Weekly Assignment 1-
In Wassily Kandinsky’s play The Yellow Sound, the role of disjunction is evident. Straight away in scene
one presents juxtapositions through the cool toned dark colors that keeps the audience calm while the
music “begins straightaway”1 well as high to low, which induces anxiety and opposes the visuals. These
elements, along with many other ones, are continuously contrasting each other when fitting together.
The first scene is filled with dark colors and erratic music which induces anxiousness. However,
the second scene immediately juxtaposes that whole ambiance with brighter colors as well as giants who
have very slow movements and very low singing, which harmonizes with their “yellow faces”2. This
shows great friction between the images and movements of the two scenes. The play is very chaotic with
how the music challenges the images of the figures and colors. The music is “shrill”3 and then changes
very sharply. The colors “suddenly”4 change from “bright” to “dirty”, which also causes disjunction
within the entirety of the show.
The show itself has no linear structure that a traditional theatrical performance would have, the ideas
presented are very abstract and up to each individual’s interpretation. The movements throughout the play
also are not fully consistent due to the change between walking slowly and then running with fats
motions, which is supported with the music and mostly contrasted with the colors. Thus, the role of
disjunction is very fluid within The Yellow Sound.
1
Kandinsky, Wassily. “The Yellow Sound” and “A Stage Composition.” In Theater of the Avant-Garde, 1890-1950: A Critical
Anthology, edited by Bert Cardullo and Robert Knopf, 173-186. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2001 [1909].
Also read the introduction to Kandinsky by the editors (p.168-172)
2
Kandinsky, Wassily. “The Yellow Sound” and “A Stage Composition.” (p.174)
3
Kandinsky, Wassily. “The Yellow Sound” and “A Stage Composition.” (p.176)
4
Kandinsky, Wassily. “The Yellow Sound” and “A Stage Composition.” (p.176)
, Weekly assignment 2-
In Peter Greenaway’s lecture “Toward a re-invention of cinema”, he rejected the norms of what cinema
has become and stated that it should be revived and modeled in a different way. He criticized 4 specific
aspects of cinema that he disagreed with and called them the “four tyrannies” 5. They are “the text, the
frame, the actor and the camera”6, which he also explained.
Greenaway offered a different method of avoiding those tyrannies that in essence would ‘re-
invent’ film’s specificities. For the tyranny of text, he offered the understanding that films should not be
text or literature based and that film in itself should create a visual language on its own. The frame should
not confine the images and “The parallelogram can go”7 away. The actors of the film should be less
focused, and they should “share the cinematic space” 8 with all the other elements surrounding them.
Finally, although the camera cannot be completely dismissed (along with all the tyrannies), some aspects
of the camera should. There should be the understanding that a camera cannot reproduce the experience
of reality and should adopt other qualities that can help exemplify that. Those are the aspects that
Greenaway offered.
5
Greenaway, Peter. “Toward a Re-invention of Cinema: Variety Cinema Militans Lecture at the Dutch Film Festival on Sept. 27,
2003.” Variety, October 1, 2003. https://variety.com/2003/voices/columns/toward-a-re-invention-of-cinema-1117893306/ (last
accessed November 1, 2018).
6
Greenaway. “Towards a Re-invention of Cinema”. 2003.
7
Greenaway. “Towards a Re-invention of Cinema”. 2003.
8
Greenaway. “Towards a Re-invention of Cinema”. 2003.
In Wassily Kandinsky’s play The Yellow Sound, the role of disjunction is evident. Straight away in scene
one presents juxtapositions through the cool toned dark colors that keeps the audience calm while the
music “begins straightaway”1 well as high to low, which induces anxiety and opposes the visuals. These
elements, along with many other ones, are continuously contrasting each other when fitting together.
The first scene is filled with dark colors and erratic music which induces anxiousness. However,
the second scene immediately juxtaposes that whole ambiance with brighter colors as well as giants who
have very slow movements and very low singing, which harmonizes with their “yellow faces”2. This
shows great friction between the images and movements of the two scenes. The play is very chaotic with
how the music challenges the images of the figures and colors. The music is “shrill”3 and then changes
very sharply. The colors “suddenly”4 change from “bright” to “dirty”, which also causes disjunction
within the entirety of the show.
The show itself has no linear structure that a traditional theatrical performance would have, the ideas
presented are very abstract and up to each individual’s interpretation. The movements throughout the play
also are not fully consistent due to the change between walking slowly and then running with fats
motions, which is supported with the music and mostly contrasted with the colors. Thus, the role of
disjunction is very fluid within The Yellow Sound.
1
Kandinsky, Wassily. “The Yellow Sound” and “A Stage Composition.” In Theater of the Avant-Garde, 1890-1950: A Critical
Anthology, edited by Bert Cardullo and Robert Knopf, 173-186. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2001 [1909].
Also read the introduction to Kandinsky by the editors (p.168-172)
2
Kandinsky, Wassily. “The Yellow Sound” and “A Stage Composition.” (p.174)
3
Kandinsky, Wassily. “The Yellow Sound” and “A Stage Composition.” (p.176)
4
Kandinsky, Wassily. “The Yellow Sound” and “A Stage Composition.” (p.176)
, Weekly assignment 2-
In Peter Greenaway’s lecture “Toward a re-invention of cinema”, he rejected the norms of what cinema
has become and stated that it should be revived and modeled in a different way. He criticized 4 specific
aspects of cinema that he disagreed with and called them the “four tyrannies” 5. They are “the text, the
frame, the actor and the camera”6, which he also explained.
Greenaway offered a different method of avoiding those tyrannies that in essence would ‘re-
invent’ film’s specificities. For the tyranny of text, he offered the understanding that films should not be
text or literature based and that film in itself should create a visual language on its own. The frame should
not confine the images and “The parallelogram can go”7 away. The actors of the film should be less
focused, and they should “share the cinematic space” 8 with all the other elements surrounding them.
Finally, although the camera cannot be completely dismissed (along with all the tyrannies), some aspects
of the camera should. There should be the understanding that a camera cannot reproduce the experience
of reality and should adopt other qualities that can help exemplify that. Those are the aspects that
Greenaway offered.
5
Greenaway, Peter. “Toward a Re-invention of Cinema: Variety Cinema Militans Lecture at the Dutch Film Festival on Sept. 27,
2003.” Variety, October 1, 2003. https://variety.com/2003/voices/columns/toward-a-re-invention-of-cinema-1117893306/ (last
accessed November 1, 2018).
6
Greenaway. “Towards a Re-invention of Cinema”. 2003.
7
Greenaway. “Towards a Re-invention of Cinema”. 2003.
8
Greenaway. “Towards a Re-invention of Cinema”. 2003.
