CIN201Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Rudolf Arnheim, Medium Specificity, Film Theory
Professor Charles Keil Nov. 29, 2016
CIN201 LECTURE 11
RUDOLF ARNHEIM, CLASSICAL FILM THEORY, MEDIUM SPECIFICITY
LECTURE OUTLINE:
1) Introduction: Classical Film Theory and Medium Specificity
2) Rudolf Arnheim and Gestalt Psychology
3) Perception and Cinema as Art
INTRODUCTION: CLASSICAL FILM THEORY AND MEDIUM SPECIFICITY
• Rudolf Arnheim contributed significantly to classical film theory, though his most
famous scholarship concerns visual perception
• Much of classical film theory depends upon a notion of medium specificity
• Attributes distinct to a medium are thought to define that medium’s artistic potential
• Classical film theory embraces the idea of medium specificity to prove that cinema is a
distinct artform
• Gotthold Ephraim Lessing’s Laocoon: An Essay on the Limits of Painting and Poetry
proved highly influential in shaping the medium-specificity argument
• Lessing argues that one needs to differentiate each art according to its medium-specific
elements.
RUDOLF ARNHEIM AND GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY
• Gestalt psychology holds that the mind perceives by constructing wholes out of the parts
that constitute reality
• Immanuel Kant’s idea that meaningful and a priori structures (such as unity) shape
perception lies behind gestalt psychology
• Our mind sees simple wholes
• The (perceived) whole is always greater than the sum of the (provided) parts
• Various laws govern our perceptual operations, including proximity, similarity, and
closure
• Pragnanz is a master principle, insofar as our perception seemingly seeks order,
symmetry, and simplicity
• To see is to impose a pattern on the world, an act Arnheim refers to as “primary
transformation”
• Perceived objects possess an inherently expressive dimension
• In artmaking, perception becomes translated through the terms of the medium chosen, but
the medium must be used for artistic purposes
• Because our perceptions are being translated onto a medium, the same principles that
apply to perception apply to artmaking
• The artist must convey the inherent expressiveness of objects
PERCEPTION AND CINEMA AS ART
• For film to be art, “secondary transformation” must occur
• Cinema will transform reality to make it more like the mind
• Cinema’s limitations as a reproductive medium will be the source of its artistic potential
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