Still (Moving) Images: Interventions and Experiments in Photography and Film

Catalog description

The course will initially address the invention of cinema in the late 19th century and the development of its narrative language in the early 20th century. As Europe witnessed innovations in all of the arts, especially during and after WWI, photography and cinema opened up to visual experiments while both media also underwent significant technical improvements. We will discuss the work of major artists such as Man Ray, László Moholy-Nagy, Alexander Rodchenko as well as the Bauhaus and New Vision movements in pre-Nazi Germany. We will look into some of the ground-breaking experimental films from the American post-WWII avant garde. As a conclusion to the course, we will examine how photography and film merged into a different form of narrative exemplified by works such as Chris Marker's iconic "La Jetée".