The Automaton within Man Ray's Films: From Mechanical to Darwinian
Abstract
Abstract
This thesis explores two films within Man Ray’s oeuvre: Le Retour à la Raison (1923) and
L’Étoile de Mer (1928). These films seem wholly unrelated to one another – Le Retour
emphasizes avant-garde filmmaking techniques and machines and L’Étoile concerns violent
romantic love and a living sea creature – but I argue that they are consistent with one another. I
explore this connection through my term the “Darwinian Automaton” and its implications on
Man Ray’s transition from Dada to Surrealism. The first chapter investigates Ray’s early life and
the reasons why he founded New York Dada with Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabia. In New
York, Ray developed the machine iconography that he explored throughout the rest of his artistic
career. The second chapter delves into Ray’s expatriation to Paris from New York and the
beginning of his short-lived filmmaking career. I analyze his first short film Le Retour à la
Raison and the concept of the half-abstract, which illuminates how he adapted his earlier
machine iconography to the milieu of Paris Dada. The third chapter details Ray’s transition to
Surrealism and what led him to create of his third film L’Étoile de Mer. I explore his friendship
with the poet Robert Desnos and his utilization of footage from the biologist Jean Painlevé. The
conclusion signals for the importance of rereading Surrealist art through the lens of Darwinism
and Ray’s lasting impact on avant-garde cinema.