Avant-Garde

Ballet Mecanique seems the more obvious exploration of the optical unconscious described in The Work of Art in the Age of Reproducibility. Its use of the close-up and the repetition of images expand the time, creating the independence of the images from the original subject matter. Although the image of the bird is never repeated, I believe what is occurring is what is being described on page 105 as extracting “sameness from even the unique,” (if my train of thought is in line with the film). The faces shown or shots of the eye seemed to be as prop-like (if not less aggressive) than the shots of physical objects employed in the film, but this could be due to my preoccupation with the sound track.

It took me a while to realize the umbrella concept of the term avant-garde; however, by contrasting The Woke of Art in the Age of its Reproducibility’s “its self alienation has reached the point where it can experience its own annihilations as a supreme aesthetic pleasure,” and Looking Back on Surrealism’s “it is because human beings are now denying themselves the consciousness of denial that was captured in the photographic negative that was Surrealism,” It became clear to me that the two excerpts give very different viewpoints on the current state of humanity based on what facet of avant-garde is being examined. The former describes what pleasure is derived from the avant-garde while the latter is descriptive of the decline of Surrealism. However, these two quotes describe what I consider a central theme to the week’s readings: the relationship of the development of technology and the different dialectics that developed under various art movements encompassed by the name ‘avant-garde.’ The Work of Art in the Age of its Reproducibility describes how early Dada art pieces approached the power of film by attempting to create shock in viewers. However, film’s ability to create a physical reaction (the activation of the optical unconscious) is what I believe to help propel the progression of the aforementioned avant-garde dialectics. While the reading on Surrealism focuses on the reversion to the nature of objects (by freeing them from their aura or creating an absence of meaning) in its use of technology, other movements use technology’s power of reproduction for slightly different means. From one which is meant to ridicule [Dada] to another which focuses on the destruction on the artificial barriers imposed upon the working class [Russian avant-garde], the various art movements mentioned in this week’s readings vary in their use of the film’s destruction of aura based on the origin of the movement’s motives. My favorite line in Looking Back on Surrealism was the author’s claim that surrealism’s images are one’s in which “the subject’s innermost core become aware that it is something external, an imitation of something social and historical.” I believe this summary of Surrealism’s intentions is what help separates its attempt to bring child-like recognition of an object freed from its cultural ties from the differing intentions of the other avant-garde movements mentioned. Looking back on what I took away from the readings now, I realized that I just managed to grasp what can be summarized from the readings. I hope that with time listening in seminar and more discussion, I will be able to engage more closely with the material.