My argument is that documentary texts can be transformed into artworks via the
processes of intertextuality and detournement, when they are exhibited as video
installations. I argue that early 1920s modernist avant-garde painter-filmmakers
shared with contemporary documentary video installation painter-filmmakers
particular tendencies, characteristics and interests. The bodies of work in each period
explore the generic properties of documentary through (primarily) abstract visual
associations, rather than through a conventional linear space.
Important 1920s modernist avant-garde films by Dziga Vertov, Luis Bunuel, Salvador
Dali, Joris Ivens, Man Ray and others will be considered in highlighting the
relationship between documentary and avant-garde cinema. I use this discussion as a
basis for examining my own work: for the creative component of this thesis, I filmed
and edited a three screen video installation. I interviewed 67 Australian Muslims and
used these interviews to explore the use of documentary in video installation.
The theoretical framework I used is based on the following: Julia Kristeva?s notion of
intertextuality, derived from Mikhail Bahktin?s work on dialogism, to interpret how
documentary texts take on conventions appropriate to other genres; Guy Debord?s
concept of dé´¯urnement to provide a theory for the reuse of pre-existing artistic
elements found in documentary film; genre theory to interpret interactions between
documentary texts; Ludwig Wittgenstein?s notion of ?family resemblance? to explore
the indistinct boundaries of documentary; and Pascal Beausse?s analysis of how artists
have hijacked documentary. I also draw on Bill Nichols?s analytical framework of
documentary modes (poetic, expository, observational, participatory, performative,
reflexive) to explore documentary in cinema and installation art.
The documentary genre is not habitually discussed outside film, television,
photography or the web. My research demonstrates that the genre has found its place
in other areas of artistic practice and can also apply to medium of video installation.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/219588 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | de Berigny Wall (onacloV), Caitilin, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Creative Communication |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Caitilin de Berigny Wall (onacloV) |
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