shanedenson

Expelled: Filmvorführung am 22. Juni

Am 22. Juni gibt es eine Filmvorführung im Rahmen des Seminars “Anti-Intellectualism in America” (von Dr. Kirsten Twelbeck). Weitere Teilnehmende sind herzlich willkommen — es können gerne Knabbersachen etc. mitgebracht werden.

Der Film ist interessant für all diejenigen, die sich für Dokumentarfilme und/oder die Debatte über “Intelligent Design” interessieren.

Film: Expelled. No Intelligence Allowed
Documentary
Director: Nathan Frankowski
With: Ben Stein
Rocky Mountain Pictures, 2008
1hr. 37 min

Ort: Königsworther Platz 1, Raum 615
Zeit: 18:00-20:00

Movie Info

Intrigued by the recent trend of scientists, journalists, philosophers, and teachers who have been ostracized and discredited for daring to suggest that humankind may be the product of intelligent design rather than a random fluke in the cosmic scheme of things, Ben Stein sets out on a journey to investigate the supposed persecution of the many by the select few. Stein asserts that in recent years, anyone who dares to question the idea that adaptation is responsible for the development of Earth’s organisms is held to ridicule, and over the course of the film, he travels the globe to speak with the supporters of both theories, pondering the reasons why believing in a higher power has seemingly become a massive taboo in the eyes of educators and the media. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi (on www.rottentomatoes.com)

“To be continued…”: Seriality and Serialization in Interdisciplinary Perspective

Now online:

Shane Denson, “‘To be continued…’: Seriality and Serialization in Interdisciplinary Perspective.” (Conference Proceedings of: “What Happens Next: The Mechanics of Serialization.” Graduate Conference at the University of Amsterdam, March 25–26, 2011.) In: JLTonline (17.06.2011).

URL: http://www.jltonline.de/index.php/conferences/article/view/346/1004

PDF: here.

CFP: Literary Theory and Media Change (JLT)

Call for Articles: Journal of Literary Theory, Vol. 6, No. 2 (2012)

Literary Theory and Media Change

Submission Deadline: January 15th 2012

CALL FOR ARTICLES

Literature is part of a media world that does not only change the physical aspects of reading by introducing e-books, audio books and other formats, but which links literature to the realms of movies, hypertexts, social media and other phenomena, where different hierarchies of aesthetic objects and their evaluation apply. How do these changes affect concepts and theories of literature?

Papers are welcome that systematically analyze the changing attitudes, terms and concepts of literary theory provoked by recent (or not so recent) shifts in (digital) media environments.

Possible topics could include, but are not limited to the discussion of changes in reading habits, possibilities opened up to research by digital corpora, aspects of media competition, convergence, and combination in relation to literature, aspects of the history of media or literature studies.

Contributions should not exceed 50,000 characters in length and have to be submitted until January 15th, 2012. Please submit your contribution electronically via our website www.jltonline.de under ‘Articles’.

Articles are chosen for publication by an international advisory board in a double-blind review process.

For further information about JLT and to view the submission guidelines, please visit www.jltonline.de or contact the editorial office at jlt@phil.uni-goettingen.de.

Christina Riesenweber

Assistant Editor

JLT – Journal of Literary Theory

Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

Seminar für Deutsche Philologie

Kate-Hamburger-Weg 3

37073 Göttingen

0049 – (0)551 – 39 – 7534

JLT@phil.uni-goettingen.de

www.JLTonline.de

CFP: Interpiktorialität – der Dialog der Bilder

Ruhr-Universität Bochum

04.-05.11.2011

CALL FOR PAPERS

»Tout texte se construit comme mosaïque des citations, tout texte est absorption et transformation d’un autre texte« – so formulierte Julia Kristeva den Grundgedanken einer Theorie der Intertextualität. Der Begriff der Interpiktorialität (andere Begriffswörter sind ›Interpikturalität‹, ›Interikonizität‹ und ›Interbildlichkeit‹) behauptet, dass es sich bei Bildern ähnlich verhält. Bezieht sich ein Bild nicht auch unweigerlich auf andere Bilder, erfolgt nicht jede Bezugnahme eines Bildes als interpiktoriale Referenz?

Doch trotz der grundlegenden Ähnlichkeit der Referenzialität von Texten und Bildern lässt sich im obigen Zitat nicht einfach ›Text‹ durch ›Bild‹ ersetzen, schon weil ›Zitat‹ ein textualistisches Konzept ist, das wesentlich auf der Idee beruht, dass eine Textstelle unter Absehung von ihrer Materialität gleichsam restlos wiedergegeben werden kann, indem ihre Buchstaben reproduziert werden (und nicht ihre Schriftart, ihr Satz, usw.).

Dass es aber keine einfache Übertragung intertextueller Termini auf interpiktoriale Verhältnisse geben sollte, bedeutet nicht, dass es keine Möglichkeit der Ordnung interpiktorialer Bezüge gibt. In dieser Hinsicht sind die Typologien der Intertextualitäsforschung, die Operationen der Installation, der Suggestion und der Absorption (citation, allusion, implicitation, etc. bei Tiphaine Samoyault) oder der ludischen, satirischen oder ernsten Transformation und Imitation (parodie, pastiche, burlesque, etc. bei Gérard Genette) unterscheiden, vorbildlich.

Solche Ordnungsversuche fehlen indes für Referenzen von Bildern auf Bilder, weshalb sich etwa Systematisierungen intermedialer Bezüge mangels Alternativen auf intertextuelle Modelle berufen. Die Bildwissenschaften scheinen unterdessen dem Beispiel der Kunstwissenschaft zu folgen, die sich, nach einem Diktum Gottfried Boehms, »nur selten auf die systematische Seite ihrer Aufgabe« besonnen hat, und erstellen ikonografische Reihen nach Maßgabe entweder rein thematischer oder vage bleibender ›Ähnlichkeiten‹ von Bildern.

Eine Systematisierung interpiktorialer Bezüge aus kunst- und medienwissenschaftlicher Sicht, die vorübergehend an der analytischen Fiktion reiner Bild-Bild-Bezüge festhält (während in der Praxis nur Verbünde von Texten und Bildern begegnen, was W.J.T. Mitchell in der Sentenz »all media are mixed media« festgehalten hat) könnte auch zu einer Klärung des Verhältnisses von Text und Bild beitragen, indem sie die Eigenlogik der Bilder anhand der Unzulänglichkeiten intertextueller Kategorien entwickelt (vgl. Norman Bryson, der statt ›Interpiktorialität‹ von ›Interpenetration‹ spricht).

Dabei stellen sich unter anderen folgende Fragen:

Welche formalen Eigenschaften begründen die Annahme eines interpiktorialen Bezugs?
Welche Typen von Bezugnahmen von Bildern auf Bilder gibt es?
Welche Besonderheiten weisen technische Bilder dabei auf?
Welchen Beitrag können interpiktoriale Kategorien zur Analyse intermedialer Bezüge leisten?

Erbeten werden kunst-, medien-, bild- oder literaturwissenschaftliche Beiträge zu interpiktorialen Bezügen zwischen ›äußeren‹ Bildern jeglicher Provenienz, vom Gemälde bis zum digitalen Video, die die Formen und Funktionen von Bild-Bild-Bezügen entweder aus systematischer Sicht – das heißt mit dem Ziel der Bestimmung eines Typs oder der Konstruktion einer Typologie – oder ›vergleichender‹ Perspektive – das heißt in Relation zu intertextuellen oder intermedialen Kategorien – analysieren.

Abstracts (200 Wörter) für Vorträge von 20 Minuten Länge bitte bis 15.07.2011 an:

Dr. Guido Isekenmeier

Ruhr-Universität Bochum

Englisches Seminar

guido.isekenmeier@rub.de

Institut für Kulturforschung Heidelberg

Projekt ›Beobachtung visueller Kultur‹

isekenmeier@kulturforschung-hd.de

Unexpected Chords, by Regina Schober

Regina Schober, who completed her PhD in American Studies in Hannover, has just published her book Unexpected Chords: Musico-Poetic Intermediality in Amy Lowell’s Poetry and Poetics. Among other things, the book contains important theoretical reflections on intermediality that are relevant quite beyond the scope of her own study.

Upcoming Events

Auf der rechten Seite gibt es eine automatisch aktualisierte Liste von “Upcoming Events,” die für die Medieninitiative oder für Medieninteressierten im Allgemeinen relevant sind. Gerne nehmen wir Events (Vorträge, Tagungen, CFPs, Ausstellungen, Vorführungen usw.) in unserem Kalender auf. Kontaktadresse finden Sie auf unsere “About”-Seite (oben).

Florian Groß über 30 Rock: Vortrag in Regensburg

Auch Florian Gr0ß hält einen Vortrag auf der DGfA-Jahrestagung in Regensburg. Hier ist sein Abstract:

A Kinder, Gentler Americanization?: Transnational Cool and 30 Rock

International audiences often consume U.S. television series with surprising effects, as Ien Ang has shown with respect to the subversive global reception of Dallas and audiences’ critical take on the show’s celebration of capitalism. Yet, many recent television series seem to be aware of this subversiveness and deliver it already built-in. Especially genre-bending and style-conscious shows of the high profile Quality TV-variety routinely feature non-conformist characters and voice criticism of global corporate capitalism.

I want to trace this phenomenon through a case study of the television series 30 Rock, a metafictional NBC-comedy about the production of a live-action NBC show. The show mocks, criticizes and debunks corporate America and the global impact of U.S. media while at the same time being an international commodity itself. As such, it perpetuates a development that McGuigan has called “cool capitalism,” whose major aspect “is the incorporation of disaffection into capitalism itself.”

By focusing on 30 Rock’s construction of a particular audience defined by taste rather than nationality, I want to read its mocking representation of U.S. capitalism as a contemporary inflection of Americanization connected more to processes of heterogeneity than a homogenizing ‘Coca-Colonization.’ 30 Rock may never be a global phenomenon on a large scale like Dallas. Still, its international impact shows how contemporary ‘narrowcasting,’ through which certain groups of viewers rather than large masses are addressed, can become a transnational phenomenon. The imagined global community of shows like 30 Rock consists of active and subversive viewers who see themselves as parts of a subculture critical of globalized U.S. capitalism—and nevertheless consume a product tailored to their tastes by a culture industry that imagines a strikingly similar group. I want to argue that this paradox can only be resolved if we find a cultural analysis that mediates between the hope that audiences are critical subversives and the fear that they are passive ‘cultural dupes,’ and comes up with a third way of analyzing consumer capitalism.

“Frame, Sequence, Medium”: Vortrag in Regensburg

Auf der Jahrestagung der Deutsche Gesellschaft für Amerikastudien in Regensburg wird Shane Denson einen Vortrag über Comics am 18.06.2011 halten. (UPDATE: Mittlerweile ist eine Video-Version des ganzen Vortrags auch online: hier.) Hier das Abstract:

Frame, Sequence, Medium: Comics in Plurimedial and Transnational Perspective

Shane Denson

In this paper, I argue that careful attention to some of the basic formal properties of comics calls not only for comparisons with analogous properties of other media, but for appreciation of the fact that comics themselves exhibit a strong tendency towards imbrication in robustly “plurimedial” contexts, such that comics as a medium must be seen as a nodal unit in larger, non-reducible networks of mediation. Setting out from a rather formalistic consideration of comics’ techniques of visual and narrative framing and sequencing, and drawing on observations made by Derrida and others, I identify a set of crucial liminalities and reversible oppositions—e.g. between the inside and outside of framed panels, between the temporal and spatial orderings of sequences—that are centrally at work in, and perhaps even partially constitutive of, the medium of comics. At the limit, this formal-phenomenological investigation suggests that liminality or marginality pertains not only to the “internal” relations or constitution of the medium, but that it is also a basic fact of comics’ “external” relations to other media. Above all the serial forms typical of comics’ narration witness the medium positioned in an emphatically plurimedial field, where boundaries are continually negotiated, annexes claimed, and permeable borders policed. The figures that populate comics series, in particular, move between diegetically closed narrative worlds, the integrity and continuity of which is often highly strained, and open multiverses that encompass not only alternative realities within the medium of comics but also alternative existences in other media as well. Attention to the way that serially and plurimedially instantiated figures (such as Batman and Superman, but also Frankenstein or Tarzan) negotiate the relations between diegetically open and closed serialities promises, finally, to shed media-theoretical light on the social question of the dynamics of comics’ transnational reception—which involves superheroes and other comic figures in both global and local contexts, in internationally standardized forms and national or regional adaptations. In a different context, Benedict Anderson has identified a competition between “bound” and “unbound” serialities at work in the modern constitution of nations as “imagined communities”—a competition, that is, between the totalizing closure of a territory and numbering of its occupants as effected by a national census, as opposed to the categorically open and ongoing iterability and reproducibility of events as modeled in the media of newspapers and photography. Refocusing Anderson’s perspective onto comics’ serial and plurimedial negotiations of “bound” and “unbound” formations—understood in relation to the marginalities and reversible boundaries that mark the frames, sequences, and media of popular culture—I aim to link comics’ plurimedial relations and their transnational imaginings through seriality as a locus of ambiguous intersection and border-crossing.

Mediatization and Serialization

Am 18.05.2011, im Rahmen der Initiative für interdisziplinäre Medienforschung an der Leibniz Universität Hannover, hielt Shane Denson den Vortrag “Mediatization und Serialization.” Dies war seine zweite Auseinandersetzung mit dem Begriff der Mediatisierung, nach seinem Vortrag “Mediatization, Techno-Phenomenology, and Popular Serial Entertainment” auf der Tagung “Mediatized Worlds–Culture and Society in a Media Age,” die am 14.-15.04.2011 in Bremen stattfand. Hier ist ein Abstract für den Vortrag in Bremen:

Mediatization, Techno-Phenomenology, and Popular Serial Entertainment

Shane Denson

This paper looks at the preeminently mediatized worlds of modern popular entertainment and sets them in relation to debates over the apparent centrality of media in the articulation and execution of contemporary human agencies. Theorists of mediatization have argued that “the mediation of everything,” as it is implicitly or explicitly postulated in recent media studies research, both captures something essential about our changing lifeworlds but, because of a latent determinism, also stands in the way of countenancing these changes rigorously and responsibly (Livingstone, Hepp). Recent suggestions to the effect that analyses of mediatization processes require a non-media-centric media theory (Hepp, following Morley) seek to counteract deterministic tendencies by highlighting the extra-medial (e.g. social and cultural) forces that increasingly situate media at the center of mediatized lifeworlds while, at the same time, demonstrating that these media retain a high degree of flexibility with regard to the variety of contextual logics and implementations that they can accommodate. Drawing on the work of American philosopher of technology Don Ihde, I would like to propose “techno-phenomenology” as a tool for conceptualizing the mediatization of lifeworlds in this paradoxical or “de/centered” sense. This approach shows technologies as possessing “telic inclinations” or logics that can invisibly transform perceptual and actional agencies and the lifeworlds in which they are embedded, while comparative analyses demonstrate that these tendencies are far from absolute: technical logics are emphatically plural, for intentionality-modulating technologies can occupy a variety of positions within the basic intentional relation. For example, media can be either transparent or opaque and ostentatious, thus instituting a space for reflection on their role in the lifeworld that they in part structure. In the sphere of modern popular entertainment, a techno-phenomenological approach reveals that reversals and variations of a medium’s position and significance within the intentional relations between audiences and the entertainments they consume are an integral part of these entertainments themselves. In other words, the mediatized world of popular entertainment is characterized by repeated interrogations of its own mediatization processes and their larger place in the modern world. Mediatization itself is problematized and put on display in popular media, e.g. when new media emerge or existing media are transformed. This is nowhere more evident than in serialized forms of entertainment, which, due to their development over time, are capable of tracking mediatization processes in the very act of their unfolding. Self-reflexively de/centering the media involved, popular serial forms tell stories that are as much about media as about the contents they mediate; and in the feedback loops that emerge between producers and consumers of popular series, media centrally structure both the form and content of communicative interaction, establishing a dynamic of self-propulsion that is nevertheless not strictly deterministic. Serial forms of popular entertainment therefore both display and enact the de/centerings that constitute a central paradox of our mediatized worlds.

Hepp, Andreas. “Researching ‘mediatized worlds’: Non-mediacentric media and communication studies as a challenge.” Media and Communication Studies Intersections and Interventions. Eds. Nico Carpentier, Ilija Tomanic Trivundža, Pille Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt, Ebba Sundin, Tobias Olsson, Richard Kilborn, Hannu Nieminen, and Bart Cammaerts. Tartu: Tartu UP, 2010. 37-48.

Ihde, Don. Technics and Praxis. Dordrecht: Reidel, 1979.

_____. Technology and the Lifeworld: From Garden to Earth. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1990.

Livingstone, Sonia. ‘On the Mediation of Everything’, Journal of Communication 59.1 (2009): 1-18.

Morley, David. ‘For a Materialist, Non Media-Centric Media Studies’, Television & New Media 10.1 (2009): 114-16.

_____. Media, Modernity and Technology. The Geography of the New. London: Routledge, 2007.