20.05.2021 Conference: The Movement Movement: Histories of Microanalysis at the Intersection of Film, Science and Art

Philipps-Universität Marburg, 24–26 June, 2021 (online)

The Movement Movement Design
The Movement Movement, Design: Anne Krieger
The Movement Movement – Histories of Microanalysis at the Intersection of Film, Science and Art

The desire to study the motion of humans and other animals is deeply embedded in the technological, social and aesthetic histories of film. A crucial moment occurrred in the 1950s and 1960s, when anthropologists, psychologists, linguists, sociologists and ethologists turned to film to analyze movement as an element in systems of social interaction, rather than individual behavior. Film and later video became crucial tools to tap into the multi-sensory behavioral stream, to stabilize it and facilitate close attention to minute details through repeated viewings of brief stretches of interaction. This conference brings together film and media scholars, historians of science, artists, art historians, and visual anthropologists to explore the media histories, political implications, and aesthetic configurations of microanalysis/the micro.

  • Keynote: Heather Love (University of Pennsylvania)
  • Screenings and Artist Talks by: Allison Jablonko, Naomi Faik-Simet, and Hannes Rickli
  • Presenters: Stefanie Bräuer, Peter Sachs Collopy, Ken Eisenstein, Oliver Gaycken, Vinzenz Hediger, Katie Joice, Igor Karim, Whitney Laemmli, Michael Lempert, Eszter Polonyi, and Seth Barry Watter.

The conference is part of the German Research Foundation (DFG) research project “Transdisciplinary Networks of Media Knowledge” at Philipps-Universität Marburg, Department of Media Studies. It is organized by Henning Engelke and Sophia Gräfe.

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