AMU = DAMU + FAMU + HAMU
STUDY PLANS
Faculties | School Elective Courses | All courses | Help | Česká verze
Welcome page > FAMU > FAMU International > Alchemy of the Miraculous: A Visit to Jan Švankmajer´s "Wunderkammer"

Alchemy of the Miraculous: A Visit to Jan Švankmajer´s "Wunderkammer"

Register Display Schedule
Code Completion Credits Range Language Instruction
311MAMS Z 3 14/S English
Tutor:
Stanislav ULVER
Synopsis:

Lecturer: prof. PhDr. Stanislav Ulver (contact: ulver.st@volny.cz)

Time and place:

Friday 27. 3. 2009, 11:000-13:00 and 14:30-17:00, FAMU room 1

Saturday 28. 3. 2009, 11:00-13:00 and 14:30-15:30 FAMU, room 1 and then in screening room 15:30-17:30

Sunday 29. 3. 12:00-13:15 Gambra Gallery, Černínská 5, Praha 1

Assignment: 3 credits, essay (min. 500 words) to be submitted by April 30 to: ulver.st@volny.cz

Prerequisites:
Study Objectives:
Outline and Syllabus:

The aim of the module is to understand the principles of the work of Jan Švankmajer and Eva Švankmajerová and broaden your knowledge of Czech surrealism in general. To understand that „the intention of surrealism was to move beyond the level of art as aesthetics“.

1. Introduction

A homage to Jan Švankmajer, an animation film by the Brothers Quay: THE CABINET OF JAN ŠVANKMAJER (1984). The principles of Švankmajer´s first three animations and the pictures of Eva Švankmajerová. Specific forms of expression: tactile experiments, ceramics, collages and masturbation machines in Bilderlexikon.

2. Short films + ALICE (1987)

3. Short films

4. Short films + CONSPIRATORS OF PLEASURE (1996)

The heterogeneous combination of incongruous forms (materials, techniques, actions or gestures), which is the backbone of almost all avant-garde aesthetics, assumes in Švankmajer's natural science a highly specific aspect. The technique of collage or assemblage based on the selection of some (characteristic) elements and their unexpected (highly specific) incorporation into a new entity, are in this case fully subservient to the laws of nature - especially to the eternal principle of mutual devouring. Awareness of never satiated hunger, which is the starting point of the entire process, and as such in fact accompanies and aggressively stimulates all subsequent metabolic transformations, is for Švankmajer a dominant feature. In the process of inner or external metamorphosis (spontaneous rampant growth and disintegration) even animation gets beyond control, especially animation of clay and plasticine. The only principles Švankmajer respects are probably the rules of latent magic contemplation.

The matter, from which Švankmajer's hero is „made“ (with its instincts, past and memory) remains untamed and undisciplined, like Carroll's (and Švankmajer's) Alice, like the deep structures of the subconscious, and like childhood memories. The artist's paths are imagination, dreams, humor and experimental games, which for him predominate. Yet he also goes well beyond them, not paying heed to any delimitations, be they technical, genre, aesthetic or other - with one exception: the latent strategy of a uniform chess game, in which the pieces of different values stand for individual works.

Study materials:

Jan Poš, Czech Animated Film 1934-1994. MKČR, KF a.s.

Giannalberto Bendazzi, Cartoons, One Hundred Years of Animation. London 1994.

Peter Hames, ed., Dark Alchemy, The Films of Jan Švankmajer. Flicks Books, Trowbridge 1995.

EvaŠmakmajerJan: Anima Animus Animation. Arbor vitae, Praha 1998.

Collection, Švankmajer E&J, Bouche ? Bouche. Éditions de l?oeil, Montreuil 2002 - (The texts are also translated into English).

P.A. Shera, The Labryinthine Madness of vankmajer's Causy. Journal of Gender Studies, Volume 10, Number 2, 1 July 2001, pp. 127-144(18).

Collection, Jan Švankmajer: Transmutace smyslů / Transmutation of the Senses.

Edition Detail 2 in Czech & English, 2nd revised edition, 2005.

Stanislav Ulver, Dimensions of Dialogue. In: Tough Eye. International Turku Animated Film Festival, Turku 2001, pp. 48-50.

Stanislav Ulver, From the Cellar up the Stairs and then Back Again or How Jan Švankmajer Philosophises with a Hammer. In: 14th World Festival of Animated Films, Zagreb 2000.

Stanislav Ulver, The Magic of the Closed Worlds. In Jan Švankmajer, un surréaliste du cnéma d?animation. Strasbourg 1999, pp. 60-63.

Stanislav Ulver, On Anxiety, Conspirators and Pleasures of the Cinema. ASIFA News, 2/1997, pp. 10-13.

Web (only a few examples):

http://www.awn.com/heaven_and_hell/svank/svank1.htm

http:// http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Švankmajer

www.kinema.uwaterloo.ca/jusva941.htm

http://dmoz.org/Arts/Animation/Artists/Directors/Svankmajer_Jan/

http://www.kinoeye.org/02/01/svankmajerlinks01.php

http://www.alice-in-wonderland.fsnet.co.uk/film_tv_neco.htm

http://www.kamera.co.uk/interviews/svankmayer_svankmajerova.html

Note:
Schedule for winter semester 2008/2009:
The schedule has not yet been prepared
Schedule for summer semester 2008/2009:
06:00–08:0008:00–10:0010:00–12:0012:00–14:0014:00–16:0016:00–18:0018:00–20:0020:00–22:0022:00–24:00
Mon
Tue
Fri
Thu
Fri
The subject is a part of the following study plans:
Generated on 2009-5-7
Copyright © Jiří Kosek, 2005-2008 | Copyright © AMU in Prague, 2005-2008 | Help | Enter your enquiries into Helpdesk
Updates of the above given information can be found on http://studijniplany.amu.cz/en/predmet311MAMS.html