8th Annual Collegium Lecture
Prof. Vivian Sobchack (UCLA):
"Fleshing Out the Image: Phenomenology, Pedagogy, and Derek Jarman's BLUE"
Time: Wednesday, 16 June 2010 at 4.15pm
Venue: University main building, Small Assembly Hall (pieni juhlasali), Fabianinkatu 33 [Helsinki].
Free admission! Welcome
Organised by the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, www.helsinki.fi/collegium
Abstract of the lecture:
Framed from a pedagogical perspective in relation to both film studies and philosophy, the presentation focuses on existential phenomenological philosophy and method as they illuminate the cinematic experience of Derek Jarman's seemingly "monochromatic" Blue (1993), an "extreme" instance of filmic perception and expression made when the filmmaker was dying of AIDS and losing his sight. In turn, Blue illuminates (and makes palpable) basic precepts of phenomenology: the film's supposed "deprivation" of the spectator's sight is revealed not as empty blindness but as rich and multisensual "insight."
Short biography of Vivian Sobchack:
Vivian Sobchack was the first woman elected President of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, and is on the Board of Directors of the American Film Institute. Her essays have appeared in journals such as “Quarterly Review of Film and Video,” “Film Comment,” “camera obscura,” “Film Quarterly” and “Representations.” Her books include “Screening Space: The American Science Fiction Film;” The Address of the Eye: A Phenomenology of Film Experience;” and “Carnal Thoughts: Embodiment and Moving Image Culture. She has also edited two anthologies: Meta-Morphing: Visual Transformation and the Culture of Quick-Change; and The Persistence of History: Cinema, Television, and the Modern Event.” Her research interests are eclectic: American film genres, philosophy and film theory, history and phenomenology of perception, historiography and cultural studies.