Things are beautiful where they are inevitable, that is, when they are free exhibitions of a spirit. There is no violence here, no murdering, no twisting-about, no copying-after, but a free, unrestrained, yet self-governing display of movement - which constitutes the principle of beauty. The muscles are conscious of drawing a line, making a dot, but behind them there is an unconsciousness. By this unconsciousness nature writes out her destiny: by this unconsciousness the artist creates his work of art. A baby smiles and the whole crowd is transported, because it is genuinely inevitable, coming out of the Unconscious'.
(Suzuki, D T, Selected Writings, Image, NY, 1996
Articles by Erik Knudsen
Transcendental Realism in Documentary
This is a chapter which Erik Knudsen contributed to the book, Rethinking Documentary, published by the Open University Press (2008). The chapter, 'Transcendental Realism in Documentary', explores a different approach to thinking of and using film narrative in an effort to portray and elicit our more transcendent feelings and relationships to actuality and the factual. It looks at how the documentary can engage with not just empirical observations and the psychologically explicable, but how documentary can also explore more transcendent realities, which are usually as important as the empirically factual in affecting people's lives. Read the introduction...
Fact and Mysticism in Documentary
An academic research report by Erik Knudsen on the completion of Heart of Gold, first published in the Journal of Media Practice, volume 8, number 1.
Framing The Eternally Present
A discussion of the use of detail and moment in pursuit of a transcendental realism in Erik Knudsen's feature film, Brannigan's March.
Eyes of the Beholder
First published in the Journal of Media Practice, volume 5, number 3, 2005. An article questioning the UK Film Council's approach to developing screen talent.
Creation and I
Published initially in the Journal of Media Practice, volume 3, number 2, 2004, this article explores the personal relationship between film, filmmaker and teaching. The article was then subsequently published as a chapter in the book, Visualising Anthropology, edited by Anna Grimshaw and Amanda Ravetz (Intellect, 2004).
Fear Eats the Soul
First published in the Journal of Media Practice, volume 1, number 3, 2000. An article about the importance of encouraging students to connect to their personal experinces when creating work.
Types of Emotion and Classic Narrative Mechanisms
A paper presented at the Society for Cinema Studies Conference, Dallas, USA, in 1996.