Cinematography’s Blind Spots: Artistic Exploitations of the Film Frame

2021 ◽  
pp. 136-149
Author(s):  
Gabriele Jutz
Keyword(s):  
Motion Picture ◽  
Blind Spot ◽  
The Other ◽  
French Film ◽  
Single Frame ◽  
Material State ◽  
Ideological Perspective ◽  
The One ◽  
Blind Spots ◽  
The Continuum

This chapter discusses filmic and photographic works that focus on isolated film frames, whether extracted from the continuum of a film strip, as in Slide Movie (Gebhard Sengmüller, 2007) and Und ich blieb stehen. (Thames, London) (Susanne Miggitsch, 2017), or captured photographically from a book or a viewing table, as in Motion Picture (La Sortie des Ouvriers de l’Usine Lumière à Lyon) (Peter Tscherkassky, 1984/2008) and Précis de decomposition (Éric Rondepierre, 1993–1999). Usually rendered invisible during projection, a single frame represents the ‘blind spot’ of cinematography. An explicitly ideological perspective was offered in 1971 by French film critic Sylvie Pierre Ulmann, who distinguished between the use of extracted frames (or ‘photograms’) and idealized still photographs produced on a film set. These ‘parasitic photographs’ no longer bear traces of the material state of a given film copy; they look flawless and perfectly meet ideological requirements of ‘legibility’ and ‘beauty’. The examples presented here bypass ideological claims, because, on the one hand, their dissected frames belong to the same order as the film they are taken from, and, on the other, they result in varying forms of ‘illegibility’.

scholarly journals Mytens tvang

1999 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lars Albinus
Keyword(s):  
Blind Spot ◽  
The Other ◽  
Instrumental Reason ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Self Reflection ◽  
Negative Dialectics ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The One

The purpose of the article is to show how the negative dialectics of Adorno gets involved with a concept of myth that is questionable in several respects. First of all, Adorno tries to combine, but rather conflates, two understandings of myth. On the one hand, the concept of myth is defined as the ancient Greek mythos, in which the subject of man is projected on to nature; on the other hand, myth is defined as the backfire of enlightenment, in which self-reflection becomes the blind spot of instrumental reason. Along these lines of argument, Adorno’s interpretation of Homer, which, at any rate, is highly inspiring, attempts to demonstrate that Odysseus is already enlightened in that he keeps the myth at bay in order to gain his self. The point is, as a matter of dialectic necessity, that he just ends up in myth once again, albeit in the second sense, namely by being a victim of his own self-denial. A question that seems to remain unanswered, though, is how the two kinds of myth are related. Further, Adorno draws on a problematic distinction between myth and literature in order to claim that Homer separates himself from the realm of myth. By adopting Adorno’s own game of interpretation, however, it is possible to regard myth as such, including the Homeric one, as being contingently open-ended rather than just a matter of dialectic determination.

Blind-Spots in Aristotle’s Doctrine of the Perceptual Mean

Apeiron ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 53 (3) ◽  
pp. 257-284
Author(s):  
Roberto Grasso
Keyword(s):  
Blind Spot ◽  
The Other ◽  
Final Part ◽  
Necessary Condition ◽  
Physiological Reaction ◽  
Sensory Apparatus ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Sense Of Touch ◽  
Blind Spots

AbstractThis paper aims to identify several interpretive problems posed by the final part of DA II.11 (423b27–424 a10), where Aristotle intertwines the thesis that a sense is like a ‘mean’ and an explanation for the existence of a ‘blind spot’ related to the sense of touch, adding the further contention that we are capable of discriminating because the mean ‘becomes the other opposite’ in relation to the perceptible property being perceived. To solve those problems, the paper explores a novel interpretation of Aristotle’s claims, arguing that they describe a homeostatic physiological reaction by which the sensory apparatus responds to perceptible stimuli. According to the proposed interpretation, such homeostatic reaction constitutes a necessary condition for perceiving what Aristotle refers to as ‘proper’ perceptible features, which include properties like ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ as well as colors and sounds.

The Adaptive Significance of the Location of the Optic Disk

Perception ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 16 (5) ◽  
pp. 649-654 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aries Arditi
Keyword(s):  
Visual Space ◽  
Spatial Arrangement ◽  
Blind Spot ◽  
Adaptive Significance ◽  
The Other ◽  
Optic Disk ◽  
Horizontal Position ◽  
Fixation Distance ◽  
Adaptive Property ◽  
Blind Spots

Although the ‘filling in’ of each blind spot by healthy retina in the other eye has long been described as an adaptive property of the spatial arrangement of the optic disks, an explanation of why the disks are specifically located where they are has yet to be proposed. A rationale for their horizontal position in humans is offered that is based on the projections of the blind spots in visual space in relation to fixation distance and to the protrusion of the bony facial occlusion of the nose bridge.

Towards an Asian Multitextual Theology

Exchange ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 119-131
Author(s):  
Joas Adiprasetya
Keyword(s):  
Social Problems ◽  
Blind Spot ◽  
The Other ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The One

Abstract The article criticizes some shortcomings of Asian contextual and liberation theologies that methodologically employ ‘hermeneutical circle’. The method focuses on experience as the starting point of doing theology. Despite its powerful insights that enable theologians to engage with concrete human and social problems, the method can easily preserve a theologian’s blind spot that hinders her/him from perspectives other than his or her own. I also criticize such an experience-based method as being too linear which can easily result in a methodological imperialism. In response to the weakness, I propose a multitextual theology, which on the one hand acknowledges the importance of perspectivism in any theology but also, on the other hand, celebrates theological freedom in viewing reality from ‘manywheres’. Since reality provides plurality of texts, a multitextual theology can begin simultaneously from any text, without being trapped into a procedural rigidity as clearly demonstrated in contextual and liberation theologies.

Language and the Gendered Body: Butler's Early Reading of Merleau‐Ponty

Hypatia ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 767-783 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Petronella Foultier
Keyword(s):  
Early Reading ◽  
The Other ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Phenomenology Of Perception ◽  
Poststructural Theory ◽  
Feminist Phenomenology ◽  
The One ◽  
Blind Spots

Through a close reading of Judith Butler's 1989 essay on Merleau‐Ponty's “theory” of sexuality as well as the texts her argument hinges on, this paper addresses the debate about the relation between language and the living, gendered body as it is understood by defenders of poststructural theory on the one hand, and different interpretations of Merleau‐Ponty's phenomenology on the other. I claim that Butler, in her criticism of the French philosopher's analysis of the famous “Schneider case,” does not take its wider context into account: either the case study that Merleau‐Ponty's discussion is based upon, or its role in his phenomenology of perception. Yet, although Butler does point out certain blind spots in his descriptions regarding the gendered body, it is in the light of her questioning that the true radicality of Merleau‐Ponty's ideas can be revealed. A further task for feminist phenomenology should be a thorough assessment of his philosophy from this angle, once the most obvious misunderstandings have been put to the side.

scholarly journals Singapore: Technocracy and Transition

2021 ◽  
pp. 221-238
Author(s):  
Maartje De Visser ◽  
Paulin Straughan
Keyword(s):  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Political Change ◽  
Blind Spot ◽  
The Other ◽  
Social Solidarity ◽  
Economic Disparity ◽  
Dual Strategy ◽  
The One

This chapter describes Singapore’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The government’s strategy revolved around the two poles of technocratic and expedient governance on the one hand and social solidarity, targeted at vulnerable or weaker segments of society, on the other. A crucial factor in implementing this dual strategy is Singapore’s smallness, in spatial and demographic terms, meaning that there are natural limits to emulation by others. At the same time, Singapore’s approach was not flawless. In particular, the wildfire-like spread of the virus in migrant workers’ dormitories emerged as an embarrassing blind spot. Other serious Covid-19-related challenges remain. The most significant of these are managing the narrative to preserve high levels of government trust and a further reckoning with the stark socio-economic disparity exacerbated by the crisis. The latter in particular may be a harbinger of wider socio-political change in Singapore which will continue to unfold long after the immediate health emergency has passed.

scholarly journals THREE-POINT FUNCTIONS OF NON-UNITARY MINIMAL MATTER COUPLED TO GRAVITY

1993 ◽  
Vol 08 (03) ◽  
pp. 197-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
DEBASHIS GHOSHAL ◽  
SWAPNA MAHAPATRA
Keyword(s):  
Matrix Model ◽  
Correlation Functions ◽  
The Other ◽  
Tree Level ◽  
Minimal Models ◽  
Continuum Approach ◽  
Point Correlation ◽  
Local Operators ◽  
The One ◽  
The Continuum

The tree-level three-point correlation functions of local operators in the general (p, q) minimal models coupled to gravity are calculated in the continuum approach. On one hand, the result agrees with the unitary series (q=p+1); and on the other hand, for p=2, q=2k−1, we find agreement with the one-matrix model results.

scholarly journals Ecology: Its relative importance and absolute irrelevance for a Christian: A Kierkegaardian transversal space for the controversy on eco-theology

2014 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hermen Kroesbergen
Keyword(s):  
Blind Spot ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
The Other ◽  
Systematic Theology ◽  
Prosperity Gospel ◽  
Open Communication ◽  
University Departments ◽  
Creation Spirituality ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
The One

The controversy about the importance of eco-theology or creation spirituality seems to be in a deadlock. Those who support it and those who oppose it do not even seem to be able to communicate with one another. On the one hand, Celia Deane-Drummond, for example, writes in her Eco-theology (2008:x): ‘I find it astonishing that courses on eco-theology do not exist in many university departments of theology and religious studies.’ Matthew Fox desperately asks in his Creation spirituality (1991:xii): ‘Need I list the [environmental] issues of our day that go virtually unattended to in our culture?’ On the other hand, evangelical Christians are known for their ecological ‘blind spot’ (Davis 2000), until recently at least. Pentecostal proponents of the prosperity gospel preach a consumer-lifestyle for all Christians, which is not very eco-friendly (cf. Kroesbergen 2013). Even in more mainline Christianity we find, for example, the well-known theologian Robert Jenson who writes in his Systematic theology: Volume 2 (1999:113, n. 2): ‘Recent waves of “creation spirituality” are simply apostasy to paganism. And it is such unguarded, even unargued judgement that is required of the church.’ We find eco-theologians, who do not understand that not everyone agrees with them on the one hand, and opposing theologians, who do not even feel the need to argue against them on the other hand. What would be needed to re-open communication between those in favour of eco-theology or creation spirituality, and those opposed to it?

scholarly journals Blasting the continuum of history: Walter Benjamin’s “now-time” and the recovery of experience.

2021 ◽  
pp. 154-173
Author(s):  
Juan Manuel Torbidoni
Keyword(s):  
Modern Philosophy ◽  
Philosophy Of History ◽  
The Other ◽  
The One ◽  
Kantian Philosophy ◽  
The Continuum

This paper analyses the concept of “nowtime” (Jetztzeit) in Walter Benjamin’s “On the concept of history.” It shows its centrality in Benjamin’s philosophy of history, by defining it in opposition to two elements of Kantian philosophy: on the one hand, “empty, homogeneous time,” on the other, the faith in the infinite, inevitable progress of a generic “mankind.” It argues that the notions of now-time and truth as flitting hark back to Benjamin’s early concern about the devaluation of experience in modern philosophy and the need to rescue the ephemeral as a decisive element in metaphysics. Rather than a historical category, now-time denotes an instance of redemption

Cinematic Vitalism

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Inga Pollmann
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Film Theory ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
The Other ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
French Film ◽  
Movie Theater ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
Philosophical Texts ◽  
The One

This book argues that there are constitutive links between early twentieth-century German and French film theory and practice, on the one hand, and vitalist conceptions of life in biology and philosophy, on the other. By considering classical film-theoretical texts and their filmic objects in the light of vitalist ideas percolating in scientific and philosophical texts of the time, Cinematic Vitalism reveals the formation of a modernist, experimental and cinematic strand of vitalism in and around the movie theater. The book focuses on the key concepts including rhythm, environment, mood, and development to show how the cinematic vitalism articulated by film theorists and filmmakers maps out connections among human beings, milieus, and technologies that continue to structure our understanding of film.

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