Abstract
Siegfried Kracauer’s “The Mass Ornament” is a foundational text of the early twentieth century, detailing a predominant visual structure echoed in the New Objectivity and cinematic German Expressionist movements. The mass ornament which Kracauer defines consists of human bodies arranged in spectacular geometric patterns, often through showgirls in dance routines. This visual structure utilizes the human body as something inherently machinelike, de-individualizing the participants. The musical numbers of Busby Berkeley in 1930s Hollywood pushed the ornament to its foremost cinematic potential, demonstrating not only the unique spectacle of this modernist visual arrangement, but the potential for it to harness voyeurist and nationalist fervor.
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