The Whole is Greater than the Sum of its Parts

While reading Youngblood's "Syncretism and Metamorphosis," I automatically thought of the phrase "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts" because that is essentially what Youngblood argues with the rise of Synaesthetic cinema; he states that it forces the viewer to consider the scene shown in its entirety and doesn't "chop the world into little fragments," as Bazin states of montage. Youngblood also argues that this particular type of cinema transcends the notion of reality, as it shows one image continually transforming into other images. In addition, the use of double exposure is mentioned, which in synaesthetic cinema signifies one total image in metamorphosis.

Then, the author analyzes Stan Brakhage's film Dog Star Man as a piece of Synaesthetic cinema in its own right. He explains how the association of various images, whether by flickering or superposition, achieves a synaesthetic quality as it forces the viewer to derive meaning from the various associations. I tried watching the film but I didn't get very far, to be honest.