Medium Specificity In Cinema

Submitted By Money4clinton1
Words: 360
Pages: 2

“Key Concepts Paper 2: Medium Specificity”

Medium specificity came to rise when painting and sculptures started to diminish in the 17th century. This became the dominant form of art at that time. Medium specificity is a raw material of art that brings out figuration and illusionism. It is also a type of art that is used to manipulate the idiosyncratic form of nature. Formalism shows a unique form of cinema, which is similar to medium specificity. Formalism uses spiritual and psychological images to portray a detailed exaggeration of cinema. A formalist conception of medium specificity is based on images, rather than stories and characters working to convey a message. Formalist supports medium specificity because it uses aesthetic elements to bring artwork into existence. In the reading chapter of the cinematographic principle and the ideogram Eisenstein talks about how cinema uses an image to describe a situation “The picture for water and the picture for an eye signifies “ to weep” the picture of an ear near the drawing of a door = "to listen.”(Eisenstein, Cinematographic principle and the ideogram, Page 30). Eisenstein saw cinema as dynamic and believed in a mixture of images that would change the minds of the viewers. Eisenstein and Arnheim have similar perceptions on medium specificity, they both see it as an art. They make cinema images intelligible for their viewers. “The artist, too, uses his categories of shape and