The Art of Selective Coincidence

In 2017, a new edition of Stan Brakhage’s seminal book Metaphors on Vision was released after several decades of being out of print. In the article, we contextualize Brakhage’s writing in the book with an emphasis on his creative preoccupations at the time, including personal and professional facts that influenced his thinking. We consider the book’s importance today and argue that the innovativeness of the book may have been brought under question, but its importance remains indisputable, also due to the social context in which it appeared in the 1960’s. Its biggest asset still lies in the author’s heterogeneous, emotional and in parts insane style of writing, which still emanates an unparalleled passion for the film medium.

The integral version of this article can be found in the printed KINO!