media initiative – Page 2 – medieninitiative

Imagining Media Change — Symposium Poster

[UPDATE: See here for the complete symposium program and abstracts.]

Recently, I posted the description for the symposium on “Imagining Media Change” that we’re organizing this June, with keynote speakers Jussi Parikka and Wanda Strauven — part of this semester’s larger series of events. Now I am proud to present the poster for the symposium (designed by Ilka Brasch and Svenja Fehlhaber), which includes an overview of the schedule and speakers. A more detailed schedule, including the titles of talks, will be made available soon.

Flash Gordon (1936): “Imagining Media Change” — Screening #1

On April 17, 2013, we will be screening the serial Flash Gordon (1936), the first installment in this semester’s film series “Imagining Media Change.” (See here for a flyer with more details about our film series and related events, and here for a description of the symposium that forms the conceptual centerpiece.) In this context, science fiction (and sci-fi film, in particular) presents itself as a central vehicle for “imagining media change” in the 20th and 21st centuries — as a medium for conceiving the future, and in this way negotiating the changes characterising the present. Looked at in retrospect, early sci-fi films like Flash Gordon therefore also form a natural site for a media-archaeological investigation of past changes and their parallel histories and relations to our own ongoing efforts to negotiate the transition to a digital mediascape.

The screening (6:00pm on Wednesday, April 17, in room 615, Conti-Hochhaus) is free and open to all, so spread the word to anyone who might be interested in joining us.

Imagining Media Change

This coming semester, the Initiative for Interdisciplinary Media Research is proud to present a series of events organized around the topic “Imagining Media Change.” The flyer above (click for a larger view) details these events, which include a series of film screenings, thematically focused discussion groups, and a symposium featuring keynotes by Jussi Parikka and Wanda Strauven!

More details to follow soon…

Chronicle of Media Initiative Events

I have added a new rubric (Events) at the top of this page, where I will post future events and maintain a chronicle of past events. While putting this list together, it occurred to me that the media initiative has organized quite a few events over the (nearly) two years of its existence at the Leibniz University Hannover. Here’s a list of things we’ve done:

April 13, 2011: Inaugural meeting of the Initiative for Interdisciplinary Media Research

May 18, 2011: Shane Denson, “Mediatization & Serialization” (public lecture)

June 8, 2011: Media Initiative blog (medieninitiative.wordpress.com) goes online

July 13, 2011: Preliminary meeting of the Film & TV Reading Group

October 26, 2011: First regular meeting of the Film & TV Reading Group (text: Jason Mittell, “Narrative Complexity in Contemporary American Television” – moderators: Florian Groß, Shane Denson)

October 27, 2011: “Bollywood Nation” film series begins (organized by Jatin Wagle and Shane Denson, in conjunction with Jatin Wagle’s seminar “Long-Distance Hindu Nationalism and the Changing Figure of the Expatriate Indian in Contemporary Bollywood Cinema”); screening #1: Swades: We, the People (2004)

November 24, 2011: “Bollywood Nation” film series, screening #2: Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995)

November 30, 2011: Film & TV Reading Group (text: Lynn Spigel, “Television, the Housewife, and the Museum of Modern Art” – moderator: Bettina Soller)

December 8, 2011: “Bollywood Nation” film series, screening #3: Pardes (1997)

December 15-17, 2011: “Cultural Distinctions Remediated: Beyond the High, the Low, and the Middle.” International Conference, organized by Ruth Mayer, Vanessa Künnemann, Florian Groß, and Shane Denson. Sponsored by the DFG, DGfA, American Embassy in Berlin, CampusCultur, and in association with the DFG Research Unit “Popular Seriality—Aesthetics and Practice” and the Initiative for Interdisciplinary Media Research at the Leibniz University of Hannover. Keynote speakers: Jason Mittell and Lynn Spigel. Presentations by Media Initiative members Shane Denson, Florian Groß, Christina Meyer, and Bettina Soller.

December 21, 2011: Film & TV Reading Group (text: Steven Shaviro, “Contagious Allegories: George Romero” – moderator: Stefan Hautke) + film screening: Night of the Living Dead (1968)

January 5, 2012: “Bollywood Nation” film series, screening #4: Mr. and Mrs. Iyer (2002)

January 18, 2012: Film & TV Reading Group (text: Livia Monnet, “A-Life and the Uncanny in Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within” – moderator: Thomas Habedank)

January 26, 2012: “Bollywood Nation” film series, screening #5: Chak De! India (2007)

April 25, 2012: Film & TV Reading Group (text: Mark B. N. Hansen, “Media Theory” – moderator: Shane Denson)

April 26, 2012: “Chaos Cinema?” film series begins (organized by Felix Brinker, Shane Denson, and Florian Groß); screening #1: “Chaos Cinema” (video essays by Matthias Stork)

May 16, 2012: Film & TV Reading Group (text: Steven Shaviro, “Post-Continuity” – moderator: Felix Brinker)

May 24, 2012: “Chaos Cinema?” film series, screening #2: Gladiator (2000); curator: Florian Groß

June 20, 2012: Film & TV Reading Group (text: Rudmer Canjels, “Seriality Unbound” – moderator: Ilka Brasch)

June 21, 2012: “Chaos Cinema?” film series, screening #3: Transformers (2007); curator: Shane Denson (presentation: “Discorrelated Images: Chaos Cinema, Post-Cinematic Affect, and Speculative Realism”)

July 2, 2012: Public lecture – Mark B. N. Hansen, “Feed Forward, or the ‘Future’ of 21^st Century Media”; First in a week-long series of events with Mark B. N. Hansen (Duke University), co-organized by Shane Denson and Felix Brinker. Grant secured through the Fulbright Senior Specialist Program. Sponsored by the Guest Professor Program of the Faculty of Humanities, American Studies / English Department, and the Initiative for Interdisciplinary Media Research at the Leibniz University of Hannover.

July 3, 2012: Mark B. N. Hansen, “The End of Pharmacology? Historicizing 21^st Century Media”; Guest lecture in Shane Denson’s seminar, “Cultural and Media Theory: Media in Transition”

July 5, 2012: “Chaos Cinema?” film series, screening #4: Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010); curator: Felix Brinker (presentation: “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The Movies: Intermedial Collage and Narrative Logic in Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World”)

July 6, 2012: Workshop with Mark B. N. Hansen, including presentations by Media Initiative members Ilka Brasch (“Mapping the Ends of Human Sense Perception”), Felix Brinker (“Between Life and Technics”), and Shane Denson (“Mediate. Discorrelate. Recalibrate.”)

July 11, 2012: Film & TV Reading Group (text: Jack G. Shaheen, “Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People” – moderator: Malte Mühle)

July 17, 2012: Presentations by participants in Shane Denson’s “Digital Media and Humanities Research” course: Linda Kötteritzsch, Julia Schmedes, and Mandy Schwarze, “Bonfire of the Televised Profanities” (blog presentation and discussion of the intersection of TV studies and digital media; Urthe Rehmstedt and Maren Sonnenberg, “Digital Humanities” (video essays).

July 19, 2012: “Chaos Cinema?” film series, screening #5: WALL-E (2008); curator: Shane Denson (presentation: “WALL-E vs. Chaos (Cinema)”)

November 8, 2012: “M: Movies, Machines, Modernity” film series begins (organized by Ilka Brasch, Felix Brinker, and Shane Denson); screening #1: Metropolis (1927); curator: Shane Denson (presentation: “M: Movies, Machines, Modernity – An Introduction”)

November 14, 2012: Film & TV Reading Group (text: Walter Benjamin, “Das Kunstwerk im Zeitalter seiner technischen Reproduzierbarkeit” – moderator: Shane Denson)

November 29, 2012: “M: Movies, Machines, Modernity” film series, screening #2: Man with a Movie Camera (1929); curator: Felix Brinker (presentation: “Movies, Machines, Modernity: On Vertov’s Man with a Movie Camera”)

December 5, 2012: Film & TV Reading Group (text: Jean Baudrillard, “The Ecstasy of Communication” – moderator: Julia Schmedes)

December 13, 2012: “M: Movies, Machines, Modernity” film series, screening #3: M – Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder; curator/presenter: Urs Büttner

December 15, 2012: Shane Denson, “Batman and the ‘Parergodic’ Work of Seriality in Interactive Digital Environments”; presentation in conjunction with the American Studies Research Colloquium

January 16, 2013: Film & TV Reading Group (text: Theodor W. Adorno, “Prolog zum Fernsehen” – moderator: Felix Brinker)

January 17, 2013: “M: Movies, Machines, Modernity” film series, screening #4: Modern Times (1936); curator: Ilka Brasch (presentation: “M: Movies, Machines, Media – Modern Times)

January 22, 2013: Campus-Cultur-Prize 2013 awarded to the Initiative for Interdisciplinary Media Research and the Film & TV Reading Group by CampusCultur e.V. and the Faculty of Humanities of the Leibniz University of Hannover

January 25, 2013: Shane Denson, “On the Phenomenology of Reading Comics”; guest lecture in Felix Brinker’s “Introduction to Visual Culture” seminar

Press Release: Campus-Cultur-Prize

The Faculty of Humanities has posted a press release about the Campus-Cultur-Prize, along with this picture of Svenja Fehlhaber, Meike Walter, and myself, who were at the faculty’s graduation ceremony to receive it. Here’s the full text of the announcement:

Die Verabschiedung der diesjährigen Absolventinnen und Absolventen der Philosophischen Fakultät bildete den festlichen Rahmen für die Verleihung der Campus-Cultur-Preise 2012. Aus der Hand von Prof. Dr. Peter Nickl vom Vorstand dieses vor zehn Jahren gegründeten Vereins zur Förderung der Fakultätskultur der Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften an unserer Universität empfingen die Vertreterinnen und Vertreter zweier Initiativen ihre Auszeichnungen.

Gewürdigt wurde zum einen die Arbeit von PraxisPur, einer von der Sonderpädagogik-Studentin Sophie Stenger ins Leben gerufenen Kooperationsinitiative von Studierenden und den Schulen Hannovers zur Förderung schwacher Schülerinnen und Schüler. Zielgruppe von PraxisPur sind Schülerinnen und Schüler, die aufgrund fehlenden Basiswissens Schwierigkeiten in der Schule haben und Unterstützung in ihrem individuellen Lernprozess insbesondere in den Fächern Deutsch und Mathematik benötigen. Statt herkömmlicher Nachhilfe erfolgt eine langfristige, auf den Schüler bzw. die Schülerin zugeschnittene Förderung von professioneller und reflexionsgestützter Seite. Ein Supervisions-Begleitseminar durch die Dozentin Urte Schell aus der Abteilung Pädagogik bei Lernbeeinträchtigungen fördert den Ansatz, Theorie und Praxis miteinander zu verknüpfen und Kompetenzen zu stärken.

Der zweite Campus-Cultur-Preis 2012 ging an die Film & TV Reading Group. Studierende, die an diesem extracurricularen Forum teilnehmen, treffen sich im Englischen Seminar, um Theorietexte, Filme und Fernsehmaterialien zu diskutieren, eigene Projektideen und Projekte zu entwickeln und interdisziplinär über aktuelle Trends und Ansätze der Medienwissenschaft ins Gespräch zu kommen. Seit mehreren Semestern wird die Lesegruppe flankiert von einer Filmreihe, die Klassiker der Filmgeschichte aus dem public domain-Bereich vorführt und zum gemeinsamen Schauen und Diskutieren dieser Filme einlädt. Auch diese Filmreihe wird von Studierenden hauptsächlich des Master of Advanced Anglophone Studies konzipiert und organisiert. Die Aktivitäten sind Teil der Initiative für interdisziplinäre Medienforschung, die von Dr. Shane Denson (American Studies) ausging und koordiniert wird. Die Initiative wendet sich vor allem an den akademischen Nachwuchs und die Studierenden der Fakultät.

Campus-Cultur Prize 2013

As I announced recently (here), the Initiative for Interdisciplinary Media Research and the Film & TV Reading Group received the Campus-Cultur Prize 2013, which was awarded yesterday at the graduation ceremony of the Philosophische Fakultät (Faculty of Humanities) of the Leibniz University Hannover. Meike Walter, Svenja Fehlhaber, and I were there to accept the prize on behalf of the group. Thanks again to everyone involved!

Campus-Cultur Prize Awarded to Film & TV Reading Group / Initiative for Interdisciplinary Media Research

I am pleased to announce that this year’s Campus-Cultur Prize has been awarded to the Film & TV Reading Group and the student members of the Initiative for Interdisciplinary Media Research!

The award recognizes students’ active participation, initiative, and creativity in curricular and extracurricular contexts. The prize is awarded annually by CampusCultur, an association dedicated to promoting the cultural life of the humanities and social sciences at the Leibniz University of Hannover.

The Film & TV Reading Group offers interested students from all disciplines the opportunity to engage with key texts on film, television, and media theory. In conjunction with the film series, lectures, and other activities of the Initiative for Interdisciplinary Media Research, it offers students and instructors a space in which to discuss relevant media phenomena and media-theoretical issues.

Congratulations and thank you to everyone who helped make this possible, particularly to the student members of the reading group and media initiative!

It’s Not Television (Or Is It?)

Three members of the Initiative for Interdisciplinary Media Research (Felix Brinker, Florian Groß, and Shane Denson) will be presenting papers at the upcoming conference “It’s Not Television” (22-23 February 2013, Goethe University of Frankfurt). Our abstracts can be found here:

Felix Brinker: “Narratively Complex Television Series and the Lure of Conspiracy – On the Politics of Long-Form Serial Storytelling and the Paranoid Eye of Active Audiences”

Shane Denson: “Serial Bodies: Corporeal Engagement in Long-Form Serial Television”

Florian Groß: “Born Alone, Die Alone, But Never Dine Alone: The Creative Individual and Generic Family Structures in Recent TV Series”

M – Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder (1931): Movies, Machines, Modernity

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GT_s_6F5hCc

On December 13, we will be screening Fritz Lang’s M – Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder (1931), the third film in our series “M: Movies, Machines, Modernity.” (See here for a flyer with more details about our film series, and here for a short video introduction that frames it conceptually.)

Following the screening, Urs Büttner (co-editor, with Christoph Bareither, of Fritz Lang: “M – Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder”. Texte und Kontexte) will discuss the film with us and help us to understand it in its historical context and in the context of the cinema’s negotiations of modernity. (Vortrag — wie auch die Filmvorführung — in deutscher Sprache.)

And because it’s getting to be that time of year again, we will have Glühwein for all!

As always, the screening (6:00pm on Thursday, Dec. 13, in room 615, Conti-Hochhaus) is free and open to all, so spread the word to anyone who might be interested in joining us. More info here and here.

M: Movies, Machines, Modernity — An Introduction

Above, a somewhat streamlined and re-focused version of the talk I gave last Thursday at the first screening in our film series “M: Movies, Machines, Modernity.” Text and video: Shane Denson. Music: Jared C. Balogh, “Break in the Action,” licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Sharealike License.