Brandon: 'Spectator Subjectivity' in 1920s Avant-Garde Cinema

Avant-garde cinema from the 1920s plays a central role in Nell Andrew’s essay “The Medium is a Muscle: Abstraction in Early Film, Dance, Painting.” Andrew argues that this era of film drew inspiration from art and dance “…to provoke a self-aware spectator through abstraction” (68). While mainstream films mostly relied on narrative storylines to feed meaning to audiences, avant-garde filmmakers sought to inspire a more engaged relationship between spectator and screen. 

Andrew notes that two strands of avant-garde filmmaking in particular—Dada-Surrealist abstraction and abstract animations—“return to the early cine-genre of ‘noncontinuity’ in which (spectators) are denied any ability to follow a story” (68). The goal of this kind of storytelling is to disorient viewers in ways that require us to follow “the visual and temporal rhythm produced by the film apparatus, so that we actively feel ourselves seeing” (68). Thus, these films work to “deepen” the subjectivity of spectators.

Can you think of any modern films or filmmakers who use similar avant-garde techniques to encourage audience engagement? What are the benefits and drawbacks of emphasizing visual and temporal rhythm over narrative storytelling? 

-Brandon McCasland