Page 35 - Studio International - July August 1975

Photodynainism exists in Cubism, for with contemporary spiritualist an enthusiastic correspondent of the
instance. In this context Bragaglia's speculations as much as with the more Corriere Toscano had written a front-page
images are highly significant, for with physical approach of the Futurists. It was account of the olfactory experience of
them he could justifiably claim to have presumably the communication of this photodynamic images, accepting them as
provided both a progressive extension of psychic emotion to the spectator to which 'quadri' (paintings) rather than
the futurist vocabulary, and a series of he was referring when he wrote of photographs. He reported that the smells
works that have retained their fascination Photodynainism as an active transmitter. of sawn wood, fish-glue and turpentine
through the test of time. Modern While the futurist painters had been fairly oozed out of Carpenter Sawing.
scholarship should recognize them as eager to disassociate themselves from Bragaglia confirmed that he attempted
pioneering contributions, in advance of Bragaglia's efforts to evolve an to give each subject the smells that would
the work of Moholy-Nagy or Man Ray, autonomous art form using the camera, make it 'alive and complete'. It is not
to the establishment of photography as it certainly is true that for Balla at least clear whether this was just a figure of
art. the contact and friendship with him had speech or an additional aspect, but in
Bragaglia was secretive about his been fruitful. The chronology of their August 1913 Carlo Carrà published one
methods, but the images seem to be the relationship is vague, but a distinct of his more extravagant manifestos, 'The
result of long exposure, and all are change can be detected in Balla's use of Painting of Sounds, Noises and Smells'.
interior shots.' They differ from many the paths of movement in 1912 which In this he advocated the capturing and
other experiments with 'moved is probably attributable to his experience expression of smells as an 'environment-
photography' in that the image moves, of Photodynainism. The influence of force', indispensable for the futurist
not the camera. And they are usually Marey is obviously direct in the schematic painter in the presentation of the 'pure
single subject compositions: faces, heads sequence of broken movements in plastic whole'. The difference is of course
or single figures, the more complex Balla's Girl Running on Balcony, and that Carrà translated smells back into
portrait of Balla with the painting Dog even more explicit in the drawing than in colours and characterized them as red,
on a Leash being an exception. Beyond the painting. Marey's approach is used green and so on.
this there are two main types. There are again in the Violinist's Hand of 1912, It is not surprising that Bragaglia
figures in some kind of activity involving painted while Balla was in Düsseldorf. turned to other projects after the
a specific movement, particularly of the But Dog on a Leash shows a notable indifference he received from the
hands (Carpenter Sawing, The Guitarist, change towards the continuous wave or painters. But neither Photodynainism nor
The Typist), where Bragaglia seems to curve of unbroken movement Bragaglia Futurism were his only outlets, and he
have been focussing attention on the was advocating, and which Balla was to returned with a will to his literary and
communication of the energy and rhythm explore further with his series of swifts cinematic researches. Then, as later, he
inherent in these movements — 'the in flight. Dog on a Leash relates all the cast his net wide, writing articles and
algebra of movement', as he called it; more directly since it was the painting books on subjects ranging from
and there are the images that imply the captured in the photodynamic image pantheism11 to prophecy, collaborating
change from one position to another: which shows Balla standing next to it. with writers like Pirandello 12 and artists
moments of transition like a man standing The influence was mutual, however. like Prampolini. Immediately after the
up, bowing, walking or delivering a For Bragaglia, Balla's attempt to convey `Manifesto of Futurist Photodynainism',
slap. While it is clear from such examples paths of movement in painting was no he went on to publish a study of the great
of Photodynainism that Bragaglia was not doubt an encouragement in his search for inventions of the seventeenth century,
concerned with detailed physical analysis a viable contribution to Futurism. It is finding comfort for the misunderstanding
of movement like Marey, or with the more than possible that the moved image of Photodynainism in the knowledge that
precise reconstruction of movement of Photodynainism started initially as an `the things that seem to be magic today
per se, it would be hard to read into them accident, and that the perfection of this are parascientific and will enter
the Bergsonian implication of the accident was stimulated by the consciousness with time'."
manifesto, the notion that 'it is more than realization that a photographic method In the same year he wrote an article
human to capture that which happens could go further in capturing the entitled 'In the Year 2000'" in which
in the interval'. But it was undoubtedly sensation of movement than Balla's he predicted the invention of the
this interval which interested him, the attempts in painting. Here Bragaglia televisual telephone, along with something
psychic concept that 'when a person gets was certainly right, and there is another like a slide-projector: 'a machine to
up, the chair is still full of his soul'. Such curious example of his influence in the project photographs at a distance'.
a formulation reflects his involvement summer of 1913. In January of that year Spiritual auras around bodies had not
been specifically mentioned, but the
Thais: Final Suicide Scene, 1916
interpretations which were so fashionable
at the time appear in an article of 1914
and certainly seem to relate to photo-
dynamic images. 'The Ghosts of the
Living and the Dead"5 deals with
interpretations of bodies etheric,
psychic and astral, refers to the theories
of Pascal and Kama Rupa, and goes on to
discuss the aura in the context of
photographic images of spirits and
ghosts.
In 1916 Bragaglia founded his own
film company, `La Novissima'16 and
produced three remarkable films, first
Thais", then a year later Il Perfido
Incanto (The Perfidious Enchanter)
and Il Mio Cadavere (My Corpse).
Ironically enough it was also in 1916 that
Marinetti at last felt that the futurist
movement should concern itself with the
modern medium of film, but he chose
Ginna, not Bragaglia, to make Vita
Futurista. Bragaglia acted as distributor.
Vita Futurista was in fact a series of more
or less related interludes, rather like
futurist theatre in that it disrupted the
traditional idea of story line and was done
for enjoyment. But it had none of the
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