Stan Brakhage’s
work as a media artist truly explores the structures of film form, as
well as the relationship between the viewer and the film. His films
oppose the tendency to construct a traditional narrative or centralized
subject. They are not concerned with the ‘what’ of the subject,
but rather the true experience of vision. They encourage the viewer
to ignore how they have been socialized to see and allow the eye to
visualize beyond objects to color, texture and depth. The fragmented,
surrealist styles of his films challenge the viewer to explore new forms
of perception and vision. Brakhage forces the viewer to re-examine vision
through distortions of common imagery using techniques such as overexposure,
altered duration and direct animation. These techniques lead the viewer
to experience perception not only in terms of sight, but also in terms
of texture, rhythm, space and time. Brakhage’s writings and films
lead to a challenging of visual conventions, encouraging the viewer
to pay attention to peripheral vision, closed-eye vision, light, motion,
and negative space. His films push the camera to function as if it were
a ture human eye. In "Metaphors on Vision" he writes, "And
here, somewhere, we have an eye capable of any imagining (the only reality).
And there (right there) we have the camera eye (the limitation, the
original liar)…."(Brakhage, 15). By using the camera to emulate
the human eye Brakhage produces films which evoke a sensory, instinctual
response from the viewer. In Dogstar Man Brakhage evokes a dream-state
by creating a montage of imagery connected through color, motion, and
editing rhythm. The constant motion and abstract imagery challenges
the viewer’s eye to stay alert, and at the same time to perceive
the film on more than a visual level. The viewer is challenged to comprehend
the film on a conceptual level as well as on a reactionary, biological
level. In A History of Experimental Film and Video A.L. Reese writes,
"His personal creation myth centers on the act of shooting and
editing. Equally, the objective side of his films- their rhythms, metrics,
camera style, subject matter- make uncompromising demands on the viewer
to elicit and construct meaning, thus shifting attention from the author’s
voice to the spectator’s eye".