Cinema's Baroque Flesh

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saige Walton
Keyword(s):  
Art History ◽  
Film Studies ◽  
Film Theory ◽  
The Body ◽  
Archaeological Work ◽  
The Senses ◽  
Opening Up

In Cinema's Baroque Flesh, Saige Walton draws on the philosophy of Maurice Merleau-Ponty to argue for a distinct aesthetic category of film and a unique cinema of the senses: baroque cinema. Combining media archaeological work with art history, phenomenology, and film studies, the book offers close analyses of a range of historic baroque artworks and films, including Caché, Strange Days, the films of Buster Keaton, and many more. Walton pursues previously unexplored connections between film, the baroque, and the body, opening up new avenues of embodied film theory that can make room for structure, signification, and thought, as well as the aesthetics of sensation.

scholarly journals Touch as Proximate Distance: Post-Phenomenological Ethics in the Cinema of Isabel Coixet

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-45
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Paszkiewicz
Keyword(s):  
Film Studies ◽  
Film Theory ◽  
Embodied Perception ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Film Image ◽  
The World ◽  
Gaze Theory ◽  
Sense Of Touch ◽  
Paradigm Shifting ◽  
Opening Up

In the wake of paradigm-shifting works on cinematic affect over the last few decades that have challenged psychoanalytically based gaze theory, embodied perception and sensory-affective experience have become fundamental concepts in much of contemporary screen studies. Even though the proponents of the affective turn in film studies present diverse theoretical approaches to affect – from Deleuzian “haptic visuality” to phenomenologically informed film theory – it seems evident that they all draw, to a greater or lesser degree, on the sense of touch as the affective axis of perception. Conceptualized this way, the sense of touch facilitates a mode of mutual embodiment between the viewer and the film image, a relationship based on immediacy and exchange, which, according to some of the approaches to cinematic affect, might also translate into a particular ethical position of embracing and opening up to the world and to the Other. The cinema of Isabel Coixet seems to exemplify these claims. Her oeuvre, as I shall illustrate, is often discussed in terms of intimacy, encounter and reciprocity, as well as the sensuous visual and sonorous textures which compose her films. Nevertheless, in this article I will suggest that Coixet evinces a much more ambiguous attitude towards touch, which often goes beyond the prevalent models of haptic visuality or embodied perception as conceptualized in phenomenological film theory. Drawing on Laura McMahon, I seek to interrogate the concept of touch by engaging with Jean-Luc Nancy's anti-ocularcentric, post-phenomenological reflections on community, offering an analysis of three films produced at different moments in Coixet's career – The Secret Life of Words (2005), Yesterday Never Ends (2013) and Endless Night (2015). The choice of works is dictated by their particular tactile aesthetics, as well as their explicit concern to go beyond the models of autonomous being towards an ethics of relationality between self and world, while being mindful of the limit as the very condition for its emergence.

scholarly journals Return to Reality: Towards A More Tactile Cognition of Film Theory

2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-2
Author(s):  
Murat Akser
Keyword(s):  
Film Studies ◽  
Film Theory ◽  
Tactile Sense ◽  
The Real ◽  
The Senses ◽  
The Mind

Film theory has lost itself in the woods among debates of the mind and the senses. Ther are those who are interested in a more tactile sense of the real in film studies. This issue of CINEJ focuses on the documentary truth and how it aims to present us a real and a better world.

To Have Done With the Perspective of the (Biological) Body: Gaspar Noé’s Enter the Void, Somatic Film Theory and the Biocinematic Imaginary

Somatechnics ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 305-324
Author(s):  
Greg Hainge
Keyword(s):  
Final Section ◽  
Film Studies ◽  
Film Theory ◽  
The Body ◽  
Synthetic Product ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
New Form ◽  
The Spectator ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Visible Human

In this paper, I examine the ways in which the relationship between spectator and screen has been figured in a body of recent scholarship on the cinema that both corporealises the cinematic event by focusing on the body of the spectator and the body of the film whilst, simultaneously, decorporealising it by seeing in the relation between spectator and screen the means to produce a new kind of properly cinematic thought, a new form of philosophy that can only be born out of this relation. Taking as paradigmatic examples of the different ways in which this relationship has been figured in recent film scholarship, I examine the works of Sobchack and Shaviro as examplars of the somatic turn in film studies, before going on to examine Deleuze's philosophy of the cinema. In the final section of the paper, I suggest, through an analysis of Gaspar Noé’s Enter the Void, that, firstly, the potential pitfalls of somatic film theory and Deleuze's philosophy of the cinema as a tool for filmic analysis can be avoided. I then go on to argue that these different approaches do not need to be held apart from each other and that Deleuze's formulations can usefully inform a somatic film theory if we reconfigure the way we think about the cinematic body, moving from a biological understanding of it to an anatomical one. This discussion of the anatomical body is fleshed out in particular via an in-depth examination of the work of Waldby on the Visible Human Project and I conclude by suggesting that the cinematic spectator can be re-imagined or reanimated as a synthetic product of techno-bio-cultural and cinematic processes.

Diaghilev and British Writing

2009 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-92
Author(s):  
Susan Jones
Keyword(s):  
Visual Arts ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Literary Responses ◽  
Literary Aesthetics ◽  
Ballets Russes ◽  
The Arts ◽  
The Subject ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Opening Up

This article explores the diversity of British literary responses to Diaghilev's project, emphasising the way in which the subject matter and methodologies of Diaghilev's modernism were sometimes unexpectedly echoed in expressions of contemporary British writing. These discussions emerge both in writing about Diaghilev's work, and, more discretely, when references to the Russian Ballet find their way into the creative writing of the period, serving to anchor the texts in a particular cultural milieu or to suggest contemporary aesthetic problems in the domain of literary aesthetics developing in the period. Figures from disparate fields, including literature, music and the visual arts, brought to their criticism of the Ballets Russes their individual perspectives on its aesthetics, helping to consolidate the sense of its importance in contributing to the inter-disciplinary flavour of modernism across the arts. In the field of literature, not only did British writers evaluate the Ballets Russes in terms of their own poetics, their relationship to experimentation in the novel and in drama, they developed an increasing sense of the company's place in dance history, its choreographic innovations offering material for wider discussions, opening up the potential for literary modernism's interest in impersonality and in the ‘unsayable’, discussions of the body, primitivism and gender.

Cinema and the Haptic in Modern Japan

Screen Bodies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-36
Author(s):  
Daisuke Miyao
Keyword(s):  
The Body ◽  
Film Culture ◽  
Visual Medium ◽  
German Cinema ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Senses ◽  
Modern Japan

The process of modernization in Japan appeared as a separation of the senses and remapping of the body, particularly privileging the sense of vision. How did the filmmakers, critics, and novelists in the 1920s and 1930s respond to such a reorganization of the body and the elevation of vision in the context of film culture? How did they formulate a cinematic discourse on remapping the body when the status of cinema was still in flux and its definition was debated? Focusing on cinematic commentary made by different writers, this article tackles these questions. Sato Haruo, Ozu Yasujiro, and Iwasaki Akira questioned the separation of the senses, which was often enforced by state. Inspired by German cinema released in Japan at that time, they explored the notion of the haptic in cinema and problematized the privileged sense of vision in this new visual medium.

The Fiery Pacific: Volcanic Eruptions and Settler-State Theatricality in Oceania, 1780–1900

2014 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 362-392
Author(s):  
Diana Looser
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Performance Studies ◽  
Art History ◽  
Volcanic Eruptions ◽  
The Body ◽  
Red Color ◽  
Form Part ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Grand Opera ◽  
The City

In the closing scene of René-Charles Guilbert de Pixérécourt's melodramaLa Tête de mort; ou, Les Ruines de Pompeïa(1827), audiences at Paris's Théâtre de la Gaîté were presented with the spectacular cataclysm of an erupting Mount Vesuvius that invaded the city and engulfed the hapless characters in its fiery embrace. “The theatre,” Pixérécourt writes, “is completely inundated by this sea of bitumen and lava. A shower of blazing and transparent stones and red ash falls on all sides…. The red color with which everything is struck, the terrible noise of the volcano, the screaming, the agitation and despair of the characters … all combine to form this terrible convulsion of nature, a horrible picture, and altogether worthy of being compared to Hell.” A few years later, in 1830, Daniel Auber's grand operaLa Muette de Portici(1828), which yoked a seventeenth-century eruption of Vesuvius with a popular revolt against Spanish rule in Naples, opened at the Théâtre de Monnaie in Brussels. The Belgian spectators, inspired by the opera's revolutionary sentiments, poured out into the streets and seized their country's independence from the Dutch. These two famous examples, which form part of a long genealogy of representing volcanic eruptions through various artistic means, highlight not only the compelling, immersive spectacle of nature in extremis but also the ability of stage scenery to intervene materially in the narrative action and assimilate affective and political meanings. As these two examples also indicate, however, the body of scholarship in literary studies, art history, and theatre and performance studies that attends to the mechanical strategies and symbolic purchase of volcanic representations has tended to focus mainly on Europe; more research remains to be undertaken into how volcanic spectacles have engaged with non-European topographies and sociopolitical dynamics and how this wider view might illuminate our understanding of theatre's social roles.

Deleuze and Lola Montès

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Rushton
Keyword(s):  
Gilles Deleuze ◽  
Film Studies ◽  
Film Theory ◽  
World Today ◽  
Film Interpretation ◽  
The World ◽  
Time Image

Gilles Deleuze represents the most widely referenced theorist of cinema today. And yet, even the most rudimentary pillars of his thought remain mysterious to most students (and even many scholars) of film studies. From one of the foremost theorists following Deleuze in the world today, Deleuze and Lola Montès offers a detailed explication of Gilles Deleuze’s writings on film – from his books Cinema 1: The Movement-Image (1983) and Cinema 2: The Time-Image (1985). Building on this foundation, Rushton provides an interpretation of Max Ophuls’s classic film Lola Montès as an example of how Deleuzian film theory can function in the practice of film interpretation.

scholarly journals Experiencing Event Management During the Coronavirus Pandemic: A Public Sector Perspective

2022 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Coles ◽  
Giselle Garcia ◽  
Evelyn O'Malley ◽  
Cathy Turner
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Local Authority ◽  
The Body ◽  
Event Management ◽  
Local Authorities ◽  
Key Stakeholders ◽  
The World ◽  
Local Recovery ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Opening Up

Events have played a significant role in the way in which the Coronavirus pandemic has been experienced and known around the world. Little is known though about how the pandemic has impacted on supporting, managing and governing events in municipal (i.e., local) authorities as key stakeholders, nor how events have featured in the opening-up of localities. This paper reports on empirical research with senior events officers for local authorities in the UK on these key knowledge gaps. Specifically, it examines events officers' unfolding experiences of the pandemic. The paper points to unpreparedness for a crisis of this scale and magnitude, and the roles of innovation, adaptation and co-production in the emergent response. It highlights the transformative nature of the pandemic through reconsiderations of the purpose of public sector involvement in events and, from a policy perspective, how relatively smaller-scale, more agile and lower-risk arts events and performances can figure in local recovery. Finally, while the effects on, and response of, the body corporate (the local authority) to crises is an obvious focus, it is important to recognise those of the individuals who manage the response and drive change.

scholarly journals Crossing Thresholds: Identifying conceptual transitions in postsecondary teaching

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Wilcox ◽  
Andy B Leger
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discussion ◽  
The Body ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
Threshold Concepts ◽  
Teaching Expertise ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
Field Assessment ◽  
Real Value ◽  
Postsecondary Teaching ◽  
Opening Up

In this paper we report on research we conducted to begin the process of identifying threshold concepts in the field of postsecondary teaching. Meyer & Land (2006) propose that within all disciplinary fields there seem to be particular threshold concepts that serve as gateways, opening up new and previously inaccessible ways of thinking and practicing. We developed a series of questions focusing on the “troublesome” and “transformative” characteristics of threshold concepts and asked these questions of several constituent groups, including those who are new to practice and the body of knowledge in postsecondary teaching and those who are already knowledgeable and/or experienced in the field. Based on our interpretation of participants’ responses, we identified four recognized concepts in the field of postsecondary teaching as potential threshold concepts in this field: Assessment for/as learning; Learning-centred teaching; Accommodation for diversity; and, Context-driven practice. Our findings suggest that threshold concepts are relevant to the field of postsecondary teaching. Through this work, we hope to help educational developers and faculty members consider what is involved in learning to teach and developing teaching expertise, and to encourage critical discussion about the teaching development “curriculum” in postsecondary settings. Threshold concepts arise as a field develops and are defined as practitioners and scholars in the field define their field. At this stage, we believe the real value of threshold concepts for postsecondary teaching lies in the discussion that arises in the process of identifying and naming the concepts. Cet article se penche sur le développement de l’enseignement post-secondaire à partir des concepts de seuil. Meyer et Land (2006) suggèrent qu’au sein de tous les champs disciplinaires, il semble y avoir des concepts particuliers qui servent de passerelles et qui ouvrent la voie à de nouvelles manières de penser et de pratiquer jusque là inaccessibles. Les concepts de seuil représentent une manière transformée de comprendre ou de regarder les choses, sans laquelle l’apprenant ne peut pas progresser dans ce champ. Cette vision transformée peut refléter les valeurs de la discipline ou encore résumer la manière dont les experts dans cette discipline abordent les problèmes. Dans cet article, nous présentons un rapport sur notre tentative d’identifier les concepts de seuil en enseignement post-secondaire. Grâce à ces travaux, nous espérons faire avancer les connaissances en enseignement et en apprentissage et aider les conseillers pédagogiques et les professeurs d’université à prendre en considération ce qui est impliqué dans l’apprentissage de l’enseignement. Nous souhaitons également encourager la discussion critique sur la préparation des programmes d’études de l’enseignement et montrer comment s’y prendre pour aider les autres à apprendre comment enseigner dans un milieu post-secondaire. Nous sommes impatients de partager nos résultats préliminaires et espérons engager d’autres personnes dans ce processus d’identification.

scholarly journals alienated human

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 247-262
Author(s):  
Nguyen Anh Quoc ◽  
Nguyen Minh Tri ◽  
Nguyen Anh Thuong ◽  
Dinh The Hoang ◽  
Nguyen Van Bung
Keyword(s):  
Spare Parts ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Internal Organs ◽  
Man And Nature ◽  
The Senses ◽  
And Behavior

Man and nature is a unity between body and individual in behavior. Humans are liberty, creative, happy subjects in behavior and labor. By behavior and labor, humans produce tools, spare parts, machines, and robots to replace internal organs, lengthen the senses, and lengthen defective body parts. Evolution is no longer a mutation in the body but the assembly of accessories into organs, senses, and body parts when needed. People use devices that are manufactured to be used for what people want depending on specific conditions and circumstances. Labor and behavior make objectification of people, but alienated behavior and alienated labor make humanize the object. The time to enjoy liberty, creativity, and happiness is human, and the time to perform alienated behavior and alienated labor is the time to live for the non-human. People are corrupted into slavery to standards, money. It is the process of self-torture, torturing oneself; and the nobility of standards, the wealth of money is the unhappy product of life. Humans are liberty, creative and happy subjects; alienated human beings are all helpless, unhappy, deceit. Money, standards are products of helplessness, unhappiness, lies. Standards, money remove people from life.

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