FM4: Section B - Spectatorship - Experimental and Expanded Film/Video
Definition of the ‘avant-garde’ (experimental/surrealism):
Art that breaks with tradition: Characterised by an impulse to "make it new" and by an anti-traditionalism. A total break with tradition and an attack on the institutions of Art and Literature as viewed by elite society. A rejection of all absolute aesthetic conventions and considerations of taste. Characterised by intellectual playfulness and mystification.
Art that formally subverts: Culture and its norms are viewed as an artificial arrangement to be subverted, parodied and transgressed. Shock tactics and anti-art gestures are used to shake the public out of its passive acceptance of outdated values. 'Avant-garde' art decomposes old frames of reference; it makes use of fragments, odd collections and unexpected juxtapositions - erotic, exotic, and unconscious. The spontaneous, the primitive and the irrational were prized. It breaks down barriers between the conscious and unconscious and liberates the imagination, bringing about new perceptions and new social relations.
Art that is destructive in its themes (nihilistic): A loss of faith in pre-conceived ideas: God, Man, Reason, Truth, Beauty, Honour, Authority, Reason, logic, language and accepted social values were all rejected. Art that is opposed to the dominant conservative forces within society and aesthetically antagonistic to accepted social ideals and values.
Art that breaks with tradition: Characterised by an impulse to "make it new" and by an anti-traditionalism. A total break with tradition and an attack on the institutions of Art and Literature as viewed by elite society. A rejection of all absolute aesthetic conventions and considerations of taste. Characterised by intellectual playfulness and mystification.
Art that formally subverts: Culture and its norms are viewed as an artificial arrangement to be subverted, parodied and transgressed. Shock tactics and anti-art gestures are used to shake the public out of its passive acceptance of outdated values. 'Avant-garde' art decomposes old frames of reference; it makes use of fragments, odd collections and unexpected juxtapositions - erotic, exotic, and unconscious. The spontaneous, the primitive and the irrational were prized. It breaks down barriers between the conscious and unconscious and liberates the imagination, bringing about new perceptions and new social relations.
Art that is destructive in its themes (nihilistic): A loss of faith in pre-conceived ideas: God, Man, Reason, Truth, Beauty, Honour, Authority, Reason, logic, language and accepted social values were all rejected. Art that is opposed to the dominant conservative forces within society and aesthetically antagonistic to accepted social ideals and values.