The thesis traces the history of the film poem as a concern and formal strategy within artists' film traditions over the last one hundred years. Via a theoretical framework (that includes Russian Formalist literary poetics, experminetal film studies, critical theory and linguistics) the investigation reveals and explicates what connects the ways different practitioners have synthesised the two terms "film" and "poem" and discusses the relevance of the "film poem" as a combinative term within a contemporary art context.

Partial fulfilment for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Art & Communications