Deaths of Cinema
The 1st Annual Critical Studies Graduate Student Conference
March 23-24, 2007
Los Angeles, CA
 

 

Description

 

Organized under the theme “Deaths of Cinema,” this conference aims to address contemporary concerns in the arts and humanities with changing technologies, production and exhibition practices, and academic research methods associated with cinema and other moving image media. The expansion of digital technology in the cinematic arts has led recent commentators to proclaim the “death” of cinema. Similarly, the academic study of cinema has been challenged in recent years by the growth of interdisciplinary fields and methodologies associated with Cultural Studies, Media Studies, and Visual Studies. We believe that these are important developments for students of Critical Studies and related academic disciplines such as History, Art History, English, Comparative Literature and American Studies, as well as for practitioners of the cinematic arts. Our conference will emphasize the historical and contextual aspects of changes in cinema, while also encouraging participants to think theoretically about the consequences of those changes.



 

Conference Schedule



Friday



Screening and discussion
:
Janie Geiser
Director, Loyd Costen Center for Puppetry & the Arts, CalArts
6:00pm – 8:00pm
Lucas 108

Screening list:
    IMMER ZU (1997, 8'30")
    LOST MOTION (1999, 11')
    ULTIMA THULE (2002, 10'16")
    TERRACE 49 (2004, 5'37")
    THE FOURTH WATCH (2000, 11')
    MAGNETIC SLEEP (Episode #1) (2006, 7')



Saturday



Breakfast
9:15 – 10:00am
Bogardus Courtyard

Smashing the Object: Theorizing and Materializing the End

10:00 – 11:30am


Erika Balsom (Brown University)
    "From Bad Object to Lost Object: the desires of film theory"
James Leo Cahill (USC)
    "And Afterwards? Martin Arnold's Phantom Cinema"
Luis Recoder (independent filmmaker)
    "The Death of Structural Film"
Respondent: Professor David James

 

Rejuvenating the Spectator: Shifts in Viewing Practices
11:45am – 1:15pm

Emily Conlon (USC)
    "Film in the Age of Digital Duplicity: Why the War Against Movie
    Piracy is More than Just a Financial Fight"
Murray Leeder (Carleton University)
    "Skeletons of Early Cinema: William Castle and 'Gimmickry' in
    1950's Hollywood"
Thomas Stubblefield (UC Irvine)
    "Disassembling the Cinema: The Poster, the Film and In-Between"
Respondent: Professor Aniko Imre

 

Lunch
1:30 – 2:30pm
Bogardus Courtyard

 

Memorializing Death in Digital and Public Performances
2:45 – 4:15pm


Laurel Westrup (UCLA)
    "Media Martyrs? Rock 'n' Roll, Film and the Political
    Economy of Death"
Aimée Mitchell  (York University)
    "Public Spaces and Augmented Trauma: Jay David Bolter's
    Oakland Cemetery Project"
Amelia Guimarin (UC Irvine)
    "MyDeathSpace and Cinema: Reconfiguring Life
    Through Memorials"
Respondent: Professor Anne Friedberg

 

Keynote address:
"Viva Cinema! Or How Cinema Changes Incessantly In Order to Remain the Same"
Hamid Naficy
John Evans Professor of Communication
Department of Radio/Television/Film, Northwestern University
4:30 – 6:00pm

 

Closing reception
6:00 – 8:00pm
Bogardus Courtyard

 

All events in Leavey Library Auditorium unless otherwise noted.

Email questions and comments to usc.symposium@gmail.com.