動(dòng)態(tài)影像創(chuàng)作方式的演變與發(fā)展
——從實(shí)驗(yàn)電影、錄像藝術(shù)到數(shù)字動(dòng)態(tài)影像

岳明慧 郝 銳 文 岳中生 譯/

動(dòng)態(tài)影像創(chuàng)作方式的演變與發(fā)展
——從實(shí)驗(yàn)電影、錄像藝術(shù)到數(shù)字動(dòng)態(tài)影像

岳明慧 郝 銳 文 岳中生 譯/

20世紀(jì)的先鋒派把以技術(shù)為基礎(chǔ)的藝術(shù)（從攝影到電影，再到錄像，直到虛擬現(xiàn)實(shí)以及介于其間更多的其他形式）引入到了曾經(jīng)被工程師和技術(shù)人員占據(jù)的領(lǐng)域。從早期的實(shí)驗(yàn)電影、錄像藝術(shù)到數(shù)字動(dòng)態(tài)影像，他們把所有的新材料、新媒介都引入了藝術(shù)，為藝術(shù)創(chuàng)作帶來了更大的自由。本文試圖通過梳理動(dòng)態(tài)影像的發(fā)展脈絡(luò)及各階段創(chuàng)作方式的演變與發(fā)展，來探討動(dòng)態(tài)影像這門藝術(shù)在新的技術(shù)語境中如何以不同的方式不斷再現(xiàn)、更新和發(fā)展，為藝術(shù)創(chuàng)作提供更自由、更豐富、更多元的可能性。

創(chuàng)作方式；動(dòng)態(tài)影像；實(shí)驗(yàn)電影；錄像藝術(shù)；數(shù)字動(dòng)態(tài)影像

梅雅?黛倫 午后的迷惘 1943年Maya Deren, Meshes of the Afternoon, 1943

安迪?沃霍爾 沉睡（左），帝國大廈（右）Andy Warhol, Sleep (left),Empire (right)

維托?阿孔奇 主題歌 1973年Vito Acconci, Theme Song, 1973

一、實(shí)驗(yàn)電影

1.實(shí)驗(yàn)電影的反敘事性

當(dāng)我們談?wù)搶?shí)驗(yàn)電影的時(shí)候，它經(jīng)常被說成是“先鋒的”。事實(shí)上，在“實(shí)驗(yàn)電影”一詞當(dāng)中的“實(shí)驗(yàn)”就很好地說明了這類電影的明顯特征，它沒有特定的表達(dá)框架，沒有傳統(tǒng)的故事情節(jié)，而是有極強(qiáng)的“反敘事性”。它用非常規(guī)的敘事順序反對(duì)電影的敘事，去進(jìn)行一種革命性的探索，更多的是用抽象的鏡頭、片段去強(qiáng)調(diào)電影的表現(xiàn)性，而不去敘述故事，進(jìn)而去表現(xiàn)遠(yuǎn)離現(xiàn)實(shí)的抽象化和潛意識(shí)化的傾向性，它傾向于對(duì)夢(mèng)幻、恐懼、欲望的表達(dá)，更注重象征化與心理化的表現(xiàn)。

瓊?喬納斯 左側(cè)，右側(cè) 1972年Joan Jonas, Left Side, Right Side, 1972

白南準(zhǔn) 電子高速公路 1995年NamJune Paik, Electronic Superhighway, 1995

保羅?菲佛 約翰3：16 2000年P(guān)aul Pfeiffer, John 3: 16, 2000

2.出現(xiàn)的背景

（1）實(shí)驗(yàn)電影起源于歐洲的“先鋒派”電影。第一次世界大戰(zhàn)摧毀了法、德的電影企業(yè)，只有美國電影得到發(fā)展，逐漸形成了稱霸世界以商業(yè)電影為主的電影工業(yè)。歐洲電影重新崛起，不可能模仿和重復(fù)美國的電影模式，因此他們只有在藝術(shù)上創(chuàng)新，才能與美國的商業(yè)電影抗衡，并建立自己的電影藝術(shù)。

（2）文化上，19世紀(jì)末20世紀(jì)初，在歐洲逐漸興起的現(xiàn)代主義文藝思潮進(jìn)入電影。現(xiàn)代哲學(xué)中的存在主義哲學(xué)，強(qiáng)調(diào)人的存在本質(zhì)和人的自由選擇；現(xiàn)代科學(xué)的相對(duì)論，改變了傳統(tǒng)的時(shí)空觀念；弗洛伊德的無意識(shí)心理等學(xué)說都為實(shí)驗(yàn)電影提供了文化的動(dòng)機(jī)和背景，影響了實(shí)驗(yàn)電影的創(chuàng)作。

3.部分反敘事性傾向的實(shí)驗(yàn)電影

（1）《幕間休息》1969年

雷內(nèi)?克萊爾（René Clair）導(dǎo)演的一部沒有故事情節(jié)的先鋒派實(shí)驗(yàn)作品《幕間休息》，以讓人匪夷所思的情節(jié)完全摒棄了傳統(tǒng)的具有邏輯性的敘事方式，而是用鏡頭之間的具有相似性的視覺造型上的聯(lián)系來代替。影片的前半部分是由許多并不相關(guān)的片段組成，后半部分是一個(gè)比較連續(xù)的插曲。影片一開場(chǎng)的開炮，然后便是下棋、射擊、葬禮、復(fù)活的鏡頭，直至最后消失閉幕，這里面的每一件事情都以鬧劇的方式滑稽地收尾。①克萊爾用這種反敘事性的方式，將沒有必然因果聯(lián)系的片段剪輯在一起，抨擊了資產(chǎn)階級(jí)的習(xí)俗、風(fēng)尚、文化和禮儀，莊嚴(yán)的葬禮變成了一場(chǎng)瘋狂滑稽的追逐，體現(xiàn)了戰(zhàn)后青年一代憤世嫉俗的精神狀態(tài)。

（2）《午后的迷惘》1943年

梅雅?黛倫（Maya Deren）的《午后的迷惘》用真實(shí)和幻覺互相交織的方式拍攝了自己，這些鏡頭的剪輯違背常理，影片由一個(gè)女人午后的夢(mèng)境構(gòu)成，這個(gè)夢(mèng)境出現(xiàn)了5次，并且每次夢(mèng)境的開頭相同，但每一次都采用了不同的視角和情節(jié)表現(xiàn)同一件事情，由此導(dǎo)致不同的結(jié)局。她通過不同于主流電影的創(chuàng)作方式，用恍惚晃動(dòng)的鏡頭，不安的動(dòng)作，成功地表現(xiàn)了多個(gè)層次的自我以及女性的自我探尋和挖掘。

4.意義何在

面對(duì)戰(zhàn)后殘酷的社會(huì)現(xiàn)實(shí)，許多藝術(shù)家開始采取逃避現(xiàn)實(shí)的態(tài)度，開始從外部世界返回到內(nèi)心，曲折地表達(dá)藝術(shù)家對(duì)現(xiàn)實(shí)的憤懣不滿和內(nèi)心的苦悶焦慮。與其說實(shí)驗(yàn)電影在尋找形式上的反敘事性、純粹性，不如說它們是在尋找一種新的語言表達(dá)。它們表現(xiàn)了遠(yuǎn)離現(xiàn)實(shí)的抽象化和潛意識(shí)化的傾向，強(qiáng)調(diào)影像本身對(duì)于內(nèi)心精神世界的表現(xiàn)，認(rèn)為電影是對(duì)世界和自我認(rèn)識(shí)的表現(xiàn)和感受，是對(duì)世界及人的本性的思考，是對(duì)人生經(jīng)驗(yàn)和審美經(jīng)驗(yàn)的一種超越。這些都表明它是一種自覺的藝術(shù)樣式，不同于電影誕生初期的雜耍性質(zhì)。

實(shí)驗(yàn)電影用生活流手法（用事件的無邏輯組合）以及意識(shí)流手法（非理性的意識(shí)活動(dòng)），來代替或打亂邏輯的情節(jié)結(jié)構(gòu)。用非傳統(tǒng)的碎片式鏡頭的拼接來破壞傳統(tǒng)的技法。它是現(xiàn)代社會(huì)在人的精神生活和藝術(shù)生活中的反映，讓人在表現(xiàn)、感官等方面更多地思考社會(huì)和思考人性，回歸到自己的內(nèi)心，對(duì)后來的錄像藝術(shù)乃至新媒體藝術(shù)都產(chǎn)生了深遠(yuǎn)影響。

二、錄像藝術(shù)

1.錄像藝術(shù)的客觀記錄性

到了20世紀(jì)60年代，錄像藝術(shù)產(chǎn)生。雖然它同樣是反對(duì)敘事，但是與實(shí)驗(yàn)電影通過膠片拍攝演員的演繹來表現(xiàn)內(nèi)心世界不同，錄像最初的沖動(dòng)是把目光所及的一切東西都錄下來，它不像實(shí)驗(yàn)電影那樣精心地去編排、拍攝影片，對(duì)每個(gè)鏡頭精益求精，而是去客觀地記錄現(xiàn)實(shí)本身。此時(shí)屏幕上的影像更多地依賴于我們生活中可見的客觀事物，只是藝術(shù)家通過高度個(gè)人化的方式利用攝像機(jī)把它們記錄下來，再通過個(gè)人化的方式進(jìn)行不同的呈現(xiàn)，以此來表達(dá)他們的觀看方法和個(gè)人體驗(yàn)。并以此來說明世界本身并不僅僅是客觀現(xiàn)實(shí)，它還包含意識(shí)的存在。

2.出現(xiàn)的背景

（1）1925年，英國工程師約翰?洛吉?貝爾德發(fā)明了電視機(jī)，電視用電波信號(hào)的方法即時(shí)傳送活動(dòng)的視覺圖像。這樣，過去只能在電影院里觀看世界各地圖像的方式，可以有選擇地進(jìn)入普通家庭。到1953年，已經(jīng)有三分之二的美國家庭擁有了電視。到1960年更是達(dá)到了百分之九十，電視已經(jīng)到了完全商業(yè)化的程度。美國人每天看電視長達(dá)7個(gè)小時(shí)，新的消費(fèi)社會(huì)開始形成，廣告巨頭激發(fā)并保持著電視消費(fèi)增長的勢(shì)頭。1965年，索尼公司開發(fā)了小型便攜式攝像機(jī)以及相匹配的影像編輯系統(tǒng)。電視機(jī)和攝像機(jī)的逐漸普及，減小了過去因購買膠片的巨額費(fèi)用所導(dǎo)致的創(chuàng)作局限，許多并不專業(yè)的視頻愛好者和普通人也能夠運(yùn)用最新的技術(shù)進(jìn)行影像的記錄和創(chuàng)作，一種不同于電視和電影制作的個(gè)人寫作成為可能。這對(duì)以電視等為展示工具的視頻藝術(shù)的媒介革命起到了很大的作用。

米歇?魯芙娜 余下時(shí)間 2003年Michal Rovner, Time Left, 2003

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Under Scan, 2005

（2）此外，這個(gè)年代（20世紀(jì)60年代），是一個(gè)社會(huì)大變革的時(shí)代。當(dāng)時(shí)許多歐美國家的青年人開始秉持著完全與其父輩們相反的價(jià)值觀，學(xué)生的政治抗議活動(dòng)、女權(quán)主義運(yùn)動(dòng)和性革命等，都是有助于錄像藝術(shù)產(chǎn)生的文化背景。

（3）1965年，韓國出生的藝術(shù)家白南準(zhǔn)在紐約買了一部portapak攝像機(jī)，隨后拍攝了教皇保羅六世訪問紐約造成的交通堵塞。幾個(gè)小時(shí)后，便在索霍區(qū)一家咖啡館里播放了該視頻。這天被看作是錄像藝術(shù)的誕生日。

3.錄像藝術(shù)的觀念性和它與表演、裝置的結(jié)合

確實(shí)，“記錄”是錄像實(shí)踐功能最直白的特征。早期的錄像藝術(shù)確實(shí)把它作為現(xiàn)實(shí)的客觀記錄，這也充分體現(xiàn)了錄像藝術(shù)“錄（記錄）”的功能。但如果錄像藝術(shù)僅僅作為一種記錄的方法，它就不可能成為一種真正的具有獨(dú)立意義的藝術(shù)形態(tài)，只能是作為被動(dòng)“記錄”的機(jī)械工具。但是藝術(shù)家發(fā)現(xiàn)了“錄像”作為新的藝術(shù)媒介創(chuàng)造藝術(shù)表現(xiàn)的手段，在錄像藝術(shù)“記錄”的基礎(chǔ)之上，將之與表演和裝置相結(jié)合，進(jìn)而去表達(dá)自己的觀點(diǎn)。

（1）錄像藝術(shù)的觀念性

20世紀(jì)60年代的錄像藝術(shù)觀念，受當(dāng)時(shí)媒體時(shí)代的刺激（電視對(duì)大眾日常生活的控制），藝術(shù)家們開始批判、反抗電視節(jié)目這種主流媒體的陳詞濫調(diào)。因此藝術(shù)家將錄像當(dāng)成新的語言和方法，借此來表達(dá)他們的創(chuàng)作意念。他們作品的主題經(jīng)常就是“反電視”，因而錄像藝術(shù)在誕生之初其觀念性就十分明顯。②和那些跟在教皇后面拍攝新聞的記者不同，白南準(zhǔn)生產(chǎn)的是一種粗糙的、非商業(yè)化的產(chǎn)品，是帶有個(gè)人觀點(diǎn)的表達(dá)。白南準(zhǔn)發(fā)現(xiàn)了錄像作為一種新媒介的記錄功能，更是利用這一新媒介進(jìn)行個(gè)人觀點(diǎn)的呈現(xiàn)。白南準(zhǔn)曾這樣說：“電視已經(jīng)占領(lǐng)了我們所有的生活，現(xiàn)在我們要回?fù)簟！?/p>

20世紀(jì)60年代中期，安迪?沃霍爾（Andy Warhol）擁有了他的第一部手持?jǐn)z錄機(jī)，他在1965年用它所拍攝的《工廠日記》，記錄了工廠里的各種活動(dòng)，包括人們的日常生活，如吃飯、睡覺或?qū)χ鴶z錄機(jī)說話等等。他的作品《沉睡》，更是用攝像機(jī)拍一個(gè)男人睡覺的一分一秒，長達(dá)六個(gè)小時(shí)，這恢復(fù)了攝影機(jī)的原始功能——記錄。其1964年的作品《帝國大廈》，用單一的固定機(jī)位拍攝了紐約帝國大廈從傍晚到清晨八個(gè)小時(shí)間的變化。他通過這樣真實(shí)時(shí)間的一致的拍攝，恢復(fù)了攝像機(jī)的原始記錄功能。

（2）錄像藝術(shù)與表演的結(jié)合

錄像藝術(shù)受表演藝術(shù)的影響，早期的錄像藝術(shù)在某個(gè)層面上可以看作是表演的單純記錄，或后來被稱為“表演性的行為”。他們將相機(jī)對(duì)準(zhǔn)自己身體的局部并就這些部位在“人”的范疇內(nèi)意味著什么提出疑問。

維托?阿孔奇（Vito Acconci）在1971年攝制的幾部單信道黑白錄像作品，將攝像機(jī)對(duì)準(zhǔn)自己，把媒體引向自身，直接對(duì)觀眾說話，以探索觀眾（或窺淫癖者）和被觀看主體之間的關(guān)系。在其作品《主題歌》（1973）中，他躺在黑白條紋沙發(fā)前的地板上，占整個(gè)畫面2/3的面部和觀眾對(duì)話：“我要你進(jìn)來?！睙o休止地邀請(qǐng)觀眾和他一起加入到鏡頭里面去。他從一個(gè)男性的視角揭示了電視圖像給觀眾帶來的虛假聯(lián)系，并且反映出了電視媒體給人的錯(cuò)覺——親和性。

瓊?喬納斯（Joan Jonas）的作品《左側(cè)，右側(cè)》，用一種更古怪的方式擺弄攝像機(jī)和鏡子，她讓觀眾在看到鏡子里的反向圖像時(shí)一時(shí)分不清左邊和右邊。為了增加觀眾的困惑，她還不斷故意地重復(fù)說“這是我的左邊，這是我的右邊”，直到觀眾再也無法分辨出到底哪個(gè)是她的左邊，哪個(gè)是她的右邊，從而打破觀眾和電視圖像之間的聯(lián)系。和阿孔奇相同，喬納斯也拍攝自己，進(jìn)行表演。但是她打破常規(guī)視角，用涉及自己身體的方式創(chuàng)造一個(gè)引人注目的個(gè)人女性主義形象，她說：“我利用錄像來拓展自己的語言，詩歌般的語言。錄像對(duì)我來說，是讓我能夠全身心投入探索語言的一個(gè)空間元素。我可以爬進(jìn)去，待在里面探索?！?/p>

（3）錄像藝術(shù)與裝置的結(jié)合

無論是簡(jiǎn)單的記錄，還是個(gè)人的表演，看似無限的可能性和相對(duì)較低的負(fù)擔(dān)能力，使得錄像藝術(shù)對(duì)在媒體飽和時(shí)代成長起來的年輕藝術(shù)家越來越有吸引力。錄像既是參與媒體的方法，也是對(duì)媒體過度反應(yīng)的方法，同時(shí)也是一種對(duì)傳達(dá)個(gè)人信息進(jìn)行呈現(xiàn)的手段。藝術(shù)家的創(chuàng)作項(xiàng)目在物理尺寸和表現(xiàn)范圍上已經(jīng)變得更為廣大，而創(chuàng)作的主題卻越來越個(gè)人化和個(gè)性化。許多藝術(shù)家已經(jīng)開始創(chuàng)建復(fù)雜的媒體裝置了，他們可以控制的不僅是圖像，而且還包括他們自己設(shè)計(jì)的在完整的環(huán)境中觀看圖像的背景。③

白南準(zhǔn)的錄像裝置作品《電子高速公路》（1995），是在展廳中堆放了幾十個(gè)顯示器，看起來像一個(gè)通用數(shù)據(jù)庫那樣接二連三的圖像，有世俗政治、自然界的核爆炸等。裝置的整個(gè)外形是美國版圖的縮影，即美國大陸由313臺(tái)電視機(jī)裝置組成，阿拉斯加24臺(tái)，夏威夷每個(gè)島1臺(tái)，用鋼結(jié)構(gòu)制作的國界、霓虹燈、200瓦音響系統(tǒng)等等。白南準(zhǔn)的這個(gè)高速公路到處是媒體文化的碎屑，但他仍然用這些閃閃發(fā)光的形象警告戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)和文化上的動(dòng)蕩。

瑪麗?盧西爾（Mary Lucier）的作品《斜屋》，是把汽車經(jīng)銷商改過的內(nèi)部空間變成沒有窗戶只有顯示器的石膏板房。她認(rèn)為這個(gè)建筑環(huán)境是關(guān)于圖像和聲音的：露天的房子里面是黑暗的，電視監(jiān)視器提供的是窗戶上看不到的景色，因而也能更加深入到人們的靈魂中去。藝術(shù)家安德里安?派普（Adrian Piper）在其作品《像啥就是啥#3》（1991）中，將顯示器鑲嵌在白色盒子的每個(gè)側(cè)面中，顯示器的內(nèi)容是從不同角度顯示黑人的腦袋，并且視頻內(nèi)容是黑人對(duì)種族歧視憤怒的反駁：“我不懶”“我不庸俗”“我不色”等等。這里我們可以看到派普的多重身份：知識(shí)的、藝術(shù)的、種族的和個(gè)人的。

4.意義何在

錄像最初的沖動(dòng)是把目光所及的一切東西都錄下來，它不像實(shí)驗(yàn)電影那樣精心地去編排、拍攝影片，對(duì)每個(gè)鏡頭精益求精，而是去客觀地記錄現(xiàn)實(shí)本身，再由藝術(shù)家進(jìn)行編排。此時(shí)屏幕上的影像更多地依賴于我們生活中可見的客觀事物，藝術(shù)家通過高度個(gè)人化的方式利用攝像機(jī)把它們記錄下來，再通過個(gè)人化的方式進(jìn)行不同的呈現(xiàn)，去回?fù)魣D像的泛濫和商業(yè)化，進(jìn)而帶來了新的觀看方法和個(gè)人體驗(yàn)。作為20世紀(jì)60年代前衛(wèi)的影像藝術(shù)，在動(dòng)態(tài)影像的范疇內(nèi)，它對(duì)影像語言進(jìn)行的改造有著領(lǐng)頭羊的作用。錄像藝術(shù)與表演、裝置等結(jié)合這一不局限于創(chuàng)作形式的寬容的創(chuàng)作姿態(tài)，對(duì)于后來的數(shù)字影像創(chuàng)作有很大的影響。隨著數(shù)字技術(shù)的應(yīng)用，錄像藝術(shù)既存在于更廣泛的媒體文化中，又游離之外，這種處境上的矛盾越來越尖銳，錄像藝術(shù)家也必須定義一個(gè)獨(dú)特的藝術(shù)空間，去體驗(yàn)時(shí)代精神上更大的自由和空間，在那里，敘述、感知和對(duì)視覺的期望都將被重新洗牌。④

三、數(shù)字動(dòng)態(tài)影像

1.數(shù)字技術(shù)對(duì)影像的重新編碼

新的數(shù)字動(dòng)態(tài)影像藝術(shù)在發(fā)展中遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)超出了當(dāng)初錄像藝術(shù)作為呈現(xiàn)和記錄手段的含義，而是成為一種以數(shù)字動(dòng)態(tài)影像為核心媒介載體的多種影像處理和裝置環(huán)境綜合使用的影像藝術(shù)。它對(duì)圖像的結(jié)構(gòu)、敘事話語系統(tǒng)重新由數(shù)字技術(shù)進(jìn)行編碼，影像敘事也好，非敘事也好，它都是以超鏈接的媒體整合方式——非線性編輯的各種拼貼手法，及錄像裝置的立體拼貼和互動(dòng)藝術(shù)對(duì)觀者經(jīng)驗(yàn)的開放，最后落實(shí)成多媒體藝術(shù)的鏈接方式——為觀者提供了非線性的審美體驗(yàn)。⑤數(shù)字技術(shù)的應(yīng)用帶來的新能力給圖像以無限的伸展性，采用數(shù)字技術(shù)的藝術(shù)家現(xiàn)在能夠引入的新形式是“創(chuàng)作”，而不是像從前那樣機(jī)械地去記錄客觀現(xiàn)實(shí)。以前，盡管圖像可以在電影中被編輯或能夠用蒙太奇手法進(jìn)行再創(chuàng)作納入其他圖像，但一旦轉(zhuǎn)移到數(shù)字語言，那么圖像中的每個(gè)元素都可以被計(jì)算機(jī)所修改。圖像在計(jì)算機(jī)里就是無數(shù)個(gè)信息，而所有的信息都可以被操作。

在當(dāng)今的影像展覽中，“錄像藝術(shù)”這一概念已經(jīng)不能包含現(xiàn)今所有的動(dòng)態(tài)影像作品。首先是以非攝像機(jī)非錄制方式創(chuàng)作的影像作品，例如，由Maya、After effect或其他電腦軟件繪制的虛擬影像。利用電腦的數(shù)字技術(shù)的后期軟件可以隨意對(duì)數(shù)字影像素材進(jìn)行剪輯和處理，非線性的編輯方式取代了從前的線性編輯方式。網(wǎng)絡(luò)這一全新的傳播平臺(tái)也給作品帶來了實(shí)時(shí)的互動(dòng)性。如此一來，數(shù)字動(dòng)態(tài)影像在當(dāng)今這個(gè)新的技術(shù)語境當(dāng)中在一定程度上擴(kuò)展了“錄像藝術(shù)”這個(gè)詞本身所不具備的特征。

2.出現(xiàn)的背景

隨著科技的發(fā)展，特別是計(jì)算機(jī)數(shù)字影像處理、數(shù)字編輯和虛擬影像技術(shù)以及網(wǎng)絡(luò)和互動(dòng)技術(shù)的運(yùn)用，不僅給人們的物質(zhì)生產(chǎn)帶來巨大的革新，也給人的思維方式帶來了新的突破。就是在這樣一個(gè)前提下，數(shù)字影像出現(xiàn)并得以發(fā)展。當(dāng)然，這之中還有人們對(duì)于傳統(tǒng)錄像藝術(shù)視覺感官上的審美疲勞。運(yùn)用這種藝術(shù)和技術(shù)的聯(lián)盟，影像技術(shù)變得更加易于掌握和使用，材料本身對(duì)于藝術(shù)家想法的限制逐步消失，藝術(shù)家在創(chuàng)作作品時(shí)對(duì)于媒介技術(shù)的應(yīng)用有了比以往更大的自由，從而也帶來了更大的創(chuàng)作激情。圖像不再孤獨(dú)，而是相互關(guān)聯(lián)的，不再是藝術(shù)中只有唯一的圖像，如今已經(jīng)是無數(shù)的圖像，以復(fù)合方式重組觀眾眼睛的自然振動(dòng)。⑥

3.數(shù)字動(dòng)態(tài)影像作品

（1）重新定義動(dòng)態(tài)影像的敘事

法國藝術(shù)家皮埃爾?于熱（Pierre Huyghe）的作品《再造》（1995）重演了艾爾弗雷德?希區(qū)柯克（Alfred Hitchcock）1953年的影片《后窗》。在他的每一部作品中，于熱都雇傭業(yè)余演員去完成原來電影的場(chǎng)景。于熱說：“在拍攝之前的幾個(gè)小時(shí)，演員才看到他們的臺(tái)詞，這正是他們的問題，口吃、忘詞等所有實(shí)時(shí)的東西都在他的實(shí)時(shí)記錄之中?！庇跓岬臄?shù)字錄像技術(shù)利用的是電影技術(shù)（借助滑軌小車和跟蹤鏡頭等），但不在敘事上做到完整，從而降低了電影的敘事效果，進(jìn)而創(chuàng)造了觀眾和表演行為之間的新關(guān)系。

和于熱在作品處理上有相似親和力的是英國藝術(shù)家道格拉斯?戈登（Douglas Gordon）1993年的作品《24小時(shí)驚魂記》。它是把希區(qū)柯克的恐怖電影《驚魂記》以每秒兩幀的速度重新進(jìn)行播放，他并沒有對(duì)原來電影的敘事內(nèi)容進(jìn)行改變，而是利用數(shù)字后期技術(shù)，將其變?yōu)闊o聲，并將整個(gè)電影從原來的109分鐘變成1440分鐘，也就是整整24小時(shí)。這些放慢的鏡頭，如同一張張照片一樣非常緩慢地重現(xiàn)在我們的面前，而且這些畫面又似曾相識(shí)。在被他延遲拉長的時(shí)間里，每個(gè)細(xì)節(jié)都顯露無疑，原來那些令人恐懼的鏡頭在這樣緩慢的進(jìn)程中變得不再恐怖，每個(gè)鏡頭、每一秒鐘似乎都產(chǎn)生了新的意義。

（2）數(shù)字動(dòng)態(tài)影像的非敘事性

美國藝術(shù)家保羅?菲佛（Paul Pfeiffer）利用后期制作數(shù)字編輯技術(shù)，對(duì)拍攝的視頻進(jìn)行重新創(chuàng)造和定義。在《約翰3：16》（2000）中，藝術(shù)家將五千幀的投籃動(dòng)作利用數(shù)字技術(shù)進(jìn)行修改，并重新給他們定位成以黑人男性為偶像，以此來突出籃球運(yùn)動(dòng)，并呈現(xiàn)一種沮喪的男性黑人體育玩家的表演片段。他的另外一些作品，也同樣利用了數(shù)字技術(shù)進(jìn)行了重新創(chuàng)造，例如，從觀眾視野中抹殺了NBA和拳擊等主角。藝術(shù)家利用數(shù)字技術(shù)創(chuàng)造了一種新的敘事方式和新的時(shí)間概念，圖像不再是孤獨(dú)的、固定的，而是重組的、相互關(guān)聯(lián)的、再造的，以新的復(fù)合方式重組觀眾眼睛的自然振動(dòng)，觀眾觀看作品的同時(shí)引發(fā)對(duì)經(jīng)驗(yàn)的真實(shí)性懷疑，同時(shí)也面臨著建立他們自己的體驗(yàn)和對(duì)于生活的意義。

以色列多媒體藝術(shù)家米歇?魯芙娜（Michal Rovner）的作品經(jīng)過復(fù)雜的數(shù)字編輯之后，她拍攝的任何生活對(duì)象個(gè)人特質(zhì)的可識(shí)別性都削弱了。數(shù)百個(gè)小的、默默無語的、穿著簡(jiǎn)單的人充斥著她的視頻。她利用數(shù)字編輯工具創(chuàng)作的作品《余下時(shí)間》（2003）是一個(gè)巨大的墻對(duì)墻的影像裝置，成千上萬的人物的大致輪廓，一排排整齊地向一個(gè)不可知的目的地游行，并伴隨著嗡嗡的電子音樂聲。這沒有一定的故事情節(jié)敘事，是一個(gè)抽象的場(chǎng)景，讓人聯(lián)想起天啟事件（又稱王恭廠大爆炸，是天啟六年即1626年明朝首都北京發(fā)生的一場(chǎng)神秘的大爆炸事件）的死囚或幸存者，又或許它只是朝圣者主動(dòng)走向一個(gè)預(yù)期的宗教啟示儀式，它也確實(shí)意味著太多的東西，讓人在震撼當(dāng)中進(jìn)行思考。對(duì)于魯芙娜來說，數(shù)字編輯工具用于表達(dá)她自己的想法。

（3）交互數(shù)字動(dòng)態(tài)影像

在“交互數(shù)字動(dòng)態(tài)影像”中，我們更注重作品本身的互動(dòng)所帶來的體驗(yàn)，影像越來越多地改成體驗(yàn)，它是一種觀眾直接參與作品的藝術(shù)形式，作者在創(chuàng)作構(gòu)思的時(shí)候就已經(jīng)把觀眾考慮進(jìn)去，作為作品一個(gè)不可缺少的組成部分。通過交互的方式給觀眾帶來體驗(yàn)，這就有別于傳統(tǒng)藝術(shù)作品通過視覺被動(dòng)消費(fèi)和心理暗示影響觀眾，這時(shí)敘事或非敘事顯得并不重要，重要的是觀眾在互動(dòng)的參與當(dāng)中有所體驗(yàn)。這些交互藝術(shù)作品大多是基于計(jì)算機(jī)控制和各種傳感器，通過采集觀眾的行為、動(dòng)作、溫度甚至語言等各種數(shù)據(jù)信息，經(jīng)過處理之后再反饋給觀眾。它在作品和觀眾之間構(gòu)建了新的對(duì)話機(jī)制，使每位觀眾都能在藝術(shù)家創(chuàng)造的交互環(huán)境中得到自己的體驗(yàn)與感受，也為藝術(shù)家們提供了一種手段，讓觀眾以積極的方式介入對(duì)社會(huì)問題的關(guān)注。

波蘭藝術(shù)家塔馬斯?沃里克斯基（Tamas Waliczky）在1994年的互動(dòng)影像裝置《道路》里玩起了視角變換游戲。當(dāng)觀眾走近一個(gè)放置在一個(gè)長長的走廊盡頭的投影屏幕時(shí)，屏幕上的圖像隨著觀眾的移動(dòng)逐漸變小，從而獲得反常理的體驗(yàn)。新情境和表達(dá)本身就能產(chǎn)生意義，這也直接導(dǎo)致了感知信息方式的變革。

拉斐爾?洛扎諾-漢莫（Rafael Lozano-Hemmer）的作品《Under Scan》（2005），則通過跟蹤感應(yīng)器和多重影像技術(shù)，讓每位參與者都可以自己打開一個(gè)屬于自己的藝術(shù)影像作品。在作品投影范圍內(nèi)，觀眾被計(jì)算機(jī)化的跟蹤系統(tǒng)監(jiān)測(cè)，這將會(huì)激活投射在他們身體陰影下的視頻肖像。觀眾將他們“喚醒”，與之進(jìn)行視覺的接觸、身體的互動(dòng)甚至是語言的互動(dòng)。當(dāng)觀眾走開時(shí)，肖像會(huì)最終消失。這個(gè)系統(tǒng)可以允許80人在1200平方米的面積內(nèi)同時(shí)參與互動(dòng)。每7分鐘，整個(gè)項(xiàng)目停止和復(fù)位。跟蹤系統(tǒng)是在一個(gè)短暫的“插曲”照明序列顯示，該項(xiàng)目全部由計(jì)算機(jī)監(jiān)控系統(tǒng)采用校準(zhǔn)網(wǎng)格。

4.意義何在

加拿大的馬歇爾?麥克盧漢（Marshall McLuhan，1911—1980）曾這樣寫道：“從某種意義上來說，任何一種新媒體，就是一種新語言，就是對(duì)經(jīng)驗(yàn)施行的一種新的編碼方式；這種編碼方式來自新的工作習(xí)慣，完全來自集體意識(shí)?！雹唠S著藝術(shù)和技術(shù)的聯(lián)盟時(shí)代的到來，影像技術(shù)變得更加易于掌握和使用，材料本身對(duì)于藝術(shù)家想法的限制逐步消失，藝術(shù)家的精神觀念主導(dǎo)著機(jī)械技術(shù)，用數(shù)字系統(tǒng)操控，改編原有的編碼系統(tǒng)，利用電視、電影、錄影、表演、互動(dòng)等多種形式，將有關(guān)政治、社會(huì)、哲學(xué)、情感、體驗(yàn)的多重關(guān)聯(lián)做“藝術(shù)編碼”的創(chuàng)作，在作品中注入精神性元素，并且解譯結(jié)果，使自己的精神圖像展現(xiàn)在屏幕當(dāng)中，改變現(xiàn)有圖像、創(chuàng)造新圖像有了更大的可能。

如今，數(shù)字動(dòng)態(tài)影像已經(jīng)滲透到人類生活的各個(gè)領(lǐng)域當(dāng)中，它承載著新的影像藝術(shù)發(fā)展的方向，也將帶來不同于以往的全新體驗(yàn)，在大數(shù)據(jù)信息化的時(shí)代里，扮演了重要的角色。在這里，價(jià)值、意義、體驗(yàn)，以及新的現(xiàn)實(shí)都將在參與中被建立起來。

四、結(jié)語

從最初的實(shí)驗(yàn)電影，到上世紀(jì)60、70年代的手持?jǐn)z錄機(jī)的錄像藝術(shù)，到今天的數(shù)字動(dòng)態(tài)影像，科技的發(fā)展為我們帶來了藝術(shù)創(chuàng)作的更大自由。從最初利用膠片小心翼翼地拍攝反敘事來重視內(nèi)心表達(dá)的實(shí)驗(yàn)電影，到利用攝像機(jī)客觀記錄現(xiàn)實(shí)，再到利用數(shù)字技術(shù)對(duì)影像進(jìn)行重新編碼的敘事和非敘事影像，媒介技術(shù)的不斷發(fā)展為藝術(shù)家空間的擴(kuò)展提供了現(xiàn)實(shí)的可能。在“解碼”和“轉(zhuǎn)換”的過程中，藝術(shù)家的個(gè)性和修養(yǎng)，通過對(duì)工具、科技、程序、展示設(shè)備等的不同利用，創(chuàng)造出具有不同個(gè)性和感染力的作品。盡管這些可以歸功于技術(shù)和藝術(shù)器材的進(jìn)步，但藝術(shù)的發(fā)展最終還是取決于藝術(shù)家個(gè)人的技藝和觀念。所以，它應(yīng)該是更受人的意識(shí)控制的藝術(shù)形式，而非是科技至上的藝術(shù)。而這種意識(shí)控制的綜合方式可能就是一種試圖突破傳統(tǒng)敘事模式的新角度，從而帶給人們以不同于以往的方式和角度來觀看和理解世界。⑧在這個(gè)經(jīng)濟(jì)不斷發(fā)展、商業(yè)泛濫的時(shí)代，經(jīng)濟(jì)體系漸漸剝奪了我們的生命體驗(yàn)，在這個(gè)空洞的現(xiàn)實(shí)中，利用多種新媒介手段，藝術(shù)家把我們的精神、感受、體驗(yàn)實(shí)體化，但并不是把它們作為一個(gè)具體物體的實(shí)體化，而是加入個(gè)人的精神體驗(yàn)和感性經(jīng)驗(yàn)，并將這種經(jīng)驗(yàn)載體實(shí)體化，使它承載著人類意識(shí)的溫度和內(nèi)在的精神，并重建一個(gè)生命體驗(yàn)的世界。

本文試圖從動(dòng)態(tài)影像的起源，從早期實(shí)驗(yàn)電影到錄像藝術(shù)，再到現(xiàn)今數(shù)字動(dòng)態(tài)影像，對(duì)整個(gè)過程進(jìn)行梳理，探究每個(gè)階段當(dāng)中影像創(chuàng)作方式的不同所產(chǎn)生的藝術(shù)作品的不同，以及藝術(shù)家如何利用不同的創(chuàng)作方式對(duì)個(gè)人觀念進(jìn)行呈現(xiàn)。并在此基礎(chǔ)之上，結(jié)合自己的影像創(chuàng)作實(shí)踐，去探尋藝術(shù)家如何在這種新舊媒介的擴(kuò)展和更迭之中作為歷史存在找到適合自己的創(chuàng)作方式。正如前面所討論的，本文并不是要列舉出動(dòng)態(tài)影像從實(shí)驗(yàn)電影到錄像藝術(shù)、再到數(shù)字影像的變革，也不僅僅是分析它們之間更新?lián)Q代的過程。而是通過一百年來媒介的擴(kuò)展、創(chuàng)作方式的演變這一過程，關(guān)注動(dòng)態(tài)影像藝術(shù)樣式的長存不衰，關(guān)注它的延續(xù)、繼承、改變和創(chuàng)新，關(guān)注它們?nèi)绾卧谛碌募夹g(shù)語境和媒介中不斷再現(xiàn)、更新和發(fā)展，為藝術(shù)創(chuàng)作帶來更自由、更豐富、更多元的可能性。在這里，價(jià)值、意義、體驗(yàn)，以及新的現(xiàn)實(shí)都將在參與中被建立起來。

注釋：

①見《法國超現(xiàn)實(shí)主義電影概論》，載《南京師范大學(xué)文學(xué)院學(xué)報(bào)》2005年第3期。

②孫煒煒：《動(dòng)態(tài)影像藝術(shù)的藝術(shù)表達(dá)及其特征解析——基于實(shí)驗(yàn)電影、錄像藝術(shù)和新媒體影像》,載《武漢科技大學(xué)學(xué)報(bào)（社會(huì)科學(xué)版）》2013年第2期。

③［美］邁克爾?拉什：《新媒體藝術(shù)》，上海人民美術(shù)出版社，2015年。

④同上。

⑤知乎網(wǎng)：《如何理解影像藝術(shù)較合適？》（http://www.zhihu.com/question/36891170）。

⑥保羅?維利里奧：《視覺機(jī)器》，南京大學(xué)出版社，2014年。

⑦藝術(shù)檔案網(wǎng)：《20世紀(jì)后期的錄像藝術(shù)》，來源：美術(shù)出版藝術(shù)界，作者：邁克爾?拉什（Michael Rush），蕭莎譯（http://www.artda.cn/view.php?tid=5728&cid=20）。

⑧高明潞、陳小文：當(dāng)代數(shù)碼藝術(shù)，廣西師范大學(xué)出版社，2015年。

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[2]邁克爾?拉什.新媒體藝術(shù)[M].上海：上海人民美術(shù)出版社，2015.

[3]邁克爾?阿徹.1960年以來的藝術(shù)[M].上海：上海人民美術(shù)出版社，2015.

[4]高明潞，陳小文.當(dāng)代數(shù)碼藝術(shù)[C].桂林：廣西師范大學(xué)出版社，2015.

[5]陳建軍.新銳影像藝術(shù)[M].南京：江蘇美術(shù)出版社，2007.

[6]張世君.外國電影史[M].北京：北京師范大學(xué)出版社，2014.

[7]周星.電影概論[M].北京：高等教育出版社，2004.

[8]保羅?維利里奧.視覺機(jī)器[M].南京：南京大學(xué)出版社，2014.

[9]尼古拉?布里奧.后制品[M].北京：金城出版社，2014.

[10]董冰峰，等.從電影看：當(dāng)代藝術(shù)的電影痕跡與自我建構(gòu)[M].北京：新星出版社，2010.

[11]E.H.貢布里希.藝術(shù)的故事[M].南寧：廣西美術(shù)出版社，2014.

[12]孫煒煒.瑰麗的夢(mèng)與真切的痛——影像之于東西方女性藝術(shù)家[J].理論月刊，2013（1）：73—77.

[13]孫煒煒.動(dòng)態(tài)影像藝術(shù)的藝術(shù)表達(dá)及其特征解析——基于實(shí)驗(yàn)電影、錄像藝術(shù)和新媒體影像 [J].武漢科技大學(xué)學(xué)報(bào)：社會(huì)科學(xué)版，2013（2）：227-232.

[14]如何理解影像藝術(shù)較合適[EB/OL]. [2016-2-21].http://www.zhihu.com/question/36891170.

本文系天津師范大學(xué)校青年基金資助（52WU1603）

岳明慧：天津師范大學(xué)美術(shù)與設(shè)計(jì)學(xué)院教師

郝 銳：天津美術(shù)學(xué)院實(shí)驗(yàn)藝術(shù)學(xué)院綜合繪畫系在讀碩士研究生

岳中生：中國民航大學(xué)副教授

I. Experimental Cinema

1. Anti-narrativity

Whenever experimental cinema is spoken of, it is usually referred to as “avant-garde.” In fact, the word “experimental” can better describe its features: no de fi nite expression framework, no traditional storyline,but showing strong “anti-narrativity.” In it unconventional narrative order is employed to attempt at a revolutionary exploration. Abstract shots and footages are used to emphasize the cinema’s expressiveness(rather than storytelling) to reveal abstract and subconscious tendenciesfar away from reality. Experimental cinema is inclined to express dreams,fears and desires, and to represent symbolization and psychologization.

2. Historical Background

(1) Experimental cinema originated from European “Avantgarde” films. In the First World War French and German filmmaking businesses were ruined, while only the U.S. movie industry boosted and won worldwide popularity, mostly featuring commercial films. When European fi lmmakers set about rising again, it was impossible for them to follow the same steps that the U.S. counterparts had taken. Artistic innovation became their sole choice to compete against U.S. commercial films and build their own cinema art.

(2) Culturally, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, modernist artistic thoughts emerging in Europe entered cinema. In modern philosophy existentialism emphasized the nature of human existence and the freedom of choice. In modern science relativity theory revolutionized traditional time-space ideas. And Freud’s unconscious psychology provided motive and background for experimental cinema, and shaped its creative practices.

3. Examples of Anti-narrative Experimental Cinema

(1) Entr’acte (1969)

This fi lm, directed by René Clair, is a plot-free avant-garde work.In a very surprising manner it rejects traditional logic narration, and replaces it with a connection between similar visual modellings of shots.The first half of the film consists of footages unrelated to each other,while the other half is a continuous interlude. Entr’acte begins with bombing, chess-playing, fi ring, funeral, and resurrection, and every event ends up in a farce-like manner until the end of the fi lm.1In such an antinarrative way, Clair links footages causally unrelated to each other, and criticizes bourgeois customs, fashions, practices, and etiquette, reducing a funeral, which should have been a solemn occasion, to a scene of crazy,funny chasing—a representation of cynicism in post-war youths.

Meshes of the Afternoon by Maya Deren is a self-videoing piece in a manner interwoven between fi ction and reality. And shot editing is abnormal. The film consists of five scenes of a woman’s dream in the afternoon, which, though sharing a beginning, differ in visual angles and plots, leading to different outcomes. Deren used unconventional creative methods which were not seen in the then mainstream fi lms—seemingly shaky shots, uneasy movements—successfully expressed the self at different levels and self-exploration as a woman.

4. Signi fi cance

Discouraged by the cruel post-war reality, many artists began to escape from the outside world and return to their inner worlds.They expressed their dissatisfaction and anxiety in a sinuous manner.Experimental films sought not so much formalistic anti-narrativity and purity as a new language expression. They expressed abstract and subconscious tendencies far away from reality. They emphasized the image expression of inner, spiritual worlds. For them cinema was a medium of expression and perception of the world and self-recognition,of rethinking the world and human nature, and of transcending life and aesthetic experience. All these proved it as a conscious genre of art,different from what it had been as a variety show at its outset.

Experimental fi lms employed life stream (an illogical combination of events) and stream of consciousness (irrational conscious activities) to replace or disrupt logic plot structure. With unconventional fragmented shot pastiche to destruct traditional techniques, it was indicative of human spiritual life and art life in modern society, enabling the audience to reevaluate society and human nature and return to their inner worlds.This turned out to have produced far-reaching impact upon the coming video art and new media art.

II. Video Art

1. Nature of Objective Recording

The 1960s saw the invention of video art. Though similarly antinarrative, it differed from experimental films, the latter revealing the inner world through shooting the actors’ performance. The initial impulse of videoing, however, was to record everything that met the eyes, to objectively show what reality was, not to carefully arrange or deal with each shot as in experimental cinema making. Then the images on the screen more depended on objective things available to life. But the difference lay in that artists, in a highly individualized way, employed video camera to record and represent them in a different manner. By doing so, they conveyed their points of view and personal experience as well; they also demonstrated that the world itself was not a mere objective reality, which contained the presence of consciousness, too.

2. Historical Background

(1) In 1925, the British engineer J. L. Baird invented television,using radio wave signals to instantly transmit moving visual images.In this way, images around the world, which could be watched only in the cinema before, were selectively available to ordinary families.By 1953, two-thirds of American families had owned TV sets. By 1960 the availability rate was up to 90 percent. Television achievedfull commercialization. The average daily hours which Americans spent on watching TV was up to 7 hours each. Thus a new consumer society came into being; advertising giants stimulated and maintained growth momentum in TV consumption. In 1965, Sony developed a small, portable camcorder and a matching image editing system. The increasingly popular TV sets and camcorders freed creation from limitations due to huge costs incurred in fi lm purchase. Video amateurs and common folk could use the latest technology to record and create images. Personal writing different from that in TV and filmmaking became possible. This played a great role in the media revolution of video art as a display tool, say, television.

(2) In addition, the 1960s were full of social upheavals. Millions of European and American youths began to hold values quite opposite to their parents’. And student political protests, feminist movements, and sexual revolution all contributed to the birth of video art.

(3) In 1965, the Korean-born artist NamJune Paik bought a portapak camera in New York. Later, he fi lmed the traf fi c jam caused by Pope John Paul’s visit to New York. Only after a few hours, the video clip was played in a Soho café. That day was regarded as video art’s birthday.

3. Video Art: Conceptuality; Combination with Performance and Installation

Admittedly, “recording” is the plainest practical video function.Early video art did take it as a realistic, objective approach, fully typical of this genre. However, if not going further, it would remain a passive, mechanical “recording” tool, not a truly independent form of art. Then artists discovered creative methods of video as an innovative medium—combining it with performance and installation to express their viewpoints.

(1) Conceptuality of video art

In the 1960s art ideas were stimulated by the media age (the control of TV over the daily life of the masses), and artists began to revolt against clichés prevalent in TV shows as a form of mainstream media. Therefore,they embraced video as a new language and method to voice their creative ideas. The theme of their work was often “anti-TV.” So video art showed obvious conceptuality at its early stage.2Unlike reporters who followed Pope for news photos, NamJune Paik aimed to produce a rough,non-commercial product, an expression of personal views. He discovered the recording function of video as a new form of media, and highlighted the new medium for individual presentation. The artist announced: “TV has occupied all aspects of our life. Now it’s time we fought back!”

In the mid-1960s, the film-maker Andy Warhol owned his first hand-held camcorder. With it he produced Factory Diary in 1965,recording various factory activities including workers’ daily life, such as eating, sleeping or talking to the camcorder. His work Sleep even videoed every minute, every second of a man’s six-hour sleep, which restored the original function of the camcorder—recording. Another example is his Empire (1964). At a single fi xed position he videoed the change of the Empire State Building in New York City for eight hours from evening to daybreak. It was by such real-time, consistent shooting that he recovered the original recording function of the camcorder.

(2) Video art: combining with performance

Influenced by performing art, early video art could be seen as a mere record of performance at a certain level, or later called “performing act.” Video artists aimed the camera at parts of their body and asked questions about what they meant as far as “humans” were concerned.

Vito Acconci produced several single-channel black-and-white video works in 1971, aiming the camera at his own body, and bringing the media to himself, directly speaking to the audience to explore the relationship between the viewer (or voyeur) and the viewed. In his work Theme Song (1973), he was lying on the fl oor before a sofa with blackand-white stripes, with his face occupying two thirds of the whole screen.He unceasingly invited the audience to join his scene by speaking: “I want you to come in.” From a male’s perspective he revealed a false connection that TV images brought the audience, and re fl ected an illusion that TV as a medium gave the viewer—af fi nity.

Joan Jonas, however, videoed her Left Side, Right Side by fi ddling with the camcorder and the mirror in such a weird manner that the audience was confused, unable to tell left from right when seeing the reverse images from the mirror. To further the audience’s confusion, she deliberately repeated: “This is my left side, this is my right side” until the viewer was thrown into complete bafflement, and the connection between them and TV images was disrupted. Like Acconci, Jonas also videoed herself for the purpose of performance, but in an unconventional approach to create a compelling feminist image as an individual in a way that involves her own body. She remarked: “I use video to expand my language, a poetic one. For me video is a spatial element that helps me devote myself to exploring language. I can crawl in and stay there exploring so.”

(3) Video art: combining with installation

Whether for simple recording or for individual performance,video art increasingly appeals to young artists who have grown up in an age saturated with media, with its seemingly infinite possibilities and relatively low affordability. Videoing is not only a method of participation in media, of overreaction to media, but also a means of representation of personal information. So far, artists have gained access to creative projects in a much wider range of physical size and expression. They,too, have had more personal and individualized creative motifs. Many have begun to create complex media installations. Now, apart from images, they can control the background which they design, and where images can be viewed in a complete environment.3

NamJune Paik’s video installation Electronic Superhighway (1995)includes dozens of television monitors piled in the exhibition hall, which look like image series in a universal database, involving secular politics and nuclear explosions in nature. The exterior of the installation is a miniature of the United States’ territory, consisting of 313 television sets marking the Continental U.S., 24 marking Alaska, one marking each Hawaii island, with national boundary made of steel structure, neon lights, and a 200-watt sound system. The superhighway is suggestive of crumbs of media culture, and the artist warns of war and cultural turmoil with these illuminating images.

Mary Lucier’s work Oblique House is a plasterboard room in which the interior altered by a car dealer has no window but a television monitor. She thinks that the building environment is about image and sound: inside the house in the open air is dark, and the TV monitor provides views that cannot be seen through the window; and that the work can go deep into the soul of the modern mind. The artist Adrian Piper in his What It’s Like, What It Is #3 (1991) inlaid the monitor in each side of the white box. The monitor illustrates the head of a black from different angles, and the video shows the black’s angry signs against racial discrimination: “I AM NOT LAZY!” “I AM NOT VULGAR!”“I AM NOT HORNY!” Here we see Piper of multiple identities:intellectual, artistic, racial, and individual.

4. Signi fi cance

Unlike experimental cinema, in which film organizing, shooting were carefully treated, video had an initial impulse to objectively record everything that met the eyes, the reality itself, which, then, would be left to and organized by the artist. In this context the screen images depended more on objective things available to our lives; the artist would record them with a camcorder and present them in a highly individual way, to counter-balance image abuse and commercialization, thus creating new viewing methods and personal experience. Video art as an avant-garde genre in the 1960s served as a role model in language transformation within the context of moving images. Its combination with performance and installation—a more tolerant creative mode—has had great impact upon later digital image creation. With the application of digital technology, video art, on the one hand, existed in a wider range of media culture; on the other hand, it kept certain distance from the culture. Such a predicament had become so worse that video artists had to define a unique art space to experience a greater freedom, where narration,perception and visual expectations would be reshuf fl ed.4

III. Digital Moving Images

1. Digital Technology: Recoding Video

Emerging digital moving image art has gone far beyond early video art in terms of implications as a means of presentation and recording.It has become an image art with comprehensive use of multi-image and installation environments centered on digital moving images as a core media carrier. Digitally, it recodes image structure and narrative discourse system. Either in narrative or non-narrative mode, it provides the viewer with non-linear aesthetic experience in a hyperlink media integration way: various collage techniques by non-linear editing;3-D collage of video installation; multimedia art link resulting from interactive art open to the viewer experience.5Applied digital technology has created new capabilities and offered images endless extensibility.What digital technology artists can do now is to introduce a new form of“creation,” rather than mechanically record objective reality as they did before. Previously, images could be edited in the movie or be recreated with a montage, and included into other images. However, once they are transferred to digital language, every element in them can be computermodified. In fact, images in the computer are numerous pieces of information, each of which can be operated.

In present-day video exhibitions, the concept of “video art” cannot cover all today’s moving image works. The first kind is non-recorded or non-videoed, e.g. virtual videos drawn by Maya, After effect or other computer software. Moreover, digital image material can be easily edited or treated with digital late software; non-linear editing has replaced previous linear editing. The Internet as a completely new communication platform makes real-time interaction with works possible. So, digital moving images, to a certain extent, have had new features in the context of today’s new technology that “video art” did not have.

2. Historical Background

With the development of science and technology, especially the use of computer digital image processing, digital editing and virtual imaging technology, network and interactive technology, great changes have taken place in material production; hence new breakthroughs in human thinking ways. It is against such a historical background that digital images emerged and gained momentum. Of course, there is another cause that visually, the viewer has had aesthetic fatigue over traditional video art. Owing to the blending of art and technology, imaging technology becomes easier for command and use. The limits to artists’ ideas due to material itself begin to wane. Artists have obtained more freedom than ever to use of media technology in creation, thus having greater creative passion. The image is no longer solitary; it is solidary. There is no longer a unique image as in art, but the manufacture of countless prints, a vast panoply of imagery synthetically reproducing the natural restlessness of the spectator’s eye.6

3. Works of Digital Moving Images

(1) Narrative of moving images rede fi ned

The French artist Pierre Huyghe’s Remake (1995) is a remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s film Rear Window (1953). In fact Huyghe would hire amateur actors to complete the original film scenes in each of his works. He said: “Only a few hours before the actual shoot could they see their lines. And that was exactly their problem. Everything—stammering, forgetting lines—was included in real-time recording.” As to digital video technology he used fi lm technology (with the help of a small sliding-rail vehicle and tracking lenses, etc.). But his narration was incomplete. Therefore, narrative effect in his films was lowered, and a new relationship was successfully created between the audience and the performance behavior.

A similar example of af fi nity in image treatment is 24 Hour Psycho(1993) by the British artist Douglas Gordon. It is a replay of Alfred Hitchcock’s horror film Psycho at a speed of two frames per second.Gordon made the original fi lm a silent one with digital post-technology.He did not change its narrative contents, but extended its period from 109 to 1440 minutes, exactly 24 hours! These slowed-down shots are like a collection of photos which we have met somewhere, reappearing before our eyes at an extremely slow pace. In the prolonged length of time, every detail is so unmistakably clear that shots are no longer that frightening as they were; every shot, every second seems to give rise to a new meaning.

(2) Non-narrativity of digital moving images

The American artist Paul Pfeiffer used postproduction digital editing technology to recreate and redefine ever-made videos. In John 3: 16(2000), he digitally altered fi ve thousand frames of the act of basketball shooting, and re-positioned them to help establish male blacks as idols,so as to highlight the event and present a performance clip of a frustrated male black sports amateur. Likewise, he used digital technology for recreation in his other works. For example, he removed leading roles in NBA and boxing from the view of the audience. Therefore, the artist successfully created a new narrative mode and a new concept of time by digital technology. Thanks to his effort, images are no longer solitary,fi xed, but reorganized, solidary, and recreated, synthetically reproducing the natural restlessness of the spectator’s eye; and the spectators will question the truth of experience while watching his work, and will face the task of creating their own experience and meaning of life.

For the Israeli multimedia artist Michal Rovner, however, any individual trait of life that she shoots is less identi fi able after complex digital editing is done. Her videos are full of hundreds of small, silent characters in simple clothes. Her work Time Left (2003) is a huge, wallto-wall video installation, which she made with digital editing tools. In it outlines of thousands of protesters march on, row after row, toward an unknown destination, together with buzzing electronic music. This is a narration without certain plot, an abstract scene, reminiscent of the condemned prisoners or survivors of the Tianqi Accident (also known as Wanggongchang Explosion, a mysterious tragedy that happened tothe capital of Beijing in the sixth year of the reign of Emperor Tianqi,i.e. 1626, during China’s Ming Dynasty). Or, perhaps they are pilgrims parading just toward an expected ritual of religious revelation. This,indeed, is full of so many implications, which set the audience thinking after the visual impact. For the artist, digital editing tools are for expressing her individual ideas.

(3) Interactive digital moving images

In “interactive digital moving images,” more attention is paid to the experience that the interaction of the work itself brings; images are increasingly transformed into experience, an art form that allows the audience to directly involve in work. The reason is that the artist has taken the audience as an integral part of the work into account while conceiving the work in mind. Such an interactive approach brings the audience experience, differing from that in any traditional work which influences the viewer through passive visual consumption and psychological hints. At this moment, what matters is no longer narrativity or non-narrativity, but experience available to the audience through interaction. Most of these interactive artworks are based on computer control and various sensors, by collecting the audience’s behavior,gestures, temperature and even language and other data information, and then feeding them back to the audience after processing. Hence a new dialogue mechanism between the work and the audience. Thus, every viewer is enabled to earn a personal experience in the artist-created,interactive environment. This also offers artists a means of leading the audience in a positive way to social concerns.

The Polish artist Tamas Waliczky played a perspective-shifting game in his interactive video installation The Way (1994). When the viewer approaches the projection screen placed at the far end of a long corridor, the screen images gradually diminish as he comes up closer,thus gaining an abnormal experience. Since a new context or expression itself can generate meaning, this also directly leads to a changed way of information perception.

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer’s work Under Scan (2005) allows each participant to open a video artwork belonging to himself or herself through tracking sensors and multi-imaging technology. Within the scope of projection, the audience is detected by a computerized tracking system, which activates video-portraits projected within their shadow.The audience will “wake them up,” and have visual contact, physical or even verbal interaction with them. When the viewer walks away,the portrait eventually disappears. This system can accommodate 80 participants within 1200 square meters at the same time. For every seven minutes, the entire project stops and resets. The tracking system is shown in a brief “episode” lighting sequence. And the project is operated by a computer monitoring system equipped with a calibrating grid.

4. Signi fi cance

Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980) of Canada wrote: “In a sense,any new medium is a new language, a new coding method of dealing with experience. This method comes from new work habits, entirely from collective consciousness.”7With the advent of an era when art and technology join hands, video technology becomes easier for command and use. The limits to artists’ ideas due to material itself begin to wane.Artists, whose notions dominate mechanics, may use digital systems for operation and adapt original coding systems; “artistically process”multiple correlations: political, societal, philosophical, emotional, and experienced, in forms of television, cinema, video, performance and interaction, for the sake of creation; and invest spiritual elements into work, and interpret results. So, their mental images are illustrated on the screen, which provides much more possibilities for image transformation and recreation.

Today, digital moving images have penetrated into all aspects of human life, which carry new trends for video art, and bring unprecedented experience, too. They play an important role in an era of big data and informatization, where value, meaning, experience, and new reality will all be established through participation.

IV. Conclusion

Technological advances—from experimental cinema, video art using hand-held camcorders in the 1960s and 1970s to today’s digital moving images—have empowered us to more extensive freedom for artistic creation. Specifically, from films in experimental cinema very carefully shooting in an anti-narrative manner to highlight expression of the inner world, to the camcorder objectively recording reality, then to digital technology recoding videos in a narrative or non-narrative manner, developing media technologies provide artists with possibilities of extending their space. In the process of “decoding” and “transforming,”artists create their individualized and contagious work by unique uses of tools, technology, procedure and display devices, depending on their personality and accomplishments. Although the above can be partly attributed to the progress of technology and art equipment, it is artists’skills and ideas that ultimately push on art to grow. Therefore, art should be a form that is more controlled by human consciousness than by overwhelming technology. Presumably, this comprehensive method of conscious control is a new perspective seeking to go beyond traditional narrative models, and to observe and understand this world in a different way.8 Ours is an age when commercialism runs rampant and gnaws life experience. In this void reality the artist resorts to a variety of new media to concretize our spirit, perception and experience, though not as a speci fi c object. He adds to them his individual spiritual and emotional experience, then concretizes such an experience carrier, making it responsible for carrying the temperature of human consciousness and inherent spirit and rebuilding a life-experiencing world.

This paper has been an attempt to reexamine the whole process from the origin of moving images, from early experimental cinema,video art, to today’s digital moving images; to explore how artworks vary with creative methods in each stage, and how the artist employs different methods to present individual ideas. In addition, it discussed how the artist fi nds creative methods suited to himself as old media give their way to new ones. As mentioned earlier, this paper is not intended to enumerate the stages from experimental movies, video art, to digital moving image,or to analyze this transition. Instead, considering one hundred years of evolving media and creative methods, it remains concerned about how moving images as a genre grow, evolve and keep their momentum in the context of new technology and media, and how they bring greater freedom and diversi fi ed possibilities to creation. Here, value, meaning,experience, and new realities will be all established through participation.

Notes:

1 See “An Outline of French Surrealist Cinema,” Journal of School of Chinese Language and Culture Nanjing Normal University, Issue 3, 2005.

2 Sun Weiwei: “Moving Image Art: Artistic Expression & Characteristics Analysis, Based on Experimental Cinema, Video Art and New Media Images,”Journal of Wuhan University of Science and Technology (Social Science Edition),Issue 2, 2013.

3 Michael Rush: New Media Art, Shanghai People’s Fine Arts PublishingHouse, 2015.

4 ibid.

5 Zhihu.com: “How Should We Understand Video Art? ” (http://www.zhihu.com/question/36891170)

6 Paul Virilio: The Vision Machine, trans. Zhang Xinmu and Wei Shu,Nanjing University Press, 2014.

7 Artda.cn: Video Art in Late 20th Century, source: art publication circle, author: Michael Rush, trans. Xiao Sha (http://www.artda.cn/view.php?tid=5728&cid=20).

8 Gao Minglu, Chen Xiaowen: Contemporary Digital Art, Guangxi Normal University Press, 2015.

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Developing Creative Methods of Moving Images:from Experimental Cinema, Video Art to Digital Moving Images

Text by Yue Minghui and Hao Rui, translated by Yue Zhongsheng

In the 20thcentury, avant-garde artists introduced technology-based art (from photography, cinema, video to virtual reality,and many others lying between them) to the territory once dominated by engineers and technicians. They brought every new material and medium to art and rendered much more freedom to its creation. This paper attempts to examine the historical line of moving images and their creative methods in different stages, and explore how they as a genre of art represent themselves and grow in the context of new technologies to accommodate artistic creation with richer and more diversified possibilities.

creative method; moving images; experimental cinema; video art; digital moving images

This paper is supported by Youth Fund of Tianjin Normal University(52WU1603)

Yue Minghui: teacher at School of Art and Design, Tianjin Normal University

Hao Rui: current postgraduate of Mixed Media Painting Department, School of Experimental Art, Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts

Yue Zhongsheng: associate professor at Civil Aviation University of China