbey Publishing.

Hjort, M., & Scott M. (2000). Cinema and Nation. New York, NY: Routledge.

O’Pray, M. (2003). Avant-Garde Film: Forms, Themes, and Passions. London: Wallflower Press.

Umbro, A. (2001). Futurist Manifestos. New York, NY: MFA Publications.

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Media Art Film Studies: Avant Garde

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