CONF Apr 4, 2009

Perspectives on the Public Sphere (Berlin, 23-25 Apr 09)

Robin Curtis

Perspectives on the Public Sphere
Cinematic Configurations of "I" and "We"

International Film Studies Conference, April 23 - 25, 2009

Throughout its history, cinema has developed different modes of
addressing spectators. Incorporating approaches from aesthetic and
social theory, "Perspectives on the Public Sphere: Cinematic
Configurations of 'I' and 'We'" investigates the public sphere within
the context of the complex and varied contemporary media age. More
specifically, the conference will focus on the reciprocity between the
individual "I", which can - to simplify matters somewhat - stand for
subjectivity, affect, and the individual spectator's perception, and the
social "we" of film as a mass medium, which has frequently been the
focus of various utopias and theories at the intersection of politics
and aesthetics since the 1920s. The conference is conceived as an
hommage to Gertrud Koch's work in and dedication to the fields of film
studies, aesthetic and social theory.

Thursday, April 23, 2009, Arsenal Cinema

An Evening for Gertrud Koch

6:00 pm
Introduction
Management, Arsenal. Institut fuer Film und Videokunst e.V.
Hermann Kappelhoff (Seminar fuer Filmwissenschaft, Freie Universitaet
Berlin)

Carte Blanche
Vivian Ostrovsky, Ulrike Ottinger, Tom Tykwer

Surprise Clip/s presented by the Organizers
Moderation: Marc Siegel (Freie Universitaet Berlin)

8:30 pm Reception
(Helene Schwarz Cafe, Filmhaus, 9. Etage)

Freitag, 24. April 2009, Institute for Cultural Inquiry, Berlin

10:00 am Introduction: Gertrud Koch (Freie Universitaet Berlin)
Die abwesende Masse

10:30 am Philip Rosen (Brown University)
Collectivity and Politics in Film Theory: Masses, Publics, Multitudes
Moderation: Volker Pantenburg (Freie Universitaet Berlin)

11:30 am Coffee Break

12:00 pm Thomas Elsaesser (Universiteit van Amsterdam)
The Cinema in the Museum - Our Last Bourgeois Public Sphere?
Moderation: Simon Rothoehler (Freie Universitaet Berlin)

1:00 pm Lunch Break

2:30 pm Astrid Deuber-Mankowsky (Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum)
Masse und Volk: Zeitgenoessische Begriffsverschiebungen.
Am Beispiel von Dogville (2003) und The Wire (2002-2008)
Moderation: Alexandra Schneider (Freie Universitaet Berlin)

3:30 pm Reconsidering the History of "I" and "We"
Moderation: Judith Keilbach (Universiteit Utrecht)
David Bathrick (Cornell University)
2 oder 3 Dinge, die ich von ihm weiß. Epistemologien der Trauerarbeit im
Dokumentarfilm

Micha Brumlik (Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universitaet Frankfurt)
Im Ausnahmezustand - Die Entstellung der Oeffentlichkeit

Mihal Friedman (Tel Aviv University):
Cries and Whispers with Bashir

Katharina Sykora (Hochschule fuer Bildende Kuenste Braunschweig)
On Queenliness

Monika Steinhauser (Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum)
Raptus mentis. Zur Syntax und Semantik von Alain Resnais' Film Hiroshima
mon amour

5:30 pm Coffee Break

6:00 pm Thomas Y. Levin (Princeton University)
Five Tapes, Four Halls, Two Dreams:
Vicissitudes of Surveillant Narration in Haneke's Cache
Moderation: Sulgi Lie (Freie Universitaet Berlin)

Samstag, 25. April 2009, Institute for Cultural Inquiry, Berlin

10:30 am Coffee

11:00 am Aesthetic Dimensions of "I" and "We"
Moderation: Robin Curtis (Freie Universitaet Berlin)
David Rodowick (Harvard University)
An Unlikely Conjunction: Kracauer and Deleuze

Karl Sierek (Friedrich-Schiller-Universitaet Jena)
Partizipation. Das 'Wir' in Edgar Morins Filmanthropologie

Matthias Kettner (Universitaet Witten-Herdecke)
Die filmische Konstruktion unbewusster Bedeutung

Abigail Solomon-Godeau (University of California, Santa Barbara)
The Twilight Zone. Photography and the Uncanny

1:00 pm Lunch Break

2:30 pm Raymond Bellour (CNRS Paris)
The Child-Spectator as a Pure Mass-Individual (The Curse of the Cat
People)
Moderation: Thomas Morsch (Freie Universitaet Berlin)

3:30 pm Lydia Goehr (Columbia University)
All About Eve: Ancient and Modern Thoughts on Agon, Mimesis, and
Displacement
Moderation: Christiane Voss (Freie Universitaet Berlin)

4:30 pm Coffee Break

5:00 pm Changing Experiences of Media and Dispositifs
Moderation: Christa Bluemlinger (Université Paris III)

Ed Dimendberg (University of California, Irvine)
Moving Images/Moving Screen: Theorizing the Public of Architectural
Media Installations

Irit Rogoff (Goldsmith College, London University)
We - Collectivities, Mutualities, Particpations

Nora Alter (University of Florida)
Echoes Past and Present: Forging Communities through the Aural.

Giuliana Bruno (Harvard University)
Fabrics of Light, Screen Surfaces

7:00 pm End of Conference

Simultaneous English language translation will be provided.

Respondents
Marie Luise Angerer (Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln, IFK Wien),
Dominique Bluher (Harvard University), Diedrich Diederichsen (Akademie
der bildenden Künste Wien), Josef Früchtl (Universiteit van Amsterdam),
Miriam Hansen (Chicago University), Rembert Hüser (University of
Minnesota), Cilly Kugelmann (Jüdisches Museum Berlin), Paola Marrati
(Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore), Juliane Rebentisch (Johann
Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt), Eva Warth (Ruhr-Universität
Bochum), Albrecht Wellmer (Freie Universität Berlin) und Mechthild Zeul
(Frankfurt und Madrid)

Concept and Organisation
Robin Curtis, Sulgi Lie, Thomas Morsch, Volker Pantenburg, Simon
Rothöhler, Alexandra Schneider, Marc Siegel, Christiane Voss (alle FU
Berlin), Christa Blümlinger (Université Paris III), Judith Keilbach
(Universiteit Utrecht)

Contact: volker.pantenburgfu-berlin.de

Assistance
Alexiou Tilemachos-Alexios, Florian Evers, Lukas Förster, Antonia
Joseph, Nikolaus Perneczky

Event Locations
Arsenal - Institut für Film und Videokunst e.V.
Potsdamer Straße 2
D-10785 Berlin
Tel.: +49 (0)30 26955-100
Fax +49-(0)30 26955-111
U2 Senefelder Platz

ICI | Institute for Cultural Inquiry, Berlin
Christinenstr. 18-19, Haus 8
D-10119 Berlin
Tel.: +49 (0)30 473 7291-10
Fax: +49 (0)30 473 7291-56
U2 Potsdamer Platz

Fundeded by
Fritz Thyssen Stiftung für Wissenschaftsförderung
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
SFB 626 "Ästhetische Erfahrung im Zeichen der Entgrenzung der Künste"
Embassy of the United States of America | Amerikanische Botschaft

For further support we thank:
Freie Universität Berlin
ICI Berlin
Arsenal. Institut für Film und Videokunst e.V.
Ernst-Reuter-Gesellschaft

Reference:
CONF: Perspectives on the Public Sphere (Berlin, 23-25 Apr 09). In: ArtHist.net, Apr 4, 2009 (accessed Jul 5, 2025), <https://arthist.net/archive/31508>.

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