ABSTRACT
In animation, experimental film pioneers of the 1920s gave high regard to the manner that pictorial space was organized. Hans Richter, for example, saw animation as a logical step for expressing the kinetic interplay between positive and negative forms and considered the film frame as a space that could be divided and "orchestrated" in time. In films like Rhythmus 21 and Rhythmus 23, motion was choreographed in horizontal and vertical movements and scale changes of the forms to establish depth. Nonobjective lines and rectangles move in alignment, as figure-ground is broken from the changing interplay between positive and negative space. Taken out of context, individual frames from Richter's Rhythm us series demonstrate a liberal use of negative space, an interplay between figure and ground, and a purposeful alignment of shapes to the frame's edges (Chapter 1, figure 1.12).
