Call for Papers:Surfaces and Interfaces.Aesthetics and Politics of Filmic Images on New ScreensInternational Film Conference, March 21­23, 2013, University of Basel, Switzerlandhosted by the research module Fields and Frequencies in Cinema Perception (eikones – NCCR Iconic Criticism)and the department of Media Studies of Basel University

The surfaces of filmic images increasingly attract our attention as films are shown ondifferent devices, in different configurations of spectatorship, gradually dissolving andreplacing the old dispositif of the cinema — if this was ever a stable form of viewingto begin with. Films appear on new gadgets and screens, analog and digital, smalland large, as layers on LCD monitors or as interactive devices, portable pads as wellas projections on a larger scale. Furthermore, surfaces in daily practices have subtlyturned into interfaces. Screens not only transmit images, they communicate andchange our behaviour toward images.Surfaces have become relevant for film theory, as well as for filmic practicesthemselves. In filmic vision, the surfaces of cinema turn into effects and affectsinstead of remaining transparent. As a matter of fact, avant­garde cinema has alwaysaddressed a film’s surface by accentuating different forms of colour processing, byexposing the visible grain, or by manipulating the filmic skin. Thus, aesthetic formspoint to political intentions. Currently, as studies of Screen Dynamics or ScreenStudies demonstrate, surfaces have become of concern to film studies and of film artas well.The recent films of Jean­Luc Godard, Lars von Trier, Michael Mann, and ChristopherNolan introduce surfaces as topologies. Leos Carax, dreaming of a cinema beyondscreens, withdraws the relation to surface altogether. Filmic surfaces may imitatethose of other images, formats, or game worlds. Newer filmic surfaces are neitherwholly cinematic, nor do they completely imitate game worlds; they are neithermerely images, nor do they fully represent space. The surfaces connect filmicimages with different forms of media effects. The hybridity of cinematic worlds drawsattention to affects, decisions, and movements, forms of behaviour to which we areexposed in cinematic screenings. In order to discuss the aesthetics and politics ofnew filmic surfaces we propose the following issues:

1. Entanglements of bodies and media: Over the course of the 19th century,chronophotographic and filmic surfaces have operated as interfaces to organizeand economise on forms of locomotion and movement. New filmic surfaces andtheir dynamics also interfere with modes of movements. Movements of themartial arts, parkour or forms of surfing and skating emerge as amalgamations ofhuman and technical locomotion. In this respect, cinema acts as a device ofdisciplinary procedures and transmissions. Imitation and mimesis appear astechnologies of the self, connecting habitus and social power relations.2. Entanglements of filmic surfaces and space: The question is to what degreefilmic images that imitate forms of navigational media, engage us differently in theplots and actions of films. The experience of navigating through urban spaces orlandscapes with the help of localizing media screens has transformed orientationin filmic spaces. Given that films are viewed on ubiquitous small screens andmobile devices, the inherent time and the heterotopic space of cinema is lost. Onthe other hand, the same practices of viewing, are constantly accompanied byimaginary spaces.

3. Visual devices and communicative surfaces change our behaviour towardimages. New forms of filmic perception are much more incidental than theories ofdistraction in modernity ventured to diagnose. While classical film theorysystematically considered the experience of shock as central to modernity andmass media, cinema, in terms of post­media, introduces new forms andexperiences of collectivity and connectivity. This also concerns spectatorship. Thenew cinemas do not generate the formation of masses. Instead, its crowds andmultitudes take shape on the internet, in blogs, newsgroups, or forums.4. The digitally controlled aspects of images have changed our engagement withimaginary worlds. Computed surfaces of films remind us of computable gamesurfaces. Through surface markers, we seem to be able to intervene into actions,while we remain spectators. Filmplots have started to play with this option. Thequestion is whether those forms of remediation recall old or new expectations,and behavioral potentials.5. Finally, the impact of the surface becomes increasingly important. Currentprojects of digitalisation and archiving need to reconstruct surface qualities. Indigitalising old film forms, new surface structures have to be construed.Genuinely filmic aesthetics necessarily disappear. Questions of how the newsurfaces of old films have to be designed are also of concern to film historians,conservationists, and archivists.

We inivite proposals for papers until December 6th. Please send them to:irina.kaldrack@unibas.ch. The conference will be held in Basel in close cooperationwith the communal cinema, the Stadtkino, in order to screen films and project filmclips under conditions appropriate to the old cinematic dispositif. Papers should beno more than 40 minutes in length, to be followed by 20 minutes of discussion.Travel and accommodation expenses will be reimbursed for invited speakers.