Monday, April 30, 2012


Rudolf Steiner’s 1918 Project with Jan Stuten for a New
Colored “Light-Play-Art,” Metamorphoses of Fear
by David Adams

Jan Stuten, Sketch No. 13, Metamorphoses of Fear, ca. 1919-1937. 

Jan Stuten, Sketch No. 15, Metamorphoses of Fear, ca. 1919- 1937. 


IN1918 at the end of the first world war Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), the Austrian-born founder of anthroposophy, gave the musician, composer, and scenery designer Jan Stuten (1890-1948) a task. Arising from his concerns about mechanizing, materialistic (or, in anthroposophical terminology, “Ahrimanic”) influences from watching the inartistic silent films of his day, Steiner had the idea of a new, alternative color- art combining sound, colored light, color-movement, and colored shadows in a way that would leave the viewer free to interpret what was seen and would keep the spectator inwardly active (as opposed to the passivity of watching films). 

Link to whole article