# Kurt Kren [Wikipedia Link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Kren) ( 1929 – 1998 ) ## Description Austrian structural filmmaker whose films are built from precise, pre-composed numerical "scores" governing frame-by-frame editing rhythm, applied both to abstract/structural subjects and to documenting the performances of the Vienna Actionists (Otto Mühl, Günter Brus, and others). ## Key Tags #structural #performance #austrian-avant-garde ## Essential Works - *48 Heads from the Szondi-Test* (1960) - early structural film built on a strict numerical frame-count score - *6/64: Mama und Papa* (1964) - frame-scored document of an Otto Mühl Vienna Actionist performance ## Details Developed a compositional method in which films are planned in advance as numerical scores dictating exact frame counts and rhythms, closer to serial music composition than conventional editing — an approach he applied both to pure structural studies and to his documentation of the transgressive body-based performances of the Vienna Actionists in the early-to-mid 1960s. ### Concepts and Theories - [[Avant Garde Film]] - key figure of Austrian structural film and its numerically scored editing method ### Creative and Technical Practices %% none yet %% ### Collaborators %% none yet %% ### Institutional Affiliations and Associated Movements %% none yet %% ## References ### Primary Sources Bibliography Kren, Kurt, director. *6/64: Mama und Papa*. 1964. Frame-scored document of an Otto Mühl Vienna Actionist performance. ### Secondary Sources Bibliography Hamlyn, Nicky, et al., editors. *Kurt Kren: Structural Films*. John Libbey Publishing, 2016. Collects interviews, film scores, and critical essays on Kren's numerically scored editing practice.