Self-organization in silent films manuals

The musician as a creative and informational agent

Abstract

At the beginning, silent films were screened in different places and with different modes of accompaniment, such as lectures, sounds and dialogue doublers, gramophones and music. By choosing the small theaters called nickelodeon as the exhibition venue, the disparity of these modes created a crisis. Studies point to a standardization campaign proposed by film producers, through an abundant normative literature, but what would have been the role of musicians in this process? To delineate this role, we conducted a content analysis of the technical-normative manuals of the time. We discussed the results using Becker's arts world concepts and Altman's crisis historiography, but the complexity of this dynamic system brought us closer to the self-organization of Ashby and Foerster, discussed by Heylighen, and the complexity of Morin. We conclude that the musicians, fueled by improvisation and adaptation of the performances, were creative and informative agents in the self-organization of this art.