[00:00 - 00:14]
Green text: EMPTY OBJECTS
White text: A CHARTED ACCOUNT OF THE THEORY OF VISUAL INFORMATION FROM THE MALEVICH AND MONDRIAN TO MODERN ADVERTISING A Telidon Bookwork by Douglas Porter
Image: A blank grey face appears over the Empty Objects title. Parts fill in one by one. The top of a white shirt, nose, chin and eye contours, eyebrows, red lips and a black circular pendant
[00:15 - 00:32]
Green text: TO THE READER: WHEN YOU SEE A LITTLE YELLOW [box] WITH AN [chevron pointing right] PLEASE PRESS [right pointing chevron] ON YOUR KEYPAD. Thank you
A chart appears: Title: CHARTED ACCOUNT NO S144256-FR
Four vertical columns contain the headings: Subject, Nation, Balance, Politics
Row by row, the entries read: MONDRIAN, DUTCH, 48790.8f, NO MALEVICH, RUSSIA, 55.3658W, NO MARINETTI, ITALY, 387HBD37, YES RODCHENKO, RUSSIA, 63T5 HL21, YES V DOESBURG, DUTCH , Y09.R3W12, NO OUD, DUTCH, 5N3.B2K, NO LISSITZKY, RUSSIA, YYZ45B7, YES TATLIN, RUSSIA, 43RCX.84, YES
[00:33 - 00:40]
Text: DE STIJL is THE STYLE
[00:40 - 01:17]
Text: DE STIJL WAS AN ART MOVEMENT BEGUN IN 1917 BY T. VAN DOESBURG WHOSE MAJOR ARTIST WAS PIET MONDRIAN MONDRIAN DEVELOPED THE ART THEORY CALLED NEO/PLASTICISM IN 1923 MONDRIAN WROTE: {{ Neo/plasticism broke with the form altogether by abstracting it and reducing it to the pure elements of form. }} VAN DOESBURG DEMONSTRATED AN OBJECT AESTHETICALLY TRANSFIGURED ACCORDING TO NEO/PLASTIC PRINCIPLES, IN THIS CASE A COW.
[01:18 - 01:32]
Caption: The photograph
Image: Above the caption, a grey line grows into a rectangle that fills the screen.
In the square light and dark grey blotches fill in the space. Black fills in the body of what eventually resembles a multi hued cow.
Below the cow the text changes to: Form intact - Relationships Accentuated
[01:33 - 01:40]
Shapes in blacks and greys fill in and cover the cow.
[01:41 - 01:48]
Below the black and grey shapes the text changes to: The Form Abolished
Additional squares and rectangles of different shapes and hues of grey continue to layer over each other.
[01:49 - 02:00]
The rectangles continue to shift in outlines and hues.
The title under the rectangles and squares reads: NOW DOES THIS LOOK LIKE A COW TO YOU?
Image: A chevron with a red background appears at the end of the sentence.
[02:01 - 02:12]
TO THE READER: YOU FAILED TO EXECUTE INSTRUCTIONS AS GIVEN. YOU PRESSED [green chevron] IN RESPONSE TO THE SIGNAL [black chevron in a red box] TRY AGAIN. Thank you. [black chevron in a yellow box]
[02:13 - 02:23]
PERCENTAGE RELATIVE INFLUENCE ON THE MODERN ART MOVEMENT
A 5-section Pie chart appears. The labels for the sections read: MONDRIAN 28% VAN DOESBURG 22% MALEVICH 13% LISSITSKY 20% MARINETTI 17%
[02:23 - 02:31]
A Red square appears on the black background. Below the caption reads: Does this square express your anger?
[02:32 - 3:05]
Text: MONDRIAN is dutch for M O D E R N MONDRIAN ABANDONED ANY ATTEMPT AT ABSTRACTION FROM NATURE HE STUCK RIGIDLY TO PURE RECTANGULAR FORMS AND PURE COLOURS.
Image: White square above a horizontal red bar. A blue rectangle appears beside the white square. all are separated by a strip of black. The small yellow box containing the chevron appears at the end of the red bar, making it a part of the
Flickers of colour.
A black and grey grid of tight squares. Some grid sections are half-squares. Some of the shapes are filled in with colour, some grey and some black.
Caption: Composition with red, yellow, and blue
The chevron appears in one of the yellow squares.
[03:06 - 03:15]
Text: WHICH PRIMARY COLOUR GOES WITH EACH PRIMARY FORM?
Images appear above the caption:
Blue triangle, red circle, yellow square
[03:16 - 03:29]
Text: T. VAN DOESBURG DID NOT FIND THE RECTANGULAR SO SACRED AND VENTURED INTO THE WORLD OF THE 45 DEGREE DIAGONAL.
Image: A diagonal line whips from bottom right to top left. A grey square is populated by red, white, black, yellow and blue 4-sided shapes, all of which include a 45 degree angle.
Title: Countercomposition. 1923
[03:30 - 03:48]
Text: MONDRIAN AND OTHER MEMBERS OF THE DE STIJL MOVEMENT CAME FROM STRICT DUTCH CALVINIST BACKGROUNDS. THEY WANTED TO PLACE MODERN MAN WITHIN ART, NOT OUTSIDE LOOKING AT IT.
[03:49 - 03:57]
Text: WHICH IS MORE APPROPRIATE ?
Image: A single line drawing of a triangle, circle and square in a horizontal row.
The shapes fill with a single colour:
The triangle fills with blue, the circle red, and the square yellow.
Colours of shapes switch to yellow triangle, blue circle, red square
[04:00 - 04:24]
Text: In his creations the abstract artist frees himself from individual sentiments and from particular impressions which he receives from outside, and that he breaks loose from the domination of individual inclinations within him.
Image: Lines delineating various sizes of rectangles cover over the text. The delinations shift. Occasionally a rectangle is filled in with one of the three colours (blue, red or yellow), and no more than two coloured rectangles appear at the same time.
[04:25 - 05:05]
Text: MONDRIAN WAS COMMITTED TO AN ART WHICH HE SAW LEADING MAN TOWARDS A SOCIAL UTOPIA
Text: DE STIJL WAS TO LIBERATE MAN FROM THE ARBITRARY AND ACCIDENTAL.
Text: ITS CONTENT WAS AN ELEMENTARY HARMONY WHICH WOULD EMBODY AN ESSENTIAL BALANCE, A REFLECTION OF THE UNIVERSAL HARMONY.
Image: The words turn to black on the black screen. Reproduction of his painting style covers the words. Lines delineating various sizes of rectangles shift. Occasionally a few rectangles are filled in with one of the three colours (blue, red or yellow), and more than one rectangle sometimes contains that colour.
Black squares cover over the screen. The little yellow box with a right-pointing chevron appears in the middle of the screen.
[05:06 - 05:18]
Text: The style of the future will above all be a style of liberation and vital repose –- first and foremost truth,
function, construction, no flaws resulting from individual reflection.
[05:19 - 05:33]
Text: WHICH IS MORE REPRESENTATIVE?
Image: A single line drawing of a triangle, circle and square in a horizontal row.
The shapes fill with a single colour:
The triangle fills with blue, the circle red, and the square yellow.
Colours of shapes switch to yellow triangle, blue circle, red square
They change to red triangle, yellow circle, blue square
[05:34 - 05:48]
Text: If we can detect the true life behind the tumult, if we can see the consciously abstract spirit at work behind all concrete phenomena, then our age is indeed abstract/real. Modern life is no longer natural – but abstract/real Piet Mondrian, 1917.
A red triangle juts out over the words from the right. An aqua coloured irregular shape covers some of the words at left.
[05:49 - 05:54]
Text: Does this square express your love?
Image: Blue square
[05:55 - 06:19]
Text: OBJECTIONABLE LESSONS Number one. EMPTY OBJECTS WAITING TO BE FILLED
[blue square] THE OBJECT RECEIVES THE PROJECTION OF THE VIEWER
[blue square] THE UNIVERSAL non/objective image IS MORE RECEPTIVE TO THE PROJECTION OF THE INDIVIDUAL.
[blue square] THE UNIVERSAL IMAGE IS LESS STYLISH AND IDIOSYNCRATIC THAN THE DECORATIVE/INTERPRETIVE ART OF THE PREVIOUS CENTURIES
[06:20 - 06:26]
Image: Flickers of colour. A yellow square takes up most of the screen. It turns red. Red white and blue flicker turns the square black with a blue outline.
Inside the square is the text: THE CASE FOR CASIMIR
[06:27 - 06:52]
Text: IN THE TIME BEFORE THE NEW SOCIALIST STATE, A YOUNG RUSSIAN PAINTER, CASIMIR MALEVICH, WAS CONCERNED WITH RESOLVING THE DISSONANCES WHICH RESULT FROM THE CONJUNCTION OF TWO FORMS
[chevron] the 3 dimensional visual reality and the 2/dimensional picture surface [chevron]
OF NOT SIMPLY “RENDERING OBJECTS, BUT MAKING THE PICTURE”
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Text: {{ The emotions which are kindled in the human being are stronger than the human being himself…They must at all costs find an outlet-- They must take an overt form – they must be communicated or put to work }}
[07:13 - 07:18]
Image: Yellow square
Text: Does this square express your hatred?
[07:19 - 07:39]
Text: IN 1913-15, AFTER PASSING THROUGH CUBISM AND CUBO-FUTURISM, MALEVICH INVENTED THE ART MOVEMENT CALLED SUPREMATISM. HE ARGUED FOR THE SUPREMACY OF PURE FEELING IN CREATED ART. ART IN THE COURSE OF TIME HAD BECOME OBSCURED BY THE ACCUMULATION OF “THINGS”
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Text: HE SAID {{No more likeness to reality No idealistic images -- Nothing but DESERT! }} HE WAS VERY INSISTENT TO PROVE HIS POINT HE MADE THE FIRST SUPREMATIST PAINTING.
Image: A triangle juts out right and partially intersects an irregular shape on the left.
[07:55 - 08:11]
Text: The basic suprematist element; The square . 1913
Image: A black square has a thick white outline.
Text inside the square: THE SQUARE equals FEELING THE WHITE FIELD Equals THE VOID BEYOND THIS FEELING
[08:12 - 08:37]
Text: This was no ‘empty square’ which I had exhibited but rather the feeling of non-objectivity. Even I was gripped by a kind of timidity bordering on fear when it came to leaving ‘the world of will and idea’, in which I had lived and worked and in the reality of which I had believed.
Text: But a blissful sense of liberating non-objectivity drew me forth into the ‘desert’ where nothing is real except feeling …and so feeling became the substance of my life. [blue square] THIS WAS FOLLOWED BY OTHER SUPREMATIST PAINTINGS --
[08:38 - 09:08]
Text: [green square] THE FIRST SUPREMATIST FORM TO DEVELOP OUT OF THE SQUARE. 1913.
Image: A white square. Taking up its top left quarter is a black circle.
Text: [green square] THE SECOND BASIC SUPREMATIST ELEMENT. 1913.
Image: A white square. A thick black “t” is inside.
Text: [green square] ELONGATION OF THE SUPREMATIST SQUARE. 1913.
Image: A white square. The middle vertical third is taken up by a black rectangle.
Text: [green square] MOVEMENT OF THE SUPREMATIST SQUARE. 1913.
Image: A white square. Two thick black adjacent rectangles. One starts at the top and goes to centre, the other starts at centre and goes to the bottom of the white square.
[09:08 - 09:28]
Text: The art of the past which stood in the service of religion and the state, will take on new life in the pure art of suprematism, which will build up a new world, -- the world of feeling…[pink square] MALEVICH WENT ON TO MAKE MORE SUPREMATIST PAINTINGS THAT WERE LESS PURE AND MORE SUGGESTIVE OF REPRESENTATION.
[09:29 - 09:36]
Text: [blue square] SUPREMATIST ELEMENTS EXPRESSING THE SENSATION OF FLIGHT. 1915.
Image: A white square. It contains four sparse, thin rectangles. Two thicker rectangles at the upper left. The shorter of the two sits perpendicular to the other, near the top. The image is vaguely reminiscent of a crude airplane shape.
[09:38 - 09:44]
Text: [blue square] COMPOSITION EXPRESSING MAGNETIC ATTRACTION. 1915. A white square. A black rod appears diagonally up from bottom left to top right. Several smaller black rectangles are clustered over it or near it.
[09:45 - 10:07]
Text: [red square] TO THE MODERN VIEWER IT IS DIFFICULT TO APPRECIATE AN EMPTY SQUARE
Image: White square
Text: AS THE EXPRESSION OF PURE FEELING.
Text: [aqua square] WHAT FEELING THE VIEWER SENSES IS HIS OWN, PROJECTED ONTO
Image: White square
Text: THE OPEN FLAT SURFACE AND REFLECTED BACK UPON HIMSELF.
[10:08 - 10:28]
Text: OBJECTIONABLE LESSONS Number Two EMPTY OBJECTS empty of feeling void [red square] THE EMPTY OBJECT PROVIDES NO IDENTIFICATION – IT IS TOTALLY PASSIVE IT IS NON/RESPONSIVE. [red square] THE EMPTY OBJECT IS A FLAT SURFACE WHICH DOES NOT LIMIT confirm or deny THE INDIVIDUAL’S EVERY EMOTIONAL AND IDEOLOGICAL PROJECTION.
[10:29 - 10:45]
Text: [pink square] THE SQUARE IS PURE FEELING -- THE FEELING OF THE VIEWER
Image: White square. Two thick black adjacent rectangles. One starts at the top and goes to centre, the other starts at centre and goes to the bottom of the white square.
Image: A thick black Swastika fills the white square
[10:46 - 10:49]
Image: An aqua coloured rectangle. Additional rectangles appear inside each other. Red, yellow, then a green square. Black rectangles delete the coloured shapes.
[10:50 -11:15]
Text: The created form is the reflection of a feeling in a particular form.
Text: [blue square] FOR MALEVICH, THE BLACK SQUARE WAS THE NEW ICON WHICH REPLACED THE ICONS OF THE RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH. THE BLACK SQUARE CONTINUED TH OLD FUNCTION FTHE ICON AS THE REFLECTOR OF THE DESIRES OF THE VIEWER.
[11:16 - 11:24]
Text: MODERN SWISS
Image: Gridlines appear. An outline of a wedge of swiss cheese is drawn on top of the grid. The cheese is filled with solid yellow.
[11:25 - 12:33]
Text: DADA DATA [blue horizontal rectangle] CONSTRUCTIVISM AND SUPREMATISM WERE REGARDED AS THE STYLE OF THE PROLETARIAT REVOLUTION. [pink horizontal rectangle] UNTIL 1921 WHEN LENIN DISCOURAGED TESE MOVEMENTS AS UNFIT FOR POLITICAL PROPAGANDA AND ENDORSED INSTEADASOCIALIST REALISM. [red horizontal rectangle] LENIN HAD WITNESSED THE GOINGS-ON OF THE DADISTS DURING THE ZURICH PERIOD (1916) - HE LIVED NEXT DOOR TO HE CABARET VOLTAIRE. [grey horizontal rectangle] HE CALLED THE RUSSIAN MODERNIST MOVEMENTS A LEFT WING INSTANTILE DISORDER [red horizontal rectangle] HAD CIRCUMSTANCES BEEN OTHERWISE, THE COMMUNISTS MIGHT HAE ERFECTED A MASTERY OF THE PROPOGANDA TECHNIQUES SO ABLY HANLED BY ADOLF HITLER AND WOULD NOW BE RULING THE WORLD.
[12:34 - 12:43]
Text: BUT YOU THINK TO YOURSELF: Advertising is not this blank square, this empty object. It is usually beautifully designed, superbly articulated, clearly defined and with breathtaking photographs.
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Image: Black screen
[12:50 -12:59]
Image: A white square. A red triangle juts out over the white from the right. An aqua coloured irregular shape appears on the left. The view moves back. The aqua coloured shape is a slightly slanted, blocky lowercase “t”. To its left is a dark blue square. The view moves back further. The letters C R E S T are in a white rectangle. A red triangle juts out from the right.
[13:00 - 13:12]
Text: MUCH of Modern Art is a response to the CAMERA THE CAMERA WAS AN INVENTION THAT CREATED THE HITHERTO IMPOSSIBLE - A 2/DIMENSIONAL OBJECT.
Image: A large white outline of a square on the left. A small yellow outline of a circle at centre. A small white outline of a square-ish rectangle is close to the circle on it’s right. The corner points from both shapes narrow to a single point in the centre of the yellow circle outline. The circle is labeled “CAMERA LENS”
[13:13 - 13:21]
Text: IN GEOMETRY, THE WORLD OF 2 DIMENSIONS IS ONLY A PLANE, A SURFACE – IT HAS NO DEPTH.
Image: Above the words, on the left is a square with a white outline. Four shapes indicate the 2-dimensional square pivoting to show only the single line of its edge. The diagram is crossed out.
[13:22 - 13:31]
Text: THE CAMERA REALIZED THE THEORY OF LINEAR PERSPECTIVE (based on the perception of one eye) IN THE FORM OF A SURFACE REALITY WHICH IS AT ONCE STATIC AND (ideally) PERMANENT .
Image: The graphic of a grey eye is slightly to the right and below a grid of 7 columns and 3 rows. The outer corner points of the grid narrow to a single point in the centre of the eye
[13:32 - 13:46]
Image: The grid squares fill with blue, yellow or red. The words above disappear. On either side of the grid, on the same horizontal strip, the grid and colour palate are stretched and condensed to create a colourful band.
Text: A PHOTOGRAPH IS THE MOMENTARY FREEZING OR ANAESTHETIZING OF THE PERPETUALLY CHANGING PLANAR GRID SUSPENDED BEFORE THE INDIVIDUAL EYE OF EVERY INDIVIDUAL.
[13:47 - 14:02]
Text: WHICH ESTABLISHES A MORE DIRECT RELATIONSHIP?
Image: A single line drawing of a triangle, circle and square in a horizontal row. The shapes fill with a single colour: The triangle fills with blue, the circle red, and the square yellow. Colours of shapes switch to yellow triangle, blue circle, red square. They change to red triangle, yellow circle, blue square. Blue triangle, red circle, yellow square. Yellow triangle, blue circle, red square. Red triangle, yellow circle, blue square
[14:04 - 14:20]
Text: THE PHOTOGRAPH HAS A SELF/CONTRADICTORY NATURE – IT IS A 2/DIMENSIONAL SURFACE REALITY
Image, far below the words: A grey rectangle encases a tight grid.
Text: AND AT THE SAME TIME IT IS A 3/DIMENSIONAL OBJECT WITH ALL THE PHYSICALITY OF A TABLE OR STEREO TAPE DECK.
Image: Beside the grid rectangle: A grey rectangle is layered over a white rectangle. The white rectangle’s upper and rightmost edges are visible, giving the grey rectangle the illusion of three dimensions.
Text: IT IS A NON/OBJECTIVE OBJECT.
[14:20 - 14:28]
Image: A yellow square. A red triangle juts out over the red from the right. An aqua coloured irregular shape appears on the left. They are the same shapes from the close view of the Crest logo. Both the Red triangle and aqua t are copied and pasted just slight closer to the centre several times, until they seem to impale each other.
[14:29 - 14:45]
OBJECTIONABLE LESSONS Number three EMPTY OBJECTS sources of paranoia [black square] THE INDIVIDUAL LIVES IN A TOTALLY REFLECTING WORLD. [black square] THE INDIVIDUAL LIVE WITH ONLY HIS OWN PROJECTIONS. [black square] NO WONDER HE DOES NOT KNOW WHAT HE THINKS. [black square] HE KNOWS ONLY HIS OWN THOUGHTS.
[14:45 -14:47]
Image: A blank grey face appears. Parts fill in one by one. The top of a white shirt, nose, chin and eye contours, eyebrows and red lips.
[14:48 - 15:17]
Text: THE CAMERA CONTINUED THE PROCESS BEGUN IN LINEAR PERSPECTIVE OF CONVERTING VISUAL REALITY INTO VISUAL INFORMATION. VISUAL REALITY IS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD AS RECEIVED BY THE INDIVIDUAL THROUGH BINOCULAR VISION (two eyes). VISUAL INFORMATION IS THE ORGANIZATION OF PERCEPTION INTO DEFINABLE CATEGORIES OF SENSE DATA. IT MAKES INTERPRETATION INHERENT IN PERCEPTION. IT CREATES WHAT YOU MIGHT CALL ‘SELECTIVE VIEWING’. IT IS MONOCULAR (one eye).
[15:18 - 15:19]
Image: Black screen
[15:20 - 15:34]
Image: A small irregular grey shape with two darker grey protrusions.
Text: VISUAL INFORMATION IS LIKE THE PHOTOGRAPH ITSELF –IT REMOVES THE ACTUAL OBJECTS FROM SIGHT (the non/objective) AND REPLACES THEM WITH AN OBJECT (the information)
[15:34 - 15:39]
Image: A grey irregular shape appears on the left of a black background. Some yellow details splash in on the left. A red hook caps the end of a part of the grey shape.
[15:40 - 15:56]
Text: MODERN ADVERTISING HAS BEEN A PROCESS OF LEARNING TO MANIPULATE THE EMOTIONAL POWER OF A TOTALLY FLAT REFLECTIVE SURFACE (the Black Square). FOR MODERN MAN IT IS NO LONGER ENOUGH FOR HIM TO RECEIVE SIGHT – IT MUST BE MADE INTO INFORMATION AND ADVERTISING PROVIDES THIS WITH THE VISUALS WHICH ARE ALREADY CODED.
[15:57 - 16:16]
Text: OBJECTIONABLE LESSONS Number four THE SECRET OF ALL ADVERTISING AND ALL PROPOGANDIZING CONTROL REALITIES BY PROVIDING THE VISUAL INFORMATION REQUIRED IN A FORM WHICH ABSORBS SOME OF THE VIEWER’S PROJECTIONS WHILE TOTALLY REFLECTING OTHERS IN AN AMPLIFIED FORM SO AS TO FILL THE SCREEN OF HIS MIND.
[16:16 - 16:53]
Image: A blank grey face appears over a black background. Parts fill in one by one. The top of a white shirt, nose, chin and eye contours, eyebrows, red lips and a black circular pendant. A bright pink sweater fills in over the white shirt.
The small irregular grey shape with two darker grey protrusions appears at the closure of the pink sweater.
The grey irregular shape reappears left. It is the back of an office chair with an arm.
Behind the figure two yellow imperfect circles appear above a dark grey rectangle attached to a yellow rectangle. It vaguely resembles a knife with a yellow handle.
A four by four grid is layered on top of the sitting figure. The grid turns into an 8 by 9 grid.
Squares of the grid fill with white, light or dark grey, pink, yellow or red, covering part of the figure. The leftmost grid squares double size uniformly, this repeats until a solid white rectangle covers the left side of the image.
The white rectangle covers the entire image. The rectangle turns black with a white outline.
[16:54 - 16:59]
Image: Aqua square
Text: Does this square express your sincerity?
[17:00 - 17:04]
Image: A line drawing of a rectangle fills with decreasing sizes of rectangles. Text in the smallest, innermost rectangle reads: THE END.
Video description by Kat Germain. Modified by Shauna Jean Doherty.
