Athina Babayan

What are hybrid art forms?

Examples of hybrids: “collage, kinetic sculpture, shaped canvas, musical installations, concrete poetry, opera, music with colour sequences, mime with musical accompaniment, calligraphic dance, sound film, etc.”

• Judging by the examples of hybrid art forms given by Levinson, one can say that hybrid art forms are basically two or more different art forms coming together to make a new art form.

“We think of art forms as hybrid when they can be decomposed/ pulled apart, conceptually, into two or more distinct artistic activities” (Levinson 27).

How do we come to create a hybrid art form?

• Generally speaking, when two art forms come together to create something spectacular, it is hard to keep the two art forms separated. Throughout history, for example, opera combines at least three different art forms and cannot be thought of as an opera if not all art forms are present.

“The common notion of a hybrid is not purely structural, rather, hybrid status is primarily a historical thing” (Levinson 27).

”An art form is a hybrid in virtue of its development and origin, in virtue of its emergence out of previously existing artistic activities and concerns, two or more of which it in some sense combines” (Levinson 27).

What kinds of hybrid art forms are there?

• According to Levinson, there are two main types of hybrid art forms. One is the actual hybrid art form, and the other is something called a “Gedunken” hybrid. The main difference being that in an actual hybrid art form, all art forms are clearly distinct and come together to create another art form. In a Gedunken hybrid, different “structural or mediumistic components” are modified.

“ Gedunken” may be intellectually analyzable into various possible or actual structural or mediumistic components, are not hybrids in the primary sense” (Levinson 28).

“If works are artistic hybrids, in the primary sense, they must be understood in terms of and in light of their components” (Levinson 28).

• Levinson also states that although there are hybrids, there must also be pure or thoroughbred art forms. It may also be called nonhybrid. An impure art form has evidence of artistic antecedents, and is appreciated for it. An absolutely pure art form is an art form that has not been modified artistically, and if it does contain any artistic predecessors, time has made them unrecognizable.

“Pure, or thoroughbred, art form is in contrast to a hybrid one. A thoroughbred art form is simply one that has not arisen from the interpenetration or interaction of previously existing art forms” (Levinson 30).

What type/variety of hybrids are there?

• It seems that Levinson has come up with three kinds of possible hybrids. Three ways that a hybrid can become a hybrid and what the resulting art form looks like. The three are juxtaposition, synthesis, and transformation.

• Juxtaposition basically means the addition of two distinct art forms coming to create one art form with the qualities of each separate art form.

• E.g. song accompanied by guitar, mime accompanied by flute, silent film accompanied by piano roll

“The individual components are recognizably the same as in their pure manifestation and retain their identities as instances of their respective art forms – though the particular shape and quality of each would in many cases be inexplicable without reference to the other” (Levinson 30-31).

• Synthesis can also be thought of as fusion. It is when two or more art forms are brought together and each art form loses a little part of their original identities.

E.g. Wagnerian opera where the synthesis of song and drama is that it becomes a sung drama or a dramatic son.

“In synthesis or fusion the objects or products of two (or more) arts are brought together in such a way that the individual components to some extent lose their original identities and are present to in the hybrid in a form significantly different from that assumed in the pure state” (Levinson 31).

• Transformation hybrids are when one art form transforms into another. Levinson puts it to an equation like this: “A + B = A in a B-ish direction”. Synthesized and transformed hybrids are similar, but not quite the same.

E.g. Kinetic sculpture

“Whether a synthetic or transformational hybrid results form the combination of the two arts would seem to be largely a function of how similar the arts were antecedently in respect of materials, temporal status, and other characteristics” (Levinson 33).

Andrea Finkelstein

Levinson asks what hybrid art forms are and when we classify them as one. He gave us two wrong answers to his question, which are what most people assume are hybrid art forms. Levinson then gives us the correct answer saying it is a historical thing. “an art form is a hybrid one in virtue of its development and origin, in virtue of its emergence out of a field of previously existing artistic activities and concerns, two or more of which it in some sense combines.” This is basically saying that hybrid art forms is a type of art that attempts to combine earlier art forms. Levinson then expresses that amongst true hybrids is another one called Gedanken, which doesn’t necessarily need to be understood. It has no relevance to a true hybrid, where we have to understand the origins of which it came.

Levinson reveals in the second section that the list in the beginning of the article are all hybrid art forms. This includes: Collage, Kinetic sculpture, shaped canvas painting … etc. Levinson then states that they are not all the same type of hybrid. There are three important ones, he stresses, and they are Juxtaposition (or addition), synthesis (or fusion), and transformation (or alteration). Juxtaposition hybrids involve two or more mediums joined together to present a more complex unit. However, these things are still recognizable and retain their identities. Artistic products explicitly described as involving accompaniment are invariably of this sort. Example: Silent film accompanied with piano. Synthesis Hybrids involve two or more mediums joined together, however they are fused in such a way that they lose their original identities. Example: Opera of the Wagnerian sort: fusion of song and drama. Transformational Hybrids are like synthesis, however the mediums combined do not contribute to the result in roughly the same degree. A + B does not equal the middle of A + B. A transforms into a B-ish direction. The best example to be given is kinetic sculpture. It can be seen as a sculpture modified in the direction of dance, however it is not an equal fusion of the two, it is an incorporation of the characteristics of dance in a sculpture.

The third section explains the appeal of hybrid art forms by artists. It is a symbol of creativity itself, acquiring a significance of creative activity in general. People are interested in how two sequences of events relate to one another. A question arises in this area, asking how the relation between two developing patterns in such a hybrid differs from the relation between different structural aspects in paradigm of non-hybrid arts. The answer is that the purposely combined (with resistance) patterns being related are usually in a physically distinct media with very different propensities and histories. To end, Levinson recognizes two over all effects of hybrid arts. Integrative, which presents a richness and complexity where individual elements work together towards a common end. Disintegrative, which is the same as integrative, however there is no unity and a lot of uncoordination. These seem symbolic or allusive in some senses.

Jamie Maczko

In this paper, the author, Jerrold Levinson, thoroughly tries to explain what hybrid art forms are, the different kinds of hybrid art and the differences between them.

Levinson states “that it is not right to think that art is hybrid when they can be decomposed, conceptually, into two or more distinct artistic activities or media. He states this because in his opinion almost any art form can be conceived as to appear the combination of simpler artistic strands”1.

He believes that hybrid status of an art form is a historical thing. He argues that an art form is in fact a hybrid one in virtue of its development and origin, of its surfacing out of a field of earlier existing artistic activities and concerns, two or more of which it in some way unites2.

He basically describes hybrid art forms as forms developing from the combination or understanding of earlier art forms.

Levinson describes three of the main forms of hybrid art: The first being juxtaposition, which is basically the addition of two or more arts joined together to form a more complex work. The individual art forms are very recognizable. A simple example of this would be song accompanied by an instrument3. The second is called synthesis, which is basically a fusion of two or more arts. They are brought together a way that their individual components are no longer identifiable. A good example that he uses is Opera of the Wagnerian sort. This is viewed by people as a synthesis of song and drama. It is not just a drama plus song. It is a sung drama or dramatic song4. The third hybrid he describes is transformation. He describes it as being closer to the synthetic model than to the juxtapositional one, but differs from the former in that the arts combined do not contribute to the result in roughly the same degree5. A way he describes it is this: A transformational hybrid of “A” with “B” is not halfway between “A” and “B”; it is basically “A” transformed in a “B-ish” direction6. An example of this would be that of a kinetic sculpture. Kinetic sculpture can be seen as an ordinary sculpture modified in the direction of dance.7

Patrick Twaddle

Subject: What constitutes a hybrid art form, and are its factors and effects? How can we categorize hybrid art forms according to their method of combination?

Levinson argues that art forms cannot be considered hybrid purely through analysis of structure. We cannot determine whether or not an art form is hybrid by simply identifying that it is composed of different sorts of materials, activities or media, or by a mere conceptual decomposition of an art form. Instead, Levinson declares that hybrid status is primarily dictated by history. It is when two or more independently-developed artistic activities are joined in some combined form. One should be able to recognize that a hybrid art form has a time of creation, and that it has integral components that had separate existences in culture before that birthing. In its most basic equation, A merges with B and produces C. A true hybrid demands that we recognize and appreciate its distinct components, and that those components may be understood and evaluated according to their original practises of art. Even though the components may individually use the same material or physical dimension (eg. stone), each comes with its own expected language, properties and possibilities. Art forms that are not hybrid at the most fundamental level, are given the suggested label of Gedanken hybrids by Levinson. These false hybrids do not need to be understood by identifying and considering different components. Their components have no relevant history and independent development that informs the genesis of a new art form. They merely can be broken down theoretically into parts rather than recognized as the union of actual antecedents.

Levinson identifies what he deems as three important categories of hybrid art forms which are classified according to their method of combining different artistic disciplines:

1. Juxtaposition (or addition) – simply joining two or more different products to present a larger, more complicated one; each component maintains its original identity; involves arts that explicitly use accompaniment and most multi- or mixed-media arts; examples:
• mime accompanied by flute b. symphony plus light show
2. Synthesis (or fusion) – all components modify each other so that each one loses some of its original identity; employs a certain amount of parity or symmetry of fusion; examples:
   • Wagnerian opera = symphonic sung drama (or dramatic song)
   • Concrete poetry = poem-picture (partly poetry, partly graphics)
3. Transformation (or alteration) – one art is transformed is the direction of another; an unequal mixture of components so that the resulting hybrid maintains the identity of the dominant art form; example: kinetic sculpture (sculpture with movement related to dance)

Levinson points out that hybrid arts themselves are symbolic of creativity. A hybrid artwork has the potential to be more powerful and sensuous so that the content is communicated more fully. The formal interaction of the different components may became of greatest interest as observers evaluate this relationship as either harmonious, hostile, chaotic, or unresponsive. This is a particularly acute factor when physically distinct media with varying inclinations and histories are deliberately interfaced. Hybrid arts often force us to examine the components’ similarities, differences and complementariness. Varying degrees of resistance and natural unity will unfold depending on the combinations used. The effect may be integrative, which more naturally accompanies synthetic hybrids, or disintegrative, which more naturally coincides with juxtapositional hybrids. This dynamic will likely communicate either a sense of unity, fragmentation or barrage.

To add my own comment, artists working in one discipline may look to incorporate other artistic fields if they feel limited by the sensory, media, or exploratory possibilities of their own. With modern means of communication and technological advances, there are certainly increased opportunities, and in some cases compulsions or demands, for disciplines to interact creatively.

Timothy Vigneux

Position of the Author and Brief Summary:

• Article addresses the questions “When do we count an art form as being hybrid?” and ‘What effect do they have on modern society?’
• Hybrid art forms are not purely structural; they are primarily historical
• “…hybrid art forms are art forms arising from the actual combination of interpretation of earlier art forms.”  such a form must be understood in light of their components
• Art that is not arisen from previously existing art forms is known as a “Gedanken Hybrid”  such a form need/should not be understood by their components
• Hybrid = art form that displays 2 or more media in combination, where the medium refers to a “developed way of using given materials or dimensions”  artists know what they are creating because they know what it is derived from
• Thoroughbred art form = “…one that has not arisen from the interpretation […] of previously existing art forms”
• 3 Types of Hybrids:
  • Juxtaposition (addition): one larger, more complex unit comprised of visible individual components that are isolated (e.g. Song with guitar)
  • Synthesis (fusion): individual components, when combined, individual identities (e.g. Wagnerian Opera)
  • Transformation (alteration): one individual component that is modified in the direction of another; not a fusion, merely an incorporation of characteristics of one art form into another (e.g. Kinetic Sculpture)
• …in both synthetic and transformational cases, some essential or defining feature of one or both arts is challenged, modified, or withdrawn.”
• Hybrids are the symbol of creativity itself
• “…interaction of the separate components […] is the most obvious feature in such works.”  audiences are interested how 2 sequences of events will relate to each other
• Two overall effects that Hybrid works of art achieve:
  • Integrative: the image of richness and complexity; parts cooperate towards common end (e.g. Wagnerian Opera)
  • Disintegrative: rampant lack of coordination; cognitive overload (e.g. Einstein on the Beach)

Question: Is your specific area of the Fine Arts at York a Hybrid art form, and if so what are its historical components and derivations?