*CFP* "FROM THE SCENIC ESSAY TO THE ESSAY-EXHIBITION. EXPANDING THE ESSAY FORM IN THE ARTS AFTER LITERATURE AND FILM", S:PAM CONFERENCE

From the Scenic Essay to the Essay-Exhibition. Expanding the Essay Form in the Arts after Literature and Film

S:PAM (Studies in Performing Arts & Media)

Ghent University (Belgium)

27th-29th of April 2022

 

 

More than 400 years after the publication of Michel De Montaigne’s Essais, the enduring afterlife of the essay form attests how this 'heretical form’ (Adorno) not only continues to challenge the literary conventions but also transgresses the borders of the literary field to venture into other artistic disciplines. The genre of the essay film is the most prominent example of this dissemination but the expansion has set out into other areas as well. Engaging with this emerging prominence, From the Scenic to the Essay-Exhibition welcomes scholars and art practitioners to present their academic and artistic engagements with the essay form.

*CFP* "THE AUDIOVISUAL THINKING PROCESS IN CONTEMPORARY ESSAY FILMS", ISSUE 18 (SPRING 2022), COMPARATIVE CINEMA JOURNAL

Born out of modern cinema, the essay film departed from the dominant forms of fiction and documentary cinema in order to explore an unknown territory defined by subjectivity, hybridization and reflection, evolving to become “a form that thinks,” as Jean-Luc Godard defined it. The final decades of the 20th century witnessed the consolidation of the essay film, which was enabled by postmodern thought and culture, as well as by the development of video recording technology. In this mode, works by Chris Marker, Roberto Rossellini, Orson Welles, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Jonas Mekas, Harun Farocki, Agnès Varda, Wim Wenders, Guy Maddin, Peter Watkins, Chantal Akerman, Alexander Kluge or Johan van der Keuken, among many others, developed a practice of audiovisual thinking for which Godard’s Histoire(s) du cinéma (1988-1998) could be considered the epitome, marking a turning point that also took place at the century’s end. Over the last twenty years, this essayistic practice has proliferated due to the digital revolution, facilitating diverse experiences of subjectivity and intimacy, and multiplying the possibilities of audiovisual editing; that is, of the very thinking process that defines this filmic form. Taking this itinerary into account, the 18th issue of Comparative Cinema proposes to address the specificities of the audiovisual thinking process in the contemporary essay film.

The most notable studies devoted to the essay film have established its key traits – the audiovisual expression of the thinking process and the self-reflexiveness of subjectivity – and its specificities – issues related to its genealogy, historical path and bond with the literary essay – allowing for the consolidation of this research area. Several edited volumes have been decisive in this regard, including: L’essai et le cinéma (Liandrat-Guigues and Gagnebin, 2004); La forma que piensa (Weinrichter, 2007); Jeux sérieux. Cinéma et art contemporains transforment l’essai (Bacqué et al., 2015); and Essays on the Essay Film (Alter and Corrigan, 2018). 

*CFP* "THE AUDIOVISUAL THINKING PROCESS IN CONTEMPORARY ESSAY FILMS", Nº 18 (SPRING 2022), COMPARATIVE CINEMA JOURNAL

Born out of modern cinema, the essay film departed from the dominant forms of fiction and documentary cinema in order to explore an unknown territory defined by subjectivity, hybridization and reflection, evolving to become “a form that thinks,” as Jean-Luc Godard defined it. The final decades of the 20th century witnessed the consolidation of the essay film, which was enabled by postmodern thought and culture, as well as by the development of video recording technology. In this mode, works by Chris Marker, Roberto Rossellini, Orson Welles, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Jonas Mekas, Harun Farocki, Agnès Varda, Wim Wenders, Guy Maddin, Peter Watkins, Chantal Akerman, Alexander Kluge or Johan van der Keuken, among many others, developed a practice of audiovisual thinking for which Godard’s Histoire(s) du cinéma (1988-1998) could be considered the epitome, marking a turning point that also took place at the century’s end. Over the last twenty years, this essayistic practice has proliferated due to the digital revolution, facilitating diverse experiences of subjectivity and intimacy, and multiplying the possibilities of audiovisual editing; that is, of the very thinking process that defines this filmic form. Taking this itinerary into account, the 18th issue of Comparative Cinema proposes to address the specificities of the audiovisual thinking process in the contemporary essay film. The most notable studies devoted to the essay film have established its key traits – the audiovisual expression of the thinking process and the self-reflexiveness of subjectivity – and its specificities – issues related to its genealogy, historical path and bond with the literary essay – allowing for the consolidation of this research area. 

*CFP* "THE ESSAY FILM AS A SELF-REPRESENTATIONAL MODE", SPECIAL ISSUE, EKPHRASIS: IMAGES, CINEMA, THEORY, MEDIA

In cultural anthropology, subjectivity is an inherent part of the human condition; our perception, affects and sense-making stem directly from it. It exists at an individual level because human beings are sentient and thinking subjects reflecting upon themselves and upon the context in which they are inserted. At a social level, subjectivity depends on large scale cultural formations which predetermine choices and behavioural patterns imbuing them with political overtones. In cinema, these two components of subjectivity may be expressed through what Lisa Lebow calls first person documentary films, which designate a /mode of address/ and not a filmic genre: “[…] these films ‘speak’ from the articulated point of view of the filmmaker who readily acknowledges her subjective position” (2012, 1).

These films include a broad range of practices: the essay film, the self-portrait and the video diary, among others. Historically, essay films have been directed at least since the 1920s and the cinematic masterpiece Man with a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929) is actually placed in this category by many film theoreticians. From the 1970s onwards it proliferated across different geographies and cultures, spreading in the world cinema landscape. Generally considered a hybrid and creative form of cinematic expression, the essay film eludes a single and irrefutable definition, which makes it an interesting topic for research and ever more so nowadays that film is mixing with other sculptural art forms and invading the gallery and the museum.

*CFP* “ARCHIVES FOR EDUCATION. CREATIVE REUSE FOR STUDENT FILMAKERS”, BFI EDUCATION SYMPOSIUM

As cultural heritage organisations digitise their collections and increase public access, the creative reuse of moving image archive material remains problematic, beset by questions of copyright law, rights clearance and “fair dealing” exceptions. The Archives for Education project provides a new model for the creative reuse of archive film in higher education, giving student filmmakers access to 39 films from the BBC and the BFI National Archive for creative reuse on course-related projects for the first time. 55 institutions have signed up to the scheme, allowing student filmmakers to connect their vision of Britain today with archival representations from their parents’ and grandparents’ generations.

This one-day symposium, organised by Kingston School of Art and hosted by BFI Education, reflects on the first full academic year of the scheme andexplores the creative and learning opportunities creative reuse can offer to young filmmakers and how the scheme can be developed within and beyond higher education.

*CFP* CALL FOR STREAMS, LONDON CONFERENCE IN CRITICAL THOUGHT 2020

London Conference in Critical Thought

14- 15 de Agosto de 2020

Kings College, London

The Call for Streams is now open for the 9th annual London Conference in Critical Thought (LCCT), hosted and supported by the Faculty of Social Science and Public Policy, Kings College London.

The LCCT is a free, inter-institutional, interdisciplinary conference in critical thought that takes place annually in institutions across London. LCCT follows a non-hierarchical, decentralised model of organisation that undoes conventional academic distinctions between plenary lectures and break-out sessions, aiming instead to create opportunities for intellectual critical exchange regardless of participants’ disciplinary field, institutional affiliation, or seniority. The conference is envisaged as a space for those who share theoretical approaches and interests but who may find themselves at the margins of their academic department or discipline. Following this decentralised, ‘margins-at-the-centre’ logic, LCCT has no overarching or predetermined theme. Each year the conference’s intellectual content and academic tone are set by thematic streams that are conceived, proposed and curated by a group of stream organisers. Each stream generates its own intellectual rationale and Call for Papers, with conference participants responding to the accepted stream proposals. 

*CFP* ISSUES 3 AND 4, TECMERIN: JOURNAL OF AUDIOVISUAL ESSAYS

Tecmerin: Journal of Audiovisual Essays launches the CFPs for its third and fourth issue. It is a biannual, peer-reviewed journal, published by the research group Tecmerin (Television, Cinema, Memory, Representation and Industry) of Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (Department of Journalism and Media Studies). Tecmerin: Journal of Audiovisual Essays focuses on Spanish and Latin American cultural production. Consequently, we invite scholars, researchers and creators to send pieces centered on the production, consumption, circulation and cultural exchange within these geographical areas.

In issue 3 we maintain an open CFP, with a special interest, although not exclusive, in Spanish and Latin American cultural production. Consequently, we especially invite scholars, researchers and creators to send pieces centered on the production, consumption, circulation and cultural exchange within these geographical areas.

*CFP* "SHAPING KNOWLEDGE: ENCOUNTERS BETWEEN WORD AND IMAGE", ANNUAL SYMPOSIUM

‘Shaping Knowledge: encounters between word and image’

MPE and MeCCSA Practice Network

Annual Symposium 2019

Hosted by the School of Arts, University of Kent

Friday 14th June 2019

This symposium will explore the interaction between word and image within media-based practice research. As creative practice has increasingly found a home within academia, and as digital technologies have made possible new methodologies and forms of output, the hegemony of the written word within arts and humanities scholarship has been challenged from different directions. From curated exhibitions, through audiovisual essays and interactive websites, to sound and Internet art, practice research now challenges the logocentric focus of humanities research across all media.

*CFP* "THE ESSAY FILM FORM AND ANIMATION: INTERSECTIONALITY IN MOTION", CONFERENCE

The Essay Film Form and Animation: Intersectionality in Motion

12 June 2019 - 13 June 2019

London, UK

Animation has been used in film form for its ability to illustrate, clarify, intensify, and focus the expression of feelings, emotions, processes, situations. In socially engaged films, animation supports and opens the debate of complex realities, which can be external or internal, like in I was the Child of Holocaust Survivors (Fleming, 2006), An Eyeful of Sound (Moore, 2010), Waltz with Bashir (Folman, 2008), and Tower (Maitland, 2012).

Paul Arthur notes “[g]alvanized by the intersection of personal, subjective and social history, the essay [film] has emerged as the leading nonfiction form for both intellectual and artistic innovation” (2003, p. 58). In this sense, essay films are hybrid, cross boundaries and often challenge our preconceptions of how to engage an audience. 

*CFP* “THE ESSAY FILM FORM AND ANIMATION: INTERSECTIONALITY IN MOTION”, DEREK JARMAN LAB, LONDON

The Essay Film Form and Animation: Intersectionality in Motion

12-13 June 2019

Derek Jarman Lab

London

The conference explores the ways in which animated form mobilises or challenges ideas of the essay film. We, therefore, encourage submissions that engage with how animation represents complex and intersecting social issues and power relations. Major axes of social division in a given society at a given time operate not “as discrete and mutually exclusive entities, but build on each other and work together” (Collings and Bilge, 2016, p. 4). It is very challenging to convincingly visualise and configure these phenomena and how they intersect. But animation seems perfectly placed to rise to this challenge, due to its hybrid, metamorphic and pervasive tendencies.