Centrum audiovizuálních studií FAMU

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This lecture covers the survey of history of the elements of light and movement in popular and avantgarde art.

intro: Poslední stroj, BBC

The Last Machine is a documentary series about the early period of cinema. It is based on the book “The Last Machine: Early Cinema and the Birth of the Modern World” by Ian Christie. Hosted by Terry Gilliam, it was broadcasted on BBC2 from January to February 1995.

[1] The Last Machine 1

Obsah [skrýt] 1 Futurism and new media (1901-1919) 1.1 Manifestos of Futurism 1.2 Major Works 2 Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968): Vision, motion and new forms of art 3 Bauhaus (1919-1933): Art, craft and technology 3.1 Ludwig Hirschfeld Mack (1893-1965) 3.2 László Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946) 4 Zdeněk Pešánek (1896-1965) 5 Len Lye (1901-1980) 6 Frank Malina (1912-1981) 7 More resources 8 More artists [editovat] Futurism and new media (1901-1919)

[editovat] Manifestos of Futurism

Futurist Manifesto, F. T. Marinetti, 1909 Suddenly we jumped, hearing the mighty noise of the huge double-decker trams that rumbled by outside, ablaze with colored lights… We intend to sing the love of danger, the habit of energy and fearlessness Except in struggle, there is no more beauty. No work without an aggressive character can be a masterpiece. Poetry must be conceived as a violent attack on unknown forces, to reduce and prostrate them before man. We will glorify war—the world’s only hygiene—militarism, patriotism, the destructive gesture of freedom-bringers, beautiful ideas worth dying for, and scorn for woman. We will destroy the museums, libraries, academies of every kind, will fight moralism, feminism, every opportunistic or utilitarian cowardice. Technical Manifesto of Futurist Painting, Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carrà, Luigi Russolo, Giacomo Balla, Gino Severini, 1910 That all forms of imitation must be despised, all forms of originality glorified. That it is essential to rebel against the tyranny of the terms “harmony” and “good taste” as being too elastic expressions, by the help of which it is easy to demolish the works of Rembrandt, of Goya and of Rodin. That universal dynamism must be rendered in painting as a dynamic sensation. That movement and light destroy the materiality of bodies. We demand, for ten years, the total suppression of the nude in painting.

The Art of Noises, Luigi Russolo, 1913

Musical evolution is paralleled by the multiplication of machines

Music developed towards the most complex polyphony and the maximum variety, seeking the most complicated successions of dissonant chords and vaguely preparing the creation of musical noise

The variety of noises is infinite. If today, when we have perhaps a thousand different machines, we can distinguish a thousand different noises, tomorrow, as new machines multiply, we will be able to distinguish ten, twenty, or thirty thousand different noises, not merely in a simply imitative way, but to combine them according to our imagination.

[2] Luigi Russolo - Veglio Di Una Città The Futurist Cinema, F. T. Marinetti, Bruno Corra, Emilio Settimelli, Arnaldo Ginna, Giacomo Balla, Remo Chiti, 1916

Cinematic analogies that use reality directly as one of the two elements of the analogy

Cinematic simultaneity and interpenetration of different times and places. We shall project two or three different visual episodes at the same time, one next to the other

Filmed unreal reconstructions of the human body. On-line resources: http://www.unknown.nu/futurism [3] [editovat] Major Works

Painting and Sculpture Giacomo Balla: Dog on Leash (1912)

Giacomo Balla: Girl in the Balcony (1912)

Umberto Boccioni: Unique Forms of Continuity in Space (1913)

Giacomo Balla: Study of Materiality of Lights and Speed (1913)

Umberto Boccioni: States of Mind: The Farewells (1911)

Luigi Russolo: Dynamism of a Car (1912)

Film

Arnaldo Ginna, Lucio Venna: Vita futurista (1916) Anton Giulio Bragaglia: Thaïs (1917) Sound and music Luigi Russolo: Art of noise (1913) [5] ¨ [editovat] Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968): Vision, motion and new forms of art

Key concepts: Motion and time in painting

Criticism of retinal art

Ready made

Technology and machinery as a part of artistic language

Op-art, kinetic objects and film

Major works Nude Descending a Staircase (1st and 2nd version, 1911-12) Bottle dryer (1914) The Large Glass (1915-192) Rotoreliefs (1926) Anemic cinema (1926) Rrose Sélavy

[6]

[7]

Reading Calvin Tomkins - Duchamp: A Biography (1996) Stanislav Ulver - Západní filmová avantgarda (1991)

On-line resources [8] dada-companion.com [editovat] Bauhaus (1919-1933): Art, craft and technology

School of art, craft and technology founded by Walter Gropius. Weimar, Dessau (1919-1933)

Utopian craft guild combining architecture, sculpture, and painting into a single creative expression Important figures: Wassily Kandinsky, Josef Albers, Paul Klee, Lazslo Moholy-Nagy

On-line resources [9] [editovat] Ludwig Hirschfeld Mack (1893-1965)

Bauhaus student since 1919

Color music, light design, light and colour modulator

Light performances and works with Kurt Schwerdtfeger

Major works

Farbenlichtspiele (1923)

Optical disc (1924)

Reading On-line resources [10] [editovat] László Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946)

Influence of constructivism

Rejection of cubism and traditional art Bauhaus teacher (1923-1928) Telephone paintings (1922)

Photography as a new way of seeing the world that the human eye could not

Photograms

Machinery and beauty

USA since 1937, Institute of design

Major works

Light space modulator (1925-30) [11] https://youtu.be/AMODHy0hauo

Lightplay – Black, White, Gray (1932) [12] https://youtu.be/e0x730uP2yI?list=RDe0x730uP2yI

Reading Laszlo Moholy-Nagy Foundation [13] Stanislav Ulver - Západní filmová avantgarda (1991) Laszlo Moholy-Nagy at Monoskop [14] Vision in Motion

[editovat] Zdeněk Pešánek (1896-1965)

Born in Kutná Hora, Central Bohemia Studied sculpture and architecture with Jan Štursa Avantgarde after war, art, science and machinery as utopia for a new society Monumental forms, contradiction of modernity and tradition

Light and kinetic sculpture - light as matter City as artefact, light urbanism (Devětsil manifesto of poetism, 1922) First use of neon and fiberglass in sculpture in 1920s Light advertisement since mid. 20s Rejection of films and Kinetism (1920s, 1940) First exhibition, UMPRUM, 1936 World Exhibition in Paris, 1937

Major works Edison transfomer station, Jeruzalémská st. (1926-29)

Light, neon and sculptures as advertisements, mid 30s 100 years of electricity (1936) Spa Fountain (1936) Light sculptures, male and female torsos (1930s) Sculpture for the main entrance of the Electric Company of the City of Prague (1936)

Reading and resources

Light penetrates the darkness (Světlo proniká tmou, Otakar Vávra, 1931) [15]

Zdeněk Pešánek: Kinetismus (1940) [16]

Zdeněk Pešánek: Kinetismus [17]

On-line biography and bibliography at Monoskop [18]

== Franciszka and Stefan Themerson == (1910–1988) farmacia 1930 * https://youtu.be/nwU1wscVURY

[editovat] Len Lye (1901-1980)

Key concepts: Abstract film and a new visual forms Hand-painted animation Film and advertisement Optokinetic sculptures Major Works (Sculpture) Fountain (1959) Blade (1976) Trilogy (1977) Major Works (Film) The Birth of The Robot (1936) Colour Flight (1937) Color Cry (1952) Free Radicals (1958) Tusalava [19]

Reading Stanislav Ulver - Západní filmová avantgarda (1991) On-line resources [20]

[editovat] Frank Malina (1912-1981)

Lumidine system

Born in Texas, lived in Bohemia app 1920-30 Scientist-artist-editor-humanist Famous for his work on early rocket development Mechanical engineering, aeronautics, 1934 Lunar International Laboratory Founder-Editor of Leonardo Journal New Landscapes, science, technology and extraterrestial space

Visual art since 1953 Kinetic light paintings and objects

Lumidyne System - electric light shining through painted moving and static elements, sometimes with the addition of a diffusing screen (1956)

Reflectodyne System - electric light reflected onto moving mirrors or other surfaces reflecting light Polaridyne System - using the special optical effects produced by light passing through polarizing materials Audio-Kinetic System - light and motion paintings and sculpture activated by varying intensities of sound

Major works

Orbit IV

Stairways to the Stars

Polaris

Cosmos

Kinetic Column * https://youtu.be/sl2duqEnBbY

Resources Foundation Langlois [21] Lumidyne System [22] [editovat] More resources

Lightart at ZKM [23] Kinetic art at Wikipedia [24] Lazslo Moholy Nagy: Vision as Motion (1946) [25] understandingduchamp.com [26] Marcel Duchamp: Anemic Cinema (1926) [27] Marcel Duchamp: Rotary Demisphere, 1925 [28] Digital Light, edited by Sean Cubitt, Daniel Palmer and Nathaniel Tkacz [29]

[editovat] More artists

light

Otto Piene http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/lichtballett/

Gyorgy Kepes http://act.mit.edu/people/director/gyorgy-kepes/

Nicolas Schoffer Luminodynamic [30] cyberneticzoo.com [31] Resources online: [32][33][34]

Jean Tingueli Jean Tingueli at ubu.com [35] http://www.tinguely.ch/en/museum_sammlung/jean_tinguely.html http://www.nytimes.com/video/2011/04/06/arts/design/100000000761945/tinguely.html http://vimeo.com/16227173 Robert Irwin http://www2.iim.cz/wiki/index.php/Robert_Irwin Dan Flavin http://www.diaart.org/sites/main/danflavinartinstitute

movement

Jesús Rafael Soto http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesús_Rafael_Soto http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCVtcjvvTxs

George Rickey http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Rickey http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmqwrftZgTQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKsbxoLtveU

Joe Gilbertson http://jasonkrugman.wordpress.com/2009/01/20/kinetic-sculpture-by-joe-gilbertson

Geoffrey Smedley http://www.geoffreysmedley.com/#!media/c13co

Roman Signer http://www.romansigner.ch http://vimeo.com/32083693