If film is a language, can birds make movies?  An essay and two heretical descriptive systems

Tim Ridlen

About this exposition

The work presented here uses the analogy of artists as talking birds and draws on research from cognitive ethology, linguistics, and film studies to ask, what kind of knowledge does art produce? Drawn diagrams and short structural videos illustrate but perhaps complicate or even obfuscate various parts of the text. The starting point is a 1966 film by Pier Paolo Pasolini, 'The Hawks and the Sparrows', alongside his essay published with the script, 'The Cinema of Poetry'. That text made a compelling argument about the nature of cinematic language, while his film imagined a world in which birds could speak. This essay – made up of text, drawn diagrams, and short video loops – takes the next logical step and asks, can birds make movies? The question is left unanswered, at least explicitly, and remains a figure or stand in for artistic forms of knowledge, research, and thought. This essay may not be of interest to those studying linguistics, cognitive ethology, or film history in earnest, but rather to those interested in visual forms of knowledge production and communication, humanistic explorations of the natural sciences, and the history of ideas. This presentation is the first of a three-part series titled 'The Artist’s Field Library', an arrangement of essays and source materials that explore the mutually transformative relationship between art and the university. The second essay in the series deals with academic institutions as the site of artistic and political practices, as well as what stands to be won or lost, and the third deals with critical pedagogy.

type	research exposition
keywords	VIDEO, epistemology, ethology, linguistics, cinema
date	27/04/2017
published	27/04/2017
last modified	27/04/2017
status	published
affiliation	University of California San Diego
license	All rights reserved
url	https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/147814/147815
doi	https://doi.org/10.22501/jar.147814
published in	Journal for Artistic Research
portal issue	13.

name	Dr_Credits
copyright	Tim Ridlen
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Dr_Birds Make Movies Audience Effect
copyright	Tim Ridlen
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Dr_Color into Shape
copyright	Tim Ridlen
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Dr_Absent Sign
copyright	Tim Ridlen
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Dr_Moderate to Radical Invention
copyright	Tim Ridlen
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Dr_Semantic Field
copyright	Tim Ridlen
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Dr_Three Articulations
copyright	Tim Ridlen
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Dr_Logical Syllogisms
copyright	Tim Ridlen
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Pasolini's Crow Clip De-Interlaced
copyright	Pier Paolo Pasolini, Arco Film
license	All rights reserved
usages	video

name	Newman Quote Full De-Interlaced
copyright	Emile de Antonio
license	All rights reserved
usages	video

name	Storehouse of Language_Deinterlaced no titles
copyright	Tim Ridlen
license	All rights reserved
usages	video

name	01_The Storehouse of Language copy
copyright	Tim Ridlen
license	All rights reserved
usages	image

name	Birds Make Movies (Audience Effect)
copyright	Tim Ridlen
license	All rights reserved
usages	video

name	07_Birds Make Movies (Audience Effect) copy
copyright	Tim Ridlen
license	All rights reserved
usages	image

name	Color into Shape De-Interlaced
copyright	Tim Ridlen
license	All rights reserved
usages	video

name	06_Color Into Shape copy
copyright	Tim Ridlen
license	All rights reserved
usages	image

name	Absent Sign DeInterlaced
copyright	Tim Ridlen
license	All rights reserved
usages	video

name	05_The Absent Sign copy
copyright	Tim Ridlen
license	All rights reserved
usages	image

name	invention of lang De-Interlaced
copyright	Tim Ridlen
license	All rights reserved
usages	video

name	04_Moderate to Radical Invention copy
copyright	Tim Ridlen
license	All rights reserved
usages	image

name	Semantic Field De-Interlaced
copyright	Tim Ridlen
license	All rights reserved
usages	video

name	03_The Semantic Field copy
copyright	Tim Ridlen
license	All rights reserved
usages	image

name	Three Articulations De-Interlaced
copyright	Tim Ridlen
license	All rights reserved
usages	video

name	02_Three Articulations copy
copyright	Tim Ridlen
license	All rights reserved
usages	image

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If film is a language, can birds make movies? An essay and two heretical descriptive systems (2017)

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