Exposition

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

Tim Ridlen
open exposition

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.
typeresearch exposition
keywordsVIDEO, epistemology, ethology, linguistics, cinema
date27/04/2017
published27/04/2017
last modified27/04/2017
statuspublished
share statusprivate
affiliationUniversity of California San Diego
licenseAll rights reserved
urlhttps://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/147814/147815
doihttps://doi.org/10.22501/jar.147814
published inJournal for Artistic Research
portal issue13.


Simple Media

id name copyright license
341083 Newman Quote Full De-Interlaced Emile de Antonio All rights reserved
341082 Pasolini's Crow Clip De-Interlaced Pier Paolo Pasolini, Arco Film All rights reserved
210703 Dr_Title Tim Ridlen All rights reserved
206113 Storehouse of Language_Deinterlaced no titles Tim Ridlen All rights reserved
206079 Three Articulations De-Interlaced Tim Ridlen All rights reserved
206078 Storehouse of Language De-Interlaced Tim Ridlen All rights reserved
206077 Semantic Field De-Interlaced Tim Ridlen All rights reserved
206076 invention of lang De-Interlaced Tim Ridlen All rights reserved
206075 Color into Shape De-Interlaced Tim Ridlen All rights reserved
206074 Birds Make Movies (Audience Effect) Tim Ridlen All rights reserved
206073 Absent Sign DeInterlaced Tim Ridlen All rights reserved
206063 Dr_Credits Tim Ridlen All rights reserved
205985 Field Library Text 2 Tim Ridlen All rights reserved
205977 Dr_Title Tim Ridlen All rights reserved
205971 Film is a Language Tim Ridlen All rights reserved
205966 Invention of Language Tim Ridlen All rights reserved
205778 Dr_Moderate to Radical Invention Tim Ridlen All rights reserved
205772 Dr_Semantic Field Tim Ridlen All rights reserved
205763 Dr_Three Articulations Tim Ridlen All rights reserved
205758 Birds Make Movies Single Tim Ridlen All rights reserved
205751 Color into Matter Tim Ridlen All rights reserved
205750 Absent Sign w Sound v2 Tim Ridlen All rights reserved
205748 Semantic Field Tim Ridlen All rights reserved
205744 Three Articulations Tim Ridlen All rights reserved
205610 Dr_Logical Syllogisms Tim Ridlen All rights reserved
205608 Dr_Intertitles Tim Ridlen All rights reserved
205607 Dr_Intertitles Tim Ridlen All rights reserved
205605 Dr_Color into Shape Tim Ridlen All rights reserved
205604 Dr_Birds Make Movies Audience Effect Tim Ridlen All rights reserved
205603 Dr_Absent Sign Tim Ridlen All rights reserved
205601 Dr_Absent Sign Reference Tim Ridlen All rights reserved
147870 titles_Quotes Tim Ridlen All rights reserved
147846 excerpt from Painters Painting Emile De Antonio All rights reserved
147842 Page 2 Tim Ridlen All rights reserved
147824 excerpt from Hawks and Sparrows Pier Paolo Pasolini, Arco Film All rights reserved
147821 Field Library Text Tim Ridlen All rights reserved
356172 01_The Storehouse of Language copy Tim Ridlen All rights reserved
356173 02_Three Articulations copy Tim Ridlen All rights reserved
356174 03_The Semantic Field copy Tim Ridlen All rights reserved
356175 04_Moderate to Radical Invention copy Tim Ridlen All rights reserved
356176 05_The Absent Sign copy Tim Ridlen All rights reserved
356177 06_Color Into Shape copy Tim Ridlen All rights reserved
356178 07_Birds Make Movies (Audience Effect) copy Tim Ridlen All rights reserved

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