Film and the Other Arts : Intermediality, Medium Specificity, Creativity
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Edinburgh
Department Name: Sch of Literature Languages & Culture
Abstract
From its beginnings, cinema has developed in close interaction and, to a certain extent, rivalry with its sibling arts literature, the theatre, painting, dance, architecture and photography. Whilst, over the past two decades, scholars have become increasingly interested in the relations between film and the other arts, to date research efforts have concentrated mainly on specific interfaces notably between film and painting and film and literature. This network aims to offer a stimulus for new directions in the study of cinematic intermediality (that is, the interaction and crossing-over between cinema and the other arts), opening up new areas of research and new creative pathways. It intends to foster dialogue and exchange between researchers from different Humanities disciplines (Film and Media Studies, Media Arts and Design, History of Art, Theatre and Performance, Modern Languages) and practitioners through a series of four workshops and related knowledge exchange/ impact events. The workshops will examine the manifold ways in which the cinema references, incorporates and reframes other artistic practices, initiating fusions and cross-overs between different media. Particular emphasis will be given to the permeability between cinema and the other arts in avant-garde and experimental practice and its legacy in mainstream film, as well as to the role of technology in forging new connections between film and the other arts.
The border-crossings between cinema and the other arts that are at the centre of this project allow us to revisit questions regarding the specificity of the cinematic medium, questions that are all the more pressing in our digital, 'post-media' age. By engaging researchers and practitioners in dialogue around these questions the network seeks to broaden the traditional horizon of film studies, fostering a better understanding of the ways in which cinema is shaped by the other arts and providing a platform for reflecting on film's status as an 'impure' medium where different art forms intersect and communicate. Inserting itself into the burgeoning field of intermediality studies, which is stimulating thinking across disciplines, the project will make a timely intervention in a more general debate about the relationship and cross-fertilisation between different art forms.
The four workshops will experiment with novel forms of presentation and exchange by inviting a mixture of formats (combination of short position papers and exploratory talks, round table discussions, discussion groups based on papers submitted prior to the workshops, illustrated presentations by practitioners). They are accompanied by a series of knowledge exchange / impact events which will place emphasis on curatorial outputs and engage a wider public in the network's research base. The findings of the project will be beneficial to researchers interested in the relations between film and the other arts working in a broad range of Humanities disciplines. The network involves three external partners, the newly opened LUX Scotland, Filmhouse Edinburgh, and Aberystwyth Arts Centre, opening up possibilities for future collaborations between the first two institutions and allowing Filmhouse and the Aberystwyth Arts Centre to extend their programming of non-mainstream work.
The border-crossings between cinema and the other arts that are at the centre of this project allow us to revisit questions regarding the specificity of the cinematic medium, questions that are all the more pressing in our digital, 'post-media' age. By engaging researchers and practitioners in dialogue around these questions the network seeks to broaden the traditional horizon of film studies, fostering a better understanding of the ways in which cinema is shaped by the other arts and providing a platform for reflecting on film's status as an 'impure' medium where different art forms intersect and communicate. Inserting itself into the burgeoning field of intermediality studies, which is stimulating thinking across disciplines, the project will make a timely intervention in a more general debate about the relationship and cross-fertilisation between different art forms.
The four workshops will experiment with novel forms of presentation and exchange by inviting a mixture of formats (combination of short position papers and exploratory talks, round table discussions, discussion groups based on papers submitted prior to the workshops, illustrated presentations by practitioners). They are accompanied by a series of knowledge exchange / impact events which will place emphasis on curatorial outputs and engage a wider public in the network's research base. The findings of the project will be beneficial to researchers interested in the relations between film and the other arts working in a broad range of Humanities disciplines. The network involves three external partners, the newly opened LUX Scotland, Filmhouse Edinburgh, and Aberystwyth Arts Centre, opening up possibilities for future collaborations between the first two institutions and allowing Filmhouse and the Aberystwyth Arts Centre to extend their programming of non-mainstream work.
Planned Impact
The project will achieve a wider impact through engaging practitioners, cultural organisations and members of the public in the research of the network. Its main non-academic beneficiaries are the practitioners involved in the project, the three external partners (Aberystwyth Arts Centre, Filmhouse Edinburgh and LUX), and the wider public engaged in the events that accompany the four workshops.
The key benefits are:
- new creative stimuli and networking opportunities for the practitioners through exchange with academics and other practitioners
- new programming opportunities, access to new audiences, new collaborations for the three external partners:
the events accompanying workshops 1 (screening of films by Mara Mattuschka and Chris Haring based on live theatrical performances) and 3 (festival of intermedial avant-garde films), held in collaboration with the Aberystwyth Arts Centre and Filmhouse Cinema Edinburgh, will allow these two institutions to extend their programming of non mainstream cinema, incorporating intermedial films into their programming. This broadening of their activities will give them access to new audiences and is likely to have an economic impact in the immediate and longer term. The involvement of LUX, the major distributor of artists' moving image in the UK, in the latter event will encourage future collaborations between the newly opened LUX Scotland and Edinburgh-based organisations, since LUX activities are so far limited to Glasgow and Dundee. LUX Scotland's mission statement includes developing 'new touring and screening initiatives in collaboration with arts venues across Scotland [...] and new public research resources' (http://luxscotland.org.uk/mission/). The network lays the foundations for fulfilling these aims both through its academic research and its public engagement activities. It will feed into and complement LUX's emphasis on learning by establishing a new collaborative research resource on intermediality in avant-garde film that will be accessible through the LUX website.
- enhancement of knowledge and cultural enrichment for a wider public:
the public events accompanying the four workshops will engage a diverse audience in the network's research base, allowing them to reflect on film's relationship with the other arts through film screenings, illustrated talks by practitioners, and audience debates led by members of the network. Together these various events will increase public awareness of the cross-fertilisation between film and other artistic practices and of the inherently 'impure' nature of the filmic medium.
The key benefits are:
- new creative stimuli and networking opportunities for the practitioners through exchange with academics and other practitioners
- new programming opportunities, access to new audiences, new collaborations for the three external partners:
the events accompanying workshops 1 (screening of films by Mara Mattuschka and Chris Haring based on live theatrical performances) and 3 (festival of intermedial avant-garde films), held in collaboration with the Aberystwyth Arts Centre and Filmhouse Cinema Edinburgh, will allow these two institutions to extend their programming of non mainstream cinema, incorporating intermedial films into their programming. This broadening of their activities will give them access to new audiences and is likely to have an economic impact in the immediate and longer term. The involvement of LUX, the major distributor of artists' moving image in the UK, in the latter event will encourage future collaborations between the newly opened LUX Scotland and Edinburgh-based organisations, since LUX activities are so far limited to Glasgow and Dundee. LUX Scotland's mission statement includes developing 'new touring and screening initiatives in collaboration with arts venues across Scotland [...] and new public research resources' (http://luxscotland.org.uk/mission/). The network lays the foundations for fulfilling these aims both through its academic research and its public engagement activities. It will feed into and complement LUX's emphasis on learning by establishing a new collaborative research resource on intermediality in avant-garde film that will be accessible through the LUX website.
- enhancement of knowledge and cultural enrichment for a wider public:
the public events accompanying the four workshops will engage a diverse audience in the network's research base, allowing them to reflect on film's relationship with the other arts through film screenings, illustrated talks by practitioners, and audience debates led by members of the network. Together these various events will increase public awareness of the cross-fertilisation between film and other artistic practices and of the inherently 'impure' nature of the filmic medium.
Publications
Jutz G
(2016)
Kurt Kren: Structural Films
Jutz G
(2018)
"'Retrograde Remediation.' Medienübergreifende Übersetzungen in der zeitgenössischen filmbezogenen Kunst."
in Springerin
Jutz G
(2021)
Hitting Where It Hurts: Absurdity as an Artistic Method
in International Journal of Film and Media Arts
Jutz G
(2022)
David Hockney: Insights. Reflecting the Tate Collection
Jutz G
(2019)
"Striking Textures, Sensuous Surfaces in Photography and Film."
in Open Arts Journal
Jutz G
(2016)
The Oxford Handbook of Sound and Image in Western Art
| Title | Eye Cut |
| Description | 20min, 16mm, 2021 The film explores awkward and uncomfortable relationships between printed text and performance, compiling together juxtapositions of 'spare' parts from puppet theatre, photo-collage, performance, sculpture. It revolves a minimalist performance of a lone performing figure performing with a card board box that opens out in other things filmed mostly in close up in a single domestic space. A key element is the printed text+image which the performing body receives in the form of a projection onto her and into her, and then she/he attempts to speak with it albeit in awkward fashion. My first BA was a practice exploration of integrated artforms, with some theoretical focus on what it is to combine in different ways different artistic disciplines; .all of which I put aside and didn't consider again until I attended the workshop you set up so thank you for that. I am inspired by the idea of where one (the artist) leaves one artform behind just at the point where another artform is entered and this state of hovering of being between and trying to stay there. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | The film was premiered at London Film Festival, October 2021, screened at Jeu de Paume, Paris, November 2021 and the Paris Short Film Festival, March 2021. It won Best Experimental Film at Toronto International Women Film Festival. |
| Title | The Deep |
| Description | Isabel Rocamora, one of the practitioner members of the network, is currently working on research and development towards The Deep, a still and moving image project comprising several studies towards the production of an intermedial installation work. The Deep focuses on the rich and coveted geologies of Scotland's Highlands and Islands to reflect on the ways in which we interact with the environment that sustains us. The project interrogates the dynamics of power and transgression, enrichment and impoverishment, that underpin conceptions of freedom and agency in our profit-driven societies. Inspired and informed by Martin Heidegger's ethics of the earth, it asks: What is the place of the human in the face of our fast depleting natural resources? How can we see the world afresh and reposition ourselves humbly before other beings, the earth and its atmosphere? What foundations remain for us to nurture and sustain? This creative enquiry re-considers questions of trace, form, light and scale by placing the photographic process into dialogue with the art practices of painting (Cy Twombly and Peter Doig) and sculpture (Eduardo Chillida and Fischli & Weiss). The Deep is funded by Creative Scotland in partnership with Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum and Arts Center. |
| Type Of Art | Film/Video/Animation |
| Year Produced | 2022 |
| Impact | This is an ongoing project. It includes an online mentoring programme for artists living and working in the Scottish Highlands and Islands. The aim is to guide the two selected artists, as they expand on their sculpture and ceramic practices to create their first moving image work. Delivered between September 2021 and April 2022. |
| Description | This grant has allowed us to get a fuller understanding of the fertile interactions between cinema and other art forms (in particular painting, sculpture, dance, theater and photography) in cinematic practice since the inception of the medium in the late nineteenth century. Based on four international workshops and a series of public-facing events, the project has thrown into sharp relief the importance of border crossings between the arts in both the historical and contemporary avant-gardes, but also in more mainstream cinema. The research conducted by the network has enabled us to understand that intermediality (that is, the crossing-over between the arts) is a crucial means for film directors to grasp the properties of their own medium and to extend its expressive possibilities. Be it in the historical avant-garde of the 1920s, the avant-gardes of the 1960s and 1970s or contemporary practice, artists frequently draw on the neighbouring arts to probe the boundaries and understand the specificities of cinema. Hence the study of intermediality is a vital methodological tool for answering a question that has preoccupied film criticism ever since the birth of the medium: 'What is cinema'? In our own age dominated by discussions about the 'death of cinema', intermediality helps us revitalise the notion of 'cinema', not by closing it, but by opening it up to other artistic disciplines. By focusing on cinema's manifold interactions with other art forms we have gained a richer understanding of the nature of cinematic creativity and the inherently mixed properties of the cinematic medium. The key findings of the project will be disseminated in the collective volume 'Cinematic Intermediality: Theory and Practice', edited by the Principal Investigator Marion Schmid and the Co-Investigator Kim Knowles. The volume has been published by Edinburgh University Press in February 2021. |
| Exploitation Route | As our network brought together academic researchers and practitioners to think about questions of cinematic intermediality, its benefits extend to both groups. For academics, the research project has opened up new ways of thinking about cinema that move beyond the mono-medial approaches that still dominate in film studies. The intermedial methodology we have developed firmly takes the discipline into transdisciplinary territory. The podcasts made available on our designated website and the edited volume and other publications originating in the project will allow a wider audience of researchers and students to draw on the new theoretical models and research paradigms developed during the project. The practitioners involved in the network have been inspired by the sustained dialogue with academic colleagues and with fellow practitioners. The project is likely to stimulate new creations and has put in place ongoing collaborations between members of the network and the institutional partners with which it has collaborated. One of the network members, Prof. Ágnes Petho, has organised a conference, 'Intermediality Now: Remapping in-betweenness', at the Sapientia UniversityCluj-Napoca (Romania), 19-20 October 2018, within the framework of her new research project, 'Rethinking Intermediality in Contemporary Cinema: Changing Forms of In-Betweenness', funded by the UEFISCDI. This event has allowed network members to continue discussion and exchange. This event was followed by another conference organised by Prof. Petho, 'The Picturesque: Visual Pleasure and Intermediality in-between Contemporary Cinema, Art and Visual Culture', at the Sapientia UniversityCluj-Napoca, 5-26 October 2019, with a keynote by one of the network members, Steven Jacobs. Further workshops bringing together researchers and practitioners, including an international workshop on 'Hands in Cinema' in Paris and a follow-up workshop in collaboration with the 'Reset the Apparatus' project of the University of Applied Arts, Vienna, are being planned. A funding application to the French Agence Nationale de la Recherche for an MRSEI (Montage de Réseaux Scientifiques Européens ou Internationauxis) grant is envisaged as a stepping stone to an H2020 application. Last but not least, The 'Creative Dialogues in the Avant-Garde' screening series has attracted the attention of a number of institutions, including the Centre Pompidou in Paris, with whom conversations are ongoing. The 'Performing Gesture' programme has screened at the VIVID gallery in Birmingham on 20th April 2018. Duke University, North Carolina, has also expressed an interest in including a dance film programme based on both the Aberystwyth and Edinburgh screening. This would be hosted at their recently-opened Rubenstein Arts Center, which houses the new MFA in Dance. |
| Sectors | Education,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| URL | http://www.filmandarts-network.hss.ed.ac.uk |
| Description | The findings of this project have enabled our project partner LUX to gain a better understanding of its complex holdings of artists films. The avant-garde session which was based on an investigation of the LUX archive has brought to light works which have not been screened publicly for a very long time. Indeed, so rarely are these films screened that LUX had forgotten that it held one of them, Joelle Bouvier and Regis Obadiah's 'La Chambre' (1988), a jewel of experimental dance films, in its archives. The investigation of the archive and the success of the avant-garde season will encourage LUX to make its rich holdings available to the general public. The planned travelling exhibitions of the avant-garde season will showcase artist films by the LUX internationally, giving them a broader international reach. Filmhouse Edinburgh, our second project partner, has been able to consolidate and expand its offering in non-mainstream cinema thanks to the avant-garde season. The financial success of the season and the intellectual kudos derived from it are important for maintaining Filmhouse's screenings of experimental works, which are often considered as commercially non viable by cinemas, in the future. Likewise Aberystwyth Arts Center, our third project partner, has been able to extend its programming to non mainstream works thanks to our curated programme of dance films. The avant-garde season has been instrumental in consolidating a non-mainstream film culture in Scotland and Wales. Thanks to the detailed screening notes and introductions, a broad and diverse audience was able to familiarise itself with the aesthetic strategies of works that are often considered as 'difficult', 'intellectual' or 'elite'. The various artist talks, in conversations with artists and Q&As with artists that accompanied the four workshops have allowed our practitioner members to showcase their work and discuss it with a broader audience. A selection of the artist talks, Q&As with the practitioner members, and a showcase of their films is available on the network website. The dialogues facilitated by the network have created stable and lasting exchanges that are informing the creative work of our practitioner members. The volume of essays 'Cinematic Intermediality: Theory and Practice' (Edinburgh University Press, 2021) edited by Marion Schmid and Kim Knowles, which includes a section with essays by the practitioners members on their creative practice, has allowed further dissemination of their work to a wider public. One of the practitioners members, Sarah Pucill's short film 'Eye Cut' (20min, 16mm, 2021) premiered at London Film Festival, October 2021, and was screened at Jeu de Paume, Paris, November 2021, and at the Paris Short Film Festival March 2021. It won Best Experimental Film at the Toronto International Women Film Festival. The film was inspired by the exchanges of the network, notably the ideas around the interfacing of different artforms. Another practitioner member, Isabel Rocamora, is currently working on an intermedial installation work entitled 'The Deep', that focuses on the rich and coveted geologies of Scotland's Highlands and Islands to reflect on the ways in which we interact with the environment that sustains us. The Deep is funded by Creative Scotland in partnership with Taigh Chearsabhagh Museum and Arts Center. The project contains an online mentoring programme for artists living and working in the Scottish Highlands and Islands as well as several creative studies to be showcased online (in process), in preparation for production and exhibition of the final work. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2017 |
| Sector | Education,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal |
| Description | Collaboration with Filmhouse Edinburgh |
| Organisation | Filmhouse, Edinburgh |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Based on their intervention of the LUX archive, Syed and Knowles curated a season of avant-garde films entitled 'Film and the Other Arts: Creative Dialogues in the avant-garde' at Filmhouse Edinburgh on 25 and 26 February. The four screenings were each accompanied by a detailed introduction and screening notes. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Filmhouse provided projection facilities, the cinema space, and, crucially, the technical know-how for the screenings. Filmhouse is one of the rare remaining cinemas in the UK that can still handle analogue film and is certified to screen rare films lent by film archives or a distributor of artists' films such as LUX. As each of the screenings was made up of five to nine films of different lengths and formats, the screenings were particularly demanding on the projectionist. |
| Impact | The season of avant-garde films shown at Filmhouse Edinburgh on 25 and 26 February 2017 allowed Filmhouse to develop its experimental programming. Filmhouse is committed to promoting film as an art form, but, partly for budgetary reasons, but also because seasons like the one curated by Syed and Knowles require extensive curatorial interventions, rarely has the opportunity to screen experimental works outside the designated experimental section of the Edinburgh Film Festival. This collaboration has created an opportunity for Filmhouse to extend its programming, affirm its artistic credentials and reach new audiences. |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | Collaboration with LUX |
| Organisation | LUX |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Kim Knowles (CI) and Tanya Syed (Network member) investigated the LUX archive in view of curating a 2 day, four screening season of intermedial avant-garde films. The screenings took place at Filmhouse Edinburgh on 25 and 25 February 2017. They were accompanied by detailed introductions and screening notes. |
| Collaborator Contribution | LUX contributed to the project by providing curatorial, research and organisational support and by promoting the season through its communication channels. All the films shown came from the LUX archive. |
| Impact | The avant-garde season allowed LUX to make connections with Filmhouse Edinburgh. As LUX recently opened a Scottish office, these kind of connections are vital to its success. The screenings showed 25 films all from the LUX archive giving visibility to works which are very rarely shown. Indeed, LUX themselves were not aware that they held one of the films that were screened in their archive, allowing them to discover hidden treasures of their collection. The archival intervention proposed a new mapping of avant-garde works across national, historical or genre boundaries. The films for screening included works from the 1940s up to the ultra-contemporary that were reconfigured according to their dialogues with other art forms, notably architecture, painting, dance and poetry. The screenings have generated considerable interest in LUX's collections. Syed and Knowles are currently exploring the possibility of expanding the programme and touring the season. |
| Start Year | 2016 |
| Description | University of Applied Arts, Vienna |
| Organisation | University of Applied Arts Vienna |
| Country | Austria |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | The network organised a workshop at the University of Applied Arts, Vienna, on 2 June 2017. The programme of the event, which was consisted of academic talks, practitioners' talks and Q&As, was curated jointly by colleagues at Vienna and the PI and CI of the project. Speakers included members of the network and Austrian colleagues and artists. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The event was part of the 'Reset the Apparatus' project at the University of Applied Arts. 'RESET THE APPARATUS! Retrograde Technicity in Artistic Photographic and Cinematic Practices' is an arts-based research project funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and based at the Media Theory Department of the University of Applied Arts Vienna. The project explores the phenomenon of the persistence of the photographic and the cinematic by merging artistic and scholarly approaches, which will bring about new ways of understanding our relation to media both old and new. The workshop was co-funded and co-curated by the University of Applied Arts. |
| Impact | The collaboration was instrumental in curating the knowledge exchange/impact events. The collaboration is multi-disciplinary, including Fine Art, Film and Media, and Modern Languages and Cultures. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | 'Dance on Screen' Event, Aberystwyth Arts Center, 29 April 2016 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | 'Dance on Screen: Four Collaborative Works' showcased rarely seen works by two UK artists who are practitioner members of the Research network, as well as of a prominent Austrian filmmaker, who all work at the interface between performance and film. The event was introduced by CI Kim Knowles and followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Adam Roberts conducted by Knowles. Screening notes were provided during the screening and have been uploaded on the project website. The event engaged a diverse audience in the network's research base, allowing them to reflect on film's relationship to the performing arts, in particular classical and contemporary dance and theatre. The event allowed the Aberystwyth Arts Center to extend its programming to incorporate intermedial films and to showcase both regional, national and international dance films. It was an excellent platform for filmmaker Adam Roberts to show and discuss his collaborative work with acclaimed choreographer Jonathan Burrows and ballerina Sylvie Guillem. The Q&A sparked questions and discussion about the hybrid nature of dance film, as well as the collaboration between filmmaker, choreographer and dancer. Adams has since been invited to present his work to Performance Studies students at Aberystwyth University. Extracts from two of his films and the practitioner's talk he gave at the first workshop of the Research network are available on the Project Website to afford greater visibility to his work. The event at Aberystwyth Arts Center was also an excellent opportunity to give greater visibility to the work of Swansea-based artist Tanya Syed and Welsh movement artist Simon Whitehead: one of the featured films was a cinematic rendition of Simon Whitehead's live performance work 'Studies for Maynard'. This equally generated considerable interest from audiences, making them reflect on the recreation of a live performance in the filmic medium. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://www.filmandarts-network.hss.ed.ac.uk |
| Description | Artist Talk and Q&A with Anna Vasof |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | Media Artist Anna Vasof gave an illustrated talk about her animation work followed by a Q&A. She presented her work 'Non-Stop Stop-Motion', a project that investigates where we can find the essence of the magic trick of cinematography when we look into everyday life and what happens when we use everyday situations, objects, spaces and actions as cinematographic mechanisms. The purpose of Vasof's work is to challenge how we perceive the things we see. Audience members commented very positively on how the talk and Q&A had changed their understanding of animation and opened up their vision to the poetic aspects of the everyday. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.filmandarts-network.hss.ed.ac.uk/podcast/talks/technological-change-and-cinematic-hybridi... |
| Description | Avant-Garde Film Season, Filmhouse Edinburgh, 25-26 February 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | In conjunction with the Research network's third workshop at the University of Edinburgh on 24 February, entitled 'The Intermedial Avant-Garde', over the weekend of 25 and 26 February we organised a very successful season of Avant-Garde films at Filmhouse Edinburgh. The season was curated by filmmaker Tanya Syed, one of the artist members of the network, and CI Kim Knowles. Using the collection held by the LUX Centre for Moving Image, one of the project partners of the network, the programme was an exercise in archival mapping, combining the historical and the contemporary, the rare and the classic, to reveal new connections across the history of avant-garde filmmaking. Over four thematic screenings a total of 25 films were shown, most of them very rarely seen. Indeed, so rarely are these films screened that LUX had forgotten that it held one of them, Joelle Bouvier and Regis Obadiah's 'La Chambre' (1988) in its archives. The season explored the diverse ways in which cinema dialogues with other of art forms: painting, drawing, architecture, dance, performance, sound and poetry. The works invited spectators to reflect on the language of film and its ability to transform and be transformed by other creative mediums. The season was attended by a total of 172 spectators, which is considerable for a non-mainstream avant-garde event. Each of the four screenings was preceded by a substantial introduction delivered by Syed and Knowles and was accompanied by extensive screening notes to facilitate understanding of these artistically complex, often non-narrative films. The screenings included two films by Syed and two works by George Saxon, an avant-garde artist who is affiliated with the network. Syed and Saxon were available to discuss their work with audiences after the screenings. The reception of the films was overwhelmingly positive with audience applause at the end of the screenings. One spectator commented 'It was so wonderful, because it gave me a chance to experience the umlimited possibility of the camera'. Another stated: 'The four screenings were very rich, full of surprises, and contradictory emotions, so everything we can expect from cinema I guess. Better than the oscars'. The programme and screening notes will be available to a larger audience via the project website. Given the success of the programme and interest it is already generating both nationally and internationally, there are plans to expand it and tour it in museums and art centres. The season was an excellent opportunity for practitioner members of the network to showcase their work, for giving visibility to the LUX who have recently opened an office in Scotland and for putting filmmakers in contact with one another. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.filmandarts-network.hss.ed.ac.uk/event/season-of-avant-garde-films-filmhouse-edinburgh-25... |
| Description | Conference paper: 'Excess, Immersion and the In-Between Gaze in Contemporary Expanded Film Performance' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presentation at the 'Intermediality Now: Remapping In-Betweenness' conference, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, 19-20 October 2018. The paper conference was attended by about 60 participants and contributed to knowledge about contemporary expanded film performance. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://film.sapientia.ro/en/conferences/intermediality-now-remapping-in-betweenness |
| Description | Conversation with Filmmaker Pascale Breton |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | In the second of two events curated by Professor Marion Schmid (University of Edinburgh) and Dr Hugues Azérad (University of Cambridge), Pascale Breton gave a talk illustrated by extracts from her films, offering an insight into her practice as a filmmaker and scriptwriter. The talk was followed by an in-conversation with the artist, sparking an interesting discussion about her shooting in Scotland and France, her influences, work drawing on different art forms, and her struggles as a female director in a largely male-dominated industry. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.ed.ac.uk/literatures-languages-cultures/delc/events/conversation-pascale-breton |
| Description | Film Screening and Q&A with Filmmaker Isabel Rocamora, 24 February |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | In conjunction with the third workshop organised by the Research Network, internationally acclaimed artist filmmaker Isabel Rocamora, who is one of the members of the network, gave a practitioner's talk which was followed by the screening of one of her recent works, Body of War (2010), plus a Q&A with the artist. Held at the University of Edinburgh, the event consisted of network members, artist practitioners and PhD students. Rocamora's talk and film sparked an intense discussion with the audience, notably around the use of performance and her staging of her actors in her filmic work. It impacted on the ways in which the researchers present perceive the interface between choreography and moving image work, deepening their understanding of the creative process that underlies a highly stylised, yet also strikingly real piece like 'Body of War'. The event allowed Rocamora to present her work to an international audience and to make contact with other artists engaged in single screen and gallery based works, in particular Tanya Syed. The screening was accompanied by screening notes to facilitate understanding of Rocamora's project. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.filmandarts-network.hss.ed.ac.uk/event/workshop-3-the-intermedial-avant-gardes/ |
| Description | Film Screening, Institut Français d'Ecosse |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Presentation of Henri-Georges Clouzot's L'Enfer and Q&A. The IFE reported excellent feedback from the audience, who found the introduction very helpful to understand this unfinished film project at the cross-roads between cinema, the visual arts and electro-acoustic music. The IFE has since become a regular partner for public engagement events with another KE event scheduled for 23 March. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://www.ifecosse.org.uk/Cinema-L-Enfer-d-Henri-Georges.html |
| Description | Film Screening, Vivid Projects, Birmingham |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This programme was originally conceived as one of four programmes for 'Film and the Other Arts: Intermediality, Medium Specificity', screened at Edinburgh Filmhouse on 26 February 2017. It was curated by the CI of the network, Kim Knowles, and a practitioner network member, Tanya Syed in collaboration with LUX Distribution. The programme traces a chronology of gesture, dance and performance to camera spanning from 1946 to 2010. From the 'dreambody' of Deren's Ritual in Transfigured Time to the physical endurance of Saxon's Grave Dancing, ritualised actions amplify through repetition and duplication. Dance emerges as an act of survival and of transmission. As the mobile camera optimises dynamic relational engagement, the still camera fixates over this shimmering confluence that is the human form on film. Films originating on Super 8, 16mm black & white and digital, shift from the improvised, the choreographed, the staged and the incidental. Showcasing films from the LUX archive, it gave increased visibility to this project partner, bringing experimental works that are rarely screened to a public audience. It also gave visibility to Tanya Syed's work, one of whose films was included in the programme. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://www.vividprojects.org.uk/programme/livearchive/ |
| Description | In Conversation with Filmmaker Gebhard Sengmüller |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Study participants or study members |
| Results and Impact | This talk and in-conversation with multimedia artist Gebhard Sengmüller encouraged a diverse audience to think about the conceptual processes and material set-up of his installations which have been shown in galleries all over the world. Sengmüller offered a 'hands-on' demonstration of how his installations work and how he draws on obsolescent media to reflect on modern technology. Audience members were invited to engage in dialogue with the artist and answer questions. The podcast of this event is available on the designated project website. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.filmandarts-network.hss.ed.ac.uk/podcast/talks/technological-change-and-cinematic-hybridi... |
| Description | Public Screening, Sarah Pucill 'Magic Mirror', Cambridge, 30 September 2016 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | As part of our second workshop at the University of Cambridge which brought together network members and practitioners from the UK and abroad, we organised a public screening of filmmaker Sarah Pucill's acclaimed 'Magic Mirror' (2013), followed by a Q&A and audience discussion conducted by CI Kim Knowles. Part essay, part film poem, Pucill's first feature length film 'Magic Mirror' (75min, b/w, 2013), which premiered at Tate Modern, extends the artist's concern with the animation of a still image as well as her focus on relationships between women by paying homage to French Surrealist artist Claude Cahun through the transposition of Cahun's images and words into film. 'Magic Mirror' re-stages and animates many of Cahun's photographs on 16mm black and white film, bringing movement and a chorus of voices to Cahun's autobiographical text 'Aveux Non Avenus' (Confessions Denied 1930). The audience was provided with detailed screening notes to help them understand better Pucill's intermedial approach to translating Cahun's photographs into filmic tableaux. Both these screening notes and the recorded Q&A have been made available on our project website to make them accessible to wider audiences. The audience discussion sparked questions about the role of women in the film industry, the use of obsolete techniques in contemporary film, as well as the creation of a dialogue across temporal, cultural and media boundaries between two artists who share a similar iconography and thematic concerns. Pucill, who is one of the practitioners involved in the network, was able to show and discuss her work outside London, making it intelligible to audiences who are not necessarily familiar with experimental works. The audience reported back enthusiastically on their enjoyment of the screening and Q&A, which afforded them enriching insight into both the oeuvre of Claude Cahun and the work of Pucill, and helped them change their views on film animation (often associated with entertainment rather than art) and general attitude to experimental works. Pucill also seized this opportunity to talk about her forthcoming film 'Confessions to the Mirror' which premiered at the London Film Festival the following week. The event has put her in touch with new audiences and offered her networking opportunities through exchange with academics and other practitioners who attended the workshop and screening. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://www.filmandarts-network.hss.ed.ac.uk/podcast/ |
| Description | Screening and Q&A with Filmmaker Pascale Breton |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | In the first of two events curated by Professor Marion Schmid (University of Edinburgh) and Dr Hugues Azérad (University of Cambridge), French filmmaker Pascale was joined by actress Manon Evenat for a screening and discussion of the University campus-set film, Suite Armoricaine (2015). The Q&A sparked a vibrant debate, enhancing the public's understanding of the director's aesthetics shaped by different art forms, her artistic practice, and the difficult position of female filmmakers in the French film industry. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.ed.ac.uk/literatures-languages-cultures/delc/events/suit-armoricaine |
| Description | Talk by Prof. Rebecca DeRoo, "Multimedia Urban Politics in Agnès Varda's Daguerréotypes" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Prof. Rebecca DeRoo gave an online paper on French filmmaker Agnès Varda's experimental documentary Daguerréotypes (1975). Her presentation demonstrated how Varda drew on a range of visual media to create sophisticated political commentary on urban and economic transformations taking place in France in the late 20th century. Her talk sparked a lively discussion, including timely questions about the difficulties faced by female filmmakers in a largely male-dominated industry. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.ed.ac.uk/literatures-languages-cultures/delc/events/delc-seminar-series/delc-seminar-ser... |