A film I was particularly intrigued by is Free Radicals by Len Lye. It is a B&W artistic film that includes abstract art drawings that generate and transform in accordance with music created by The Bagirmi Tribe of Africa. Len Lye was inspired to create this film due to his time spent living within an indigenous community. He wished to integrate the art forms experienced within this community into a revolutionary film that celebrates the livelihood of Aboriginal indigenous culture. In order to create the visuals that he set to the tribal music, Lye directly etched into the film base. He had envisioned certain designs that reflect the energy of the tribe’s movement and dance and used different needles and tools to etch his vision into the film base (Pinchetti). This technique did not use any actual camerawork but instead resulted in a direct application of the film stock in order to create his desired artistic output. In order to truly reflect the indigenous culture that he celebrates, his etching aimed to reflect the line-work in the people’s own artistic endeavors.
During my viewing of this film, I noticed that the visuals have a direct connection with the beat of the drums. The etchings are constantly set in motion and seem to change movement with every single drum beat (Pinchetti). When there is the audio of a man singing, Lye introduces a series of vertical lines that wobble and dance across the screen in unison with the tremble of a man’s voice. While many of the shapes created are fairly abstract, there is a common theme of etchings that resemble sound waves, asterisks and dancing people. The visuals seem to expand, rotate, separate and combine. Even though they are purely 2D, the way that they flow across my line of vision produces the illusion that they are almost 3D objects. Overall, I believe this audiovisual experience shows a beautiful relationship between an indigenous people’s musical talent and the exploration of abstract film work.
Source: http://www.thethird-eye.co.uk/free-radicals-by-len-lye/