<videovortex> Film as Critical Practice (Oslo)

[Geert Lovink]

From: netartnews at rhizome.org

November 5, 2007
Film 101

The language of the cinema not only pervades the way we view the world 
around us, but also how we view our own lives. Our experiences are 
increasingly mediated--to the point that one can imagine their 
existence as a series of narrative arcs, character types, and tracking 
shots. As such, it is of the essence that we continually renegotiate 
and critically assess our relationship to cinema--both as producers and 
viewers. This coming weekend in Oslo, the Office of Contemporary Art 
Norway, through the symposium Film as Critical Practice, proposes to do 
just this. Artists and theorists such as Harun Farocki, Kristin Ross, 
and Hito Steyerl, will assess and debate what the notion of 'critical' 
means in contemporary cinema. Laura Mulvey, who in her 1973 essay 
'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' forever altered the field of 
film studies through her articulation of the male gaze, will unpack how 
this gaze changes when, enabled by technology, spectators of either 
gender can pau! se, fast forward, slow down, and repeat key sequences 
and frames of a film. A supplemental film program 'Material Critical 
Poetics' curated by Ian White from the Whitechapel Gallery includes 
films by Anthony McCall. Peter Gidal and Emily Wardill and will 
examine, in White's words, 'what constitutes 'critical film' or what 
'film as a critical practice' might be, in the context of contemporary 
visual art and a particular historical legacy.' - Caitlin Jones

http://www.oca.no/discourse/critical_practice.shtml