Direct Theory: Experimental Film/Video as Major Genre
Language: English
Published by Southern Illinois University Press, 1995
- Hardcover
- Used

Seller: Mispah books, Redhill, Surrey, United KingdomMispah books
AbeBooks seller since April 15, 2021
Condition: Used - Good
£ 101.00
Quantity: 1 available
Add to basketItem description from seller
Good. Dust Jacket NOT present. CD WILL BE MISSING. . SHIPS FROM MULTIPLE LOCATIONS.
Seller Inventory # ERICA80308093191954
- Title
- Direct Theory: Experimental Film/Video as Major Genre
- Author
- Small, Edward S.
- Publisher
- Southern Illinois University Press
- Publication year
- 1995
- Condition
- Good
- Dust jacket
- Dust Jacket Included
- Book Type
- book
- Binding
- hardcover
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 0809319195
- ISBN 13
- 9780809319190
"Art is thinking in images."?Victor Shklovsky
Undulating water patterns; designs etched directly into exposed film; computer- generated, pulsating, multihued light tapestries?the visual images that often constitute experimental film and video provide the basis for Edward S. Smalls argument for a new theory defining this often overlooked and misunderstood genre. In a radical revision of film theory incorporating a semiotic system, Small contends that experimental film/video constitutes a mode of theory that bypasses written or spoken words to directly connect Ferdinand de Saussures "signifier" and "signified," the image and the viewer. This new theory leads Small to develop a case for the establishment of experimental film/video as a major genre.
Small contends that the aesthetic of experimental film/video would best be understood as a coordinate major genre separate from genres such as fictive narrative and documentary. He employs eight experimental technical/structural characteristics to demonstrate this thesis: the autonomy of the artist or a-collaborative construction; economic independence; brevity; an affinity for animation and special effects that embraces video technology and computer graphics; use of the phenomenology of mental imagery, including dreams, reveries, and hallucinations; an avoidance of verbal language as either dialogue or narration; an exploration of nonnarrative structure; and a pronounced reflexivity?drawing the audiences attention to the art of the film through images rather than through the mediation of words.
Along with a theoretical approach, Small provides an overview of the historical development of experimental film as a genre. He covers seven decades beginning in France and Germany in the 1920s with European avant-garde and underground films and ends with a discussion of experimental videos of the 1990s. He highlights certain films and provides a sampling of frames from them to demonstrate the heightened reflexivity when images rather than words are the transmitters: for example, Ralph Steiners 1929 H2O, a twelve-minute, wordless, realistic study of water patterns, and Bruce Conners 1958 A Movie, which unites his themes of war-weapons-death and sexuality not by narrative digesis but by intellectual montage juxtapositions. Small also examines experimental video productions such as Stephen Becks 1977 Video Weavings, which has a simple musical score and abstract images recalling American Indian rugs and tapestries.
Small adds classic and contemporary film theory discussions to this historical survey to further develop his direct-theory argument and his presentation of experimental film/video as a separate major genre. He stresses that the function of experimental film/video is "neither to entertain nor persuade but rather to examine the quite omnipresent yet little understood pictos [semiotic symbols] that mark and measure our postmodern milieu."
"Synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
About the Author
Edward S. Small is a professor of theatre and film at the University of Kansas. He is a film theorist with a specialization in semiotics and a prize-winning film/video artist specializing in experimental production.
Edward S. Small is a professor of theatre and film at the University of Kansas.
"About the title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Mispah books
Redhill, Surrey, United Kingdom
AbeBooks seller since April 15, 2021
Shipping rates from United Kingdom to U.S.A.
| Item | 14 to 15 business days | 9 to 10 business days |
|---|---|---|
| First item | £ 25.00 | £ 27.00 |
Payment methods
Store description
We have collection of General books ,Science Books, Fiction & Academic Books. we ship from multiple location. Delhi, US and UK Return Address Mispah books 1A Beechwood Villas, Salford Redhill , Surrey RH1 5EY United Kingdom
Specialty
Fiction & Academic Books, Science, GeneralSeller's business information
Mispah books
United Kingdom
Terms of sale
We offer excellent customer service & easy return facility.
we ship from Multiple location,UK,India,US
Return address:
Mispah books
flat4 ,
Centenary court, 30 Warwick Road
Redhill , SURRE RH1 1FQ
United Kingdom
Right of withdrawal
If you are a consumer you can withdraw from the contract in accordance with the following. Consumer means any natural person who is acting for purposes which are outside his trade, business, craft or profession.
Information regarding the right of withdrawal
Statutory right to withdraw
You have the right to withdraw from this contract within 14 days without giving any reason.
The withdrawal period will expire after 14 days from the day on which you acquire, or a third party other than the carrier and indicated by you acquires, physical possession of the last good or the last lot or piece.
To exercise the right of withdrawal, electronically fill in and submit a clear statement on our website, under "My Purchases" in "My Account". We will communicate to you an acknowledgement of receipt of such a withdrawal on a durable medium (e.g. by e-mail) without delay.
To meet the withdrawal deadline, it is sufficient for you to send your communication concerning your exercise of the right of withdrawal before the withdrawal period has expired.
Effects of withdrawal
If you withdraw from this contract, we will reimburse to you all payments received from you, including the costs of delivery (except for the supplementary costs arising if you chose a type of delivery other than the least expensive type of standard delivery offered by us).
We may make a deduction from the reimbursement for loss in value of any goods supplied, if the loss is the result of unnecessary handling by you.
We will make the reimbursement without undue delay, and not later than 14 days after the day on which we are informed about your decision to withdraw from this contract.
We will make the reimbursement using the same means of payment as you used for the initial transaction, unless you have expressly agreed otherwise; in any event, you will not incur any fees as a result of such reimbursement.
We may withhold reimbursement until we have received the goods back, or you have supplied evidence of having sent back the goods, whichever is the earliest.
You shall send back the goods or hand them over to Mispah books, Redhill, Surrey, United Kingdom, without undue delay and in any event not later than 14 days from the day on which you communicate your withdrawal from this contract to us. The deadline is met if you send back the goods before the period of 14 days has expired. You will have to bear the direct cost of returning the goods. You are only liable for any diminished value of the goods resulting from the handling other than what is necessary to establish the nature, characteristics and functioning of the goods.
Exceptions to the right of withdrawal
The right of withdrawal does not apply to:
- The delivery of newspapers, journals or magazines with the exception of subscription contracts; and
- The supply of digital content which is not supplied on a tangible medium (e.g. on a CD or DVD) if you accepted when you placed your order that we could start to deliver it, and that you could not withdraw once delivery had started.