scholarly journals Cinema and Environment: The Arts of Noticing in the Anthropocene

Res Rhetorica ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 2-21
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Paszkiewicz
Keyword(s):  
Film Studies ◽  
Approaches To Studying ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Emotional Appeals ◽  
New Materialisms

The aim of this paper is to raise questions about how cinema can allow us to rethink our relationship with the environment in the context of what is known today as the Anthropocene. In the discussion, I chart the current debates about the ecological in the humanities, with a particular focus on new materialisms, to argue that cinema can be fruitfully thought of as part of what anthropologist Anna Tsing (2015) calls the “arts of noticing”. I then turn to a consideration of the potential influx of affect theories on ecocriticism and film studies, before sketching out possible approaches to studying film from an affective, new materialist and postanthropocentric perspective. These approaches might have wider implications for rhetorical perspectives on cinema, especially for those investigating emotional appeals.

A Moderately Pessimistic Perspective on “Cooperative Naturalism”

Projections ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 9-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Davies
Keyword(s):  
Mirror Neurons ◽  
Film Studies ◽  
Epistemic Value ◽  
Philosophical Reflection ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Normative Dimension ◽  
Film Experience ◽  
Philosophical Questions

Murray Smith’s plea for a “cooperative naturalism” that adopts a “triangulational” approach to issues in film studies is both timely and well-defended. I raise three concerns, however: one is external, relating to this strategy’s limitations, and two are internal, relating to Smith’s application of the strategy. While triangulation seems appropriate when we ask about the nature of film experience, other philosophical questions about film have an ineliminable normative dimension that triangulation cannot address. Empirically informed philosophical reflection upon the arts must be “moderately pessimistic” in recognizing this fact. The internal concerns relate to Smith’s claims about the value and neurological basis of cinematic empathy. First, while empathy plays a central role in film experience, I argue that its neurological underpinnings fail to support the epistemic value he ascribes to it. Second, I question Smith’s reliance, in triangulating, upon the work of the Parma school on “mirror neurons.”

The Production and Use of the Film It Stays With You: Use of Force by UN Peacekeepers in Haiti to Challenge the Exclusion of Survivors’ Experiences from Peacekeeping Success Stories 

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 642-663
Author(s):  
Siobhán Wills ◽  
Cahal McLaughlin
Keyword(s):  
Film Studies ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
Criminal Activity ◽  
State Agency ◽  
Arts And Humanities ◽  
Success Stories ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The People ◽  
Excessive Use Of Force

Abstract During its operations against gangs in the period 2004–2007 the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) killed and injured many people who were not posing a threat to anyone and were not involved in criminal activity. In Operations Iron Fist (2005) and New Forest (2006) an estimated 60 people were killed, some by bullets fired from helicopters penetrating the roofs of their corrugated metal shacks. Survivors claim that no one from the UN or from any state agency has ever visited their neighbourhood to speak to them—‘it’s as though you’re worthless’. This article discusses the making of the film It Stays With You: Use of Force by UN Peacekeepers in Haiti—which was produced using participatory practices—and the project team’s use of the film to raise awareness of the need for reform of UN rules of engagement and for an investigation into excessive use of force by MINUSTAH. The article also discusses the use of the film to challenge the exclusion from the MINUSTAH success narrative of the stories of the people who live in the targeted community, and to provide a platform that might enable the experiences of survivors to be publicly acknowledged internationally. Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, It Stays With You forms part of an interdisciplinary law and film studies research project, which explores the role of film as a method of addressing trauma and as a means of highlighting the need for a human rights-oriented approach to accountability in the conduct of UN law enforcement operations.

scholarly journals CONNECTING BRIDGES THROUGH THEATRICAL DESIGN: AN EXAMINATION OF “ASIRI NLA” IN PERFORMANCE

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tochukwu. J. Okeke
Keyword(s):  
Film Studies ◽  
Set Design ◽  
Appropriate Use ◽  
National Integration ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Theatrical Design ◽  
Stage Manager ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The Future ◽  
Creative Artists

The theatre provides an avenue for the expression of very salient and topical issues about a people through the presentation of performances. These performances, which are often in form of plays, are always created by playwrights and that is why playwrights are said to be the watch dogs of the society because their works x-ray past and present situations while proffering solutions for the future. However, the theatre is a composite art which involves the collaboration of many creative artists: Playwright, Director, Stage Manager, Actor(s), Designer(s), amongst others. The designer(s) are the creative artists that interpret the play in visual terms. Their creativity gives a better understanding to the play in performance as the dramatic piece is given further expressions through the actors‟ costumes, properties, lighting and scenery. This essay will interrogated the use of costume and set design in bridging ethnic divides using a Workshop performance of “Asiri Nla” as performed by students of the Department of Theatre and Film Studies, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka at the Arts Theatre. The study found that through an effective set design and appropriate use of costumes that the production was able to unite different peoples under one roof without acrimony thus, it recommended at the effectiveness of design in theatrical productions is a sure way of enhancing national integration.

How Can the Living Ties be Severed in the Field of Culture

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 108-129
Author(s):  
Irina Kitova
Keyword(s):  
Film Studies ◽  
Scientific Revolutions ◽  
Film Distribution ◽  
Structure Of Scientific Revolutions ◽  
Cultural Field ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Film Education ◽  
History Of ◽  
Cultural Functions ◽  
The Ideal

In this paper we will try to apply Kuhn’s views on the structure of scientific revolutions in the field of culture and film art. We will try to find to what extent we can apply or reject such understandings of the field of culture, even if only in the strictly national dimensions of a cultural phenomenon. By tracking the development of the film art and industry through the changes they cause or the cultural functions they perform, we can verify whether and to what extent the ideal in science is comparable to the ideal in the culture and the arts. We will also be looking for anomalies, non-functional paradigms and paradoxes, which could influence not only the development of culture in national context, but also the construction of the essential matter of the cultural field as a unique global phenomenon, the result of human activity, ideas and creativity.Through the history of building the first movie theater “Modern Theater” in Bulgaria, in 1908, the beginning and evolution of cinema as an art, a national cine-ma industry, film networks and film distribution, film studies and film education will trace the genesis of a new layer in the field of the Bulgarian national culture and the preconditions for its sustainability, significance and vitality.

Between surrealism and politics: An exploration of subversive body arts in 1980s East German underground cinema

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia Schulz
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Republic ◽  
Film Studies ◽  
Body Art ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Political Aspect ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
East German ◽  
The Cold War

This article discusses the underground cinema of the German Democratic Republic during the 1980s in regard to its contributions to the arts and the avant-garde. While scholars including Claus Löser and Katrin Frietzsche have contributed greatly to the remembrance of the East German underground cinema, its influences have been disregarded by film studies, not least within the anglophone field. As a result, little to no research has been conducted regarding its contributions to the avant-garde or through the scope of other art movements as the political aspect continues to be emphasized. This article draws upon multiple art developments such as dada, surrealism, performance and body art as well as Eastern European-specific movements. Therefore, it evaluates how the East German underground interprets those influences and further contributes to them. Significant works by Cornelia Schleime, Gabriele Stötzer, Thomas Frydetzki and Tohm di Roes are subject to analyses to reveal anarchist feminist tendencies and surrealism with anarchist aspects. It concludes that the East German underground must be seen as a contribution to the less-researched necrorealism as an art movement paralleling the constitutional socialist realism. As such, political implications cannot be subtracted altogether but shall rather be viewed alongside the emergence of anarchist surrealism during the Cold War.

Electron Microscopy in Molecular Biology

1967 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 2-3
Author(s):  
Cecil E. Hall
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscopy ◽  
Molecular Biology ◽  
Noise Level ◽  
Molecular Structures ◽  
Material Structure ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Shadow Casting ◽  
Electron Image ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Very High

The visualization of organic macromolecules such as proteins, nucleic acids, viruses and virus components has reached its high degree of effectiveness owing to refinements and reliability of instruments and to the invention of methods for enhancing the structure of these materials within the electron image. The latter techniques have been most important because what can be seen depends upon the molecular and atomic character of the object as modified which is rarely evident in the pristine material. Structure may thus be displayed by the arts of positive and negative staining, shadow casting, replication and other techniques. Enhancement of contrast, which delineates bounds of isolated macromolecules has been effected progressively over the years as illustrated in Figs. 1, 2, 3 and 4 by these methods. We now look to the future wondering what other visions are waiting to be seen. The instrument designers will need to exact from the arts of fabrication the performance that theory has prescribed as well as methods for phase and interference contrast with explorations of the potentialities of very high and very low voltages. Chemistry must play an increasingly important part in future progress by providing specific stain molecules of high visibility, substrates of vanishing “noise” level and means for preservation of molecular structures that usually exist in a solvated condition.

Distortion in lattice-resolution scanned-probe microscope images

1993 ◽  
Vol 51 ◽  
pp. 522-523
Author(s):  
L. Fei
Keyword(s):  
Film Studies ◽  
Lattice Structure ◽  
Substrate Material ◽  
Repulsive Force ◽  
Instrument Calibration ◽  
Microscope Images ◽  
Probe Microscope ◽  
Electron Microscopes ◽  
Diffraction Patterns ◽  
Lattice Resolution

Scanned probe microscopes (SPM) have been widely used for studying the structure of a variety material surfaces and thin films. Interpretation of SPM images, however, remains a debatable subject at best. Unlike electron microscopes (EMs) where diffraction patterns and images regularly provide data on lattice spacings and angles within 1-2% and ∽1° accuracy, our experience indicates that lattice distances and angles in raw SPM images can be off by as much as 10% and ∽6°, respectively. Because SPM images can be affected by processes like the coupling between fast and slow scan direction, hysteresis of piezoelectric scanner, thermal drift, anisotropic tip and sample interaction, etc., the causes for such a large discrepancy maybe complex even though manufacturers suggest that the correction can be done through only instrument calibration.We show here that scanning repulsive force microscope (SFM or AFM) images of freshly cleaved mica, a substrate material used for thin film studies as well as for SFM instrument calibration, are distorted compared with the lattice structure expected for mica.

The Ancestral Angle on Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts

PsycCRITIQUES ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 52 (31) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul J. Silvia
Keyword(s):  
The Arts
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