Title: Objects of vision: the polymorphic cinema of Michael Snow
Source document: Brno studies in English. 2013, vol. 39, iss. 2, pp. [17]-35
Extent
[17]-35
-
ISSN0524-6881 (print)1805-0867 (online)
Persistent identifier (DOI): https://doi.org/10.5817/BSE2013-2-2
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/130307
Type: Article
Language
License: Not specified license
Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.
Abstract(s)
This paper explores how the sensory spaces within the works of Michael Snow represent kinesthetic and audile-tactile modes of vision, proposing an integrated form of visuality that functions in tandem with the other senses, relating to the sensus communis proposed by Aristotle. While Snow's cinema is often characterized as more objective, technological, and immaterial than the subjective and poetic aesthetic of Brakhage, Snow's films present a similar yet distinctly idiosyncratic paradigm of multisensory perception through their sculptural, deconstructive nature. While Snow’s camera lens remains focused on the exterior world, his films present spaces that journey far from the illusory and disembodied nature of the scopic regime that Martin Jay (1988) terms "Cartesian dualism," instead seeking out a unified field of energetic vision through relationships between movement, duration, sight, sound, and the embodied limits of vision itself, and are deeply informed by a sustained multidisciplinary approach.
References
[1] Art Gallery of Ontario (2012) "Michael Snow on 'Objects of Vision.'" Video interview, accessed 2013-12-01 at http://www.ago.net/michael-snow-objects-of-vision.
[2] Aquinas, St. Thomas (1948) Summa Theologica. In Introduction to St. Thomas Aquinas. Edited and with an introduction by Anton C. Pegis. Toronto: Random House.
[3] Aquinas, St. Thomas (1990) A Commentary on Aristotle's 'De anima'. Translated by Robert C. Pasnau. London: Yale University Press.
[4] Aristotle (1991) "De Anima" in Aristotle: Selected Works. Third Edition. Translated by Hippocrates G. Apostle and Lloyd P. Gerson. Grinnel, Iowa: The Peripatetic Press.
[5] Benjamin, Walter (1969[1936]) "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction." In Illuminations. Edited and with an introduction by Hannah Arendt. Translated by Harry Zohn. New York: Schocken Books.
[6] Brakhage, Stan (2001) "Metaphors on Vision." In Essential Brakhage: Selected Writings on Filmmaking by Stan Brakhage. Foreward by Bruce R. McPherson. Kingston, NY: Documentext.
[7] Deleuze, Gilles (1986) Cinema 1: The Movement Image. Translated by Hugh Tomlinson and Barbara Habberjam. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
[8] Elder, R. Bruce (1989) Image and Identity: Reflections on Canadian Film and Culture. Waterloo: Wilfred Laurier Press.
[9] Elder, R. Bruce (1995) "Michael Snow's Presence." In: Shedden, Jim (ed.) The Michael Snow Project: Presence and Absence, The Films of Michael Snow, 1956–1991. Toronto: Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 94–139.
[10] Elder, R. Bruce (1998) The Films of Stan Brakhage in the American tradition of Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, and Charles Olson. Waterloo: Wilfred Laurier Press.
[11] Frampton, Hollis (2009) "Notes on Filmmakers." In: Jenkins, Bruce (ed.) On the Camera Arts and Consecutive Matters: The Writings of Hollis Frampton. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
[12] Friedberg, Anne (2006) The Virtual Window: From Alberti to Microsoft. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
[13] Gadamer, Hans Georg (1960/2004) Truth and Method, 2nd revised edition. Translated by Joel Weinsheimer and Donald G. Marshall. New York: Continuum.
[14] Hance, Allen (1997) "The Hermeneutic Significance of the Sensus Communis." International Philosophical Quarterly 37 (2), 133–148. | DOI 10.5840/ipq19973727
[15] Jay, Martin (1988) "Scopic Regimes of Modernity." In: Foster, Hal (ed.) Vision and Visuality. New York: New Press, 3–27.
[16] Jordan, Randolph (2002) "Transcending the Fragmentation of Experience: The acousmêtre on the air in the films of Michael Snow." Offscreen 6 (11).
[17] Krauss, Rosalind (1999) A Voyage on the North Sea: Art in the Age of the Post-Medium Condition. New York: Thames and Hudson.
[18] Kroker, Arthur (1984) Technology and the Canadian Mind: Innis/McLuhan/Grant. Montreal: New World Perspectives.
[19] Marks, Laura U. (2000) The Skin of the Film: Intercultural Cinema, Embodiment and the Senses. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
[20] McLuhan, Marshall (1962) The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
[2] Aquinas, St. Thomas (1948) Summa Theologica. In Introduction to St. Thomas Aquinas. Edited and with an introduction by Anton C. Pegis. Toronto: Random House.
[3] Aquinas, St. Thomas (1990) A Commentary on Aristotle's 'De anima'. Translated by Robert C. Pasnau. London: Yale University Press.
[4] Aristotle (1991) "De Anima" in Aristotle: Selected Works. Third Edition. Translated by Hippocrates G. Apostle and Lloyd P. Gerson. Grinnel, Iowa: The Peripatetic Press.
[5] Benjamin, Walter (1969[1936]) "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction." In Illuminations. Edited and with an introduction by Hannah Arendt. Translated by Harry Zohn. New York: Schocken Books.
[6] Brakhage, Stan (2001) "Metaphors on Vision." In Essential Brakhage: Selected Writings on Filmmaking by Stan Brakhage. Foreward by Bruce R. McPherson. Kingston, NY: Documentext.
[7] Deleuze, Gilles (1986) Cinema 1: The Movement Image. Translated by Hugh Tomlinson and Barbara Habberjam. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
[8] Elder, R. Bruce (1989) Image and Identity: Reflections on Canadian Film and Culture. Waterloo: Wilfred Laurier Press.
[9] Elder, R. Bruce (1995) "Michael Snow's Presence." In: Shedden, Jim (ed.) The Michael Snow Project: Presence and Absence, The Films of Michael Snow, 1956–1991. Toronto: Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 94–139.
[10] Elder, R. Bruce (1998) The Films of Stan Brakhage in the American tradition of Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, and Charles Olson. Waterloo: Wilfred Laurier Press.
[11] Frampton, Hollis (2009) "Notes on Filmmakers." In: Jenkins, Bruce (ed.) On the Camera Arts and Consecutive Matters: The Writings of Hollis Frampton. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
[12] Friedberg, Anne (2006) The Virtual Window: From Alberti to Microsoft. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
[13] Gadamer, Hans Georg (1960/2004) Truth and Method, 2nd revised edition. Translated by Joel Weinsheimer and Donald G. Marshall. New York: Continuum.
[14] Hance, Allen (1997) "The Hermeneutic Significance of the Sensus Communis." International Philosophical Quarterly 37 (2), 133–148. | DOI 10.5840/ipq19973727
[15] Jay, Martin (1988) "Scopic Regimes of Modernity." In: Foster, Hal (ed.) Vision and Visuality. New York: New Press, 3–27.
[16] Jordan, Randolph (2002) "Transcending the Fragmentation of Experience: The acousmêtre on the air in the films of Michael Snow." Offscreen 6 (11).
[17] Krauss, Rosalind (1999) A Voyage on the North Sea: Art in the Age of the Post-Medium Condition. New York: Thames and Hudson.
[18] Kroker, Arthur (1984) Technology and the Canadian Mind: Innis/McLuhan/Grant. Montreal: New World Perspectives.
[19] Marks, Laura U. (2000) The Skin of the Film: Intercultural Cinema, Embodiment and the Senses. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
[20] McLuhan, Marshall (1962) The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.