Who Creates the Creative Act?

------something about Paul Chan’s Baghdad in No Particular Order, Part I&II



In a period which the interaction between artists and spectators are highly concerned, the spectators’ understanding of a work of art from artist’s original intention is thought to be more and more important. As a matter of fact, Marcel Duchamp believes that the creative acts are performed by the artists and spectators together. Without the deciphering of spectators, the realization of creative act is impossible.

Watching Baghdad in No Particular Order, Part I&II by Paul Chan is one of the examples that spectators and artist create the creative act together. Part I is a documentary film about what are people’s lives like in Baghdad which is a city destroyed by war. The scenes are not organized in a very logical and narrative order which seems like that the filmmaker arranges some clips randomly. Part II is a website that filmmaker makes these clips, images, related information available for viewers who would like to explore more about the film.

In the first place, Chan breaks the rule that a filmmaker generally subordinate the order of scenes to temporal relation in a movie. A documentary also follows this rule so that viewers will not be disoriented. But this film doesn’t. Except the introductory scenes of Baghdad at the beginning, other scenes were apparently connected in no temporal order. However, scenes in a group telling an aspect of lives are still edited in a temporal or spatial relation so that we are able to follow this film. The purpose of setting a logical connection between scenes is to maintain viewers’ attention under the control of filmmaker. When Chan plans to break these scenes into groups in no order, he intends to eliminate this connection which is decided by a filmmaker. Therefore, he leaves more space for spectators to think about his work in their own way and focus on their own interests. After I watched the film, I attempted to recall one or several scenes in this film, the clips which came out first were those impressed me the most. I believe that these clips for every viewer vary based on age, class, gender and regional and cultural identity. For me, the young girl selling books from ground is the most impressed scene. Probably because her voice seems especially clear and vulnerable in this environment, I can easily single out this scene in my memories. When I watched Part I in Part II, I began to follow my own order. In other words, Chan makes it more possible in this way that I am involved in his film thinking about the stories in the scenes and even the stories behind the screen.

The next step that Chan performs is to allow viewers to organize off-screen materials which could assist them in understanding the situation in Baghdad. The disorganization of scenes pushed me to think. Consequently, I made more effort to decipher Chan’s film. I was desired to learn about the history and other perspectives of the war. Part II serves as a very perfect resource for me, since the internet as a tool of searching information and communication is significantly powerful. It is smart and creative that Paul Chan makes the online resource as a part of understanding his films as well as the situation in Baghdad which he intends to inform the viewers. However, I don’t think I have found myself an answer. Maybe all the reasons for wars are absurd that only a few people think they actually understand. At least, sufficient information including images, clips, articles and links to other related websites are provided in Part II, which I think it can introduce a Baghdad in war very clearly and systematically. In a nutshell, I have never completed a part like that when I experience a film before watching this film. Chan’s leading as an artist not only evokes my thinking about Baghdad in war and people in war, but also provides me a journey to the completion of our creative act, a journey that I can play my own role as a spectator in realization the value of a work of art.

According to Duchamp, the participation of spectators in creative act becomes more and more obvious because of the importance of the feedback to the work of art. In a society that people are entertained by simply sitting in the couch and watching television program for whole day, people can be very lazy in thinking when they appreciate a work of art. Therefore, artists create their work by inviting the spectators to complete the creative act are promising.


Click here to watch this film. And the website.