Hans Richter's expermental films from the 1920's were on display recently at
LACMA in Los Angeles and gave me a visual buzz. I was entranced by the bold shapes and rhythmic motion he conveyed with these short films Rhythmus 21, and 23.
In the first issue of G, Richter explained his method on one of his early films, either Rhythmus 21 or Rhythmus 23, like so:
The film is a play of relationships of light.
The relationships of light have both qualitative and quantitative character: degree of brightness, proportions, etc., etc.
The forms that emerge are, de facto, l i m i t s of processes in different dimensions (or of dimensions in a different temporal sequence). . . .
The true means of construction is light—the intensity and quantity of light.
The task for the whole is to shape the nature of the light—in the sense of a comprehensive perceptibility. . . .
The forms that emerge are n e i t h e r analogies nor symbols nor means to beauty.
In its sequence of events (its screening), this film communicates very authentically the relationships of tension and contrast in the light. These relationships consist of light and dark, small and large, slow and fast, horizontal and vertical, etc., etc.
An attempt has been made to organize the film such that the individual parts stand in active tension to one another and to the whole, such that the whole remains intellectually [geistig] mobile within itself.
