From: esperanza collado (email suppressed)
Date: Sat Jun 07 2008 - 11:26:42 PDT
Hello there,
very interesting conversation about found footage work on film... I think
the term objet trouvé could be the source -or at least quite relates to that
of "found footage". I dont know the origin of the latter but the notion of
objet trouvé is often associated to Marcel Duchamp's La Fountain and other
Ready-Made pieces, and maybe loosely to chance operations too (and therefore
John Cage and the Fluxus movement).
I would be interesting to investigate connections in experimental poetry of
the 1920s too...
another tangential thought: I recently read Peter Burger's "Theory of the
Avant-Garde", which is a very exciting approach on avant-garde practices on
the whole. there is a chapter about certain principles often found in
avant-garde works and, without intending to construct categories, Burger
states that notions of allegory, chance, montage are significant in such
works. He never talks directly about found footage, but there are lots of
connections... he says, for instance, that the procedures invented by the
avant-garde with antiartistic intend are used with artistic ends...
I just found collage and montage -as principles rather than techniques!- so
interesting, I didnt know -as David said- artists refuse in current times to
use the term. Anyhow, here are two magnificent quotes I alway know by memory
(!) about montage-collage:
Eisenstein: "the form of montage is a restoration of the laws of the process
of thought, which in turn restores moving reality in process of unrolling".
Burroughs: "the cut-up technique is closer to the actual factors of
perception. When looking at a window, going down the street, looking around
a room, etc., consciousness is being cut but random factors. Life is a
cut-up rather than a straight linear narrative."
sorry if i didnt help. hopefully it was slightly amusing!
e.
2008/6/7 David Tetzlaff <email suppressed>:
> A collage can include a variety of materials, which are not necessarily
> found objects.
>
> A found-footage film may or may not be edited in a manner that fits the
> term 'collage' and in fact, (c.f. Ken Jacobs 'Perfect Film' and 'Urban
> Peasants') may not be edited at all. (The transformations of found footage
> in the context of Jacobs' Nervous System performances doesn't fit the
> concept of collage really either...). Other filmmakers have created works
> that focus on altering the image of found works, rather than cutting and
> pasting: Naomi Uman's 'Removed', Peggy Ahwesh's 'Color of Love'. Perhaps
> 'found footage' is employed because it fits a wider set of practices, and
> focuses on the act of appropriation rather than reconfiguration.
>
> And it's not exactly that one term has replaced the other. People still
> refer to collage: there was a conference at the U of Iowa a few years ago
> called "Collage as Cultural Intervention" covering everything from Dada to
> hip-hop.
>
> It does seem though that the term collage has fallen somewhat out of
> fashion, that many people who are making collage works don't use the term or
> don't use it much. Perhaps it gained a sort of lumpen connotation by its use
> in grade school art assignments, art therapy, etc. that contemporary
> artistes want to avoid?
>
> Just speculation, which doesn't answer your question, of course....
>
>
>
> does anybody knows when, where and by whom the term "found-footage"
>> was invented, replacing the older term "collage" for those films?
>>
>> Thanx in advance for any hint,
>>
>> Marcel
>>
>> Marcel Schwierin ::: curator ::: filmmaker
>> Chausseestr. 11 ::: 10115 Berlin ::: Germany
>> email suppressed
>>
>
>
> __________________________________________________________________
> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
>
-- Esperanza Collado