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Photographic Sound Art and the Silent Modernity of Walter Ruttmann's Weekend (1930)

Photographic Sound Art and the Silent Modernity of Walter Ruttmann's Weekend (1930) This article examines Walter Ruttmann's Weekend, a twelve-minute programme made for German radio in 1930. Recorded and edited using Tri-Ergon optical film sound technology, it was described by Ruttmann in the following terms: `Weekend is a study in sound montage. I used the film strip to record the sound exclusively, yielding what amounts to a blind film'. The programme is often referenced in histories of sonic art, since Ruttmann's `cinematic' use of montage seems to have prefigured the developments ` that took place in musique concrete over a decade later. However, despite being a well-known piece of work, Weekend remains critically neglected: a footnote to Ruttmann's better-known work in cinema. The article aims to revisit and reappraise Weekend as a radical modernist work by considering not only its status as a pioneering piece of sonic art, but also its intermediality. Ruttmann's deployment of filmic techniques within a radiophonic context can be seen to radically challenge the differentiation of art forms and media that has been seen to define modernism, and by situating Weekend within the context of Ruttmann's broader project as an artist, the article The New Soundtrack 6.2 (2016): 109­127 DOI: 10.3366/sound.2016.0086 # Edinburgh University Press and http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The New Soundtrack Edinburgh University Press

Photographic Sound Art and the Silent Modernity of Walter Ruttmann's Weekend (1930)

Birtwistle, Andy
The New Soundtrack , Volume 6 (2): 109 – Sep 1, 2016
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Publisher
Edinburgh University Press
Copyright
© Edinburgh University Press and the Contributors
Subject
Film, Media and Cultural Studies
ISSN
2042-8855
eISSN
2042-8863
DOI
10.3366/sound.2016.0086
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

This article examines Walter Ruttmann's Weekend, a twelve-minute programme made for German radio in 1930. Recorded and edited using Tri-Ergon optical film sound technology, it was described by Ruttmann in the following terms: `Weekend is a study in sound montage. I used the film strip to record the sound exclusively, yielding what amounts to a blind film'. The programme is often referenced in histories of sonic art, since Ruttmann's `cinematic' use of montage seems to have prefigured the developments ` that took place in musique concrete over a decade later. However, despite being a well-known piece of work, Weekend remains critically neglected: a footnote to Ruttmann's better-known work in cinema. The article aims to revisit and reappraise Weekend as a radical modernist work by considering not only its status as a pioneering piece of sonic art, but also its intermediality. Ruttmann's deployment of filmic techniques within a radiophonic context can be seen to radically challenge the differentiation of art forms and media that has been seen to define modernism, and by situating Weekend within the context of Ruttmann's broader project as an artist, the article The New Soundtrack 6.2 (2016): 109­127 DOI: 10.3366/sound.2016.0086 # Edinburgh University Press and

Journal

The New Soundtrack – Edinburgh University Press

Published: Sep 1, 2016

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