Film and Video Intermediality: The Question of Medium Specificity in Contemporary Moving Images

Description

In Film and Video Intermediality, Janna Houwen innovatively rewrites the concept of medium specificity in order to answer the questions “what is meant by video?” and “what is meant by film?” How are these two media (to be) understood? How can film and video be defined as distinct, specific media? In this era of mixed moving media, it is vital to ask these questions precisely and especially on the media of video and film. Mapping the specificity of film and video is indispensable in analyzing and understanding the many contemporary intermedial objects in which film and video are mixed or combined. Cover page Halftitle page Title page Copyright page Epigraph page CONTENTS INTRODUCTION A Voyage on the North Sea PART I THE REALITY EFFECT INTRODUCTION: FROM REAL TO REEL IN BENNY’S VIDEO CHAPTER 1 REALITY EFFECTS: LITERATURE, FILM, AND VIDEO Expanding “The Reality Effect” CHAPTER 2 DEVICES IN VIDEO (Re)turning to (Benny’s) Video Intermezzo: growing conventions Mobile video Static shots and surveillance CHAPTER 3 DEVICES IN FILM From setting to surface Conventionally constructed surveyability CHAPTER 4 SLIDING SCALES Degrees of belief Kinds of reality CHAPTER 5 MEDIUM SPECIFICITY AND THE REALITY EFFECT Adding the field CHAPTER 6 INTERACTION: BETWEEN REALITY EFFECTS Film’s video Video proving film The contributing and counteracting narrator Exposing video Features casting doubt The outstripping narrator The double illusion of visual access More vision(s) PART II (DIS)EMBODIMENT INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 7 DISPOSITIF: AN EXPANDED LAYERED STRUCTURE Comparing concepts Mixing, expanding, multiplying CHAPTER 8 (DIS)EMBODYING DISPOSITIFS Here, now/there, then CHAPTER 9 FILM’S DISEMBODYING DISPOSITIF: AN EFFECT OF AN EFFECT Blotting out the body: splitting worlds CHAPTER 10 OTHER VIEWS ON FILM VIEWING CHAPTER 11 SURFACES AND SCREENS: VIDEO’S EMBODYING DISPOSITIFS CHAPTER 12 IN BETWEEN: THREE INTERMEDIAL INSTALLATIONS Two journeys: k.364 Being in American Car PART III SOCIAL STRUCTURES INTRODUCTION: FRAMING THE MEDIUM CHAPTER 13 THE MEDIUM, THE MEDIA, AND THE SOCIAL Documentation and production The medium is the master The medium as social practice CHAPTER 14 VIDEO: FLOW AND FEEDBACK Antisocial flow, narcissistic feedback Relational immediacy, social flexibility Confession, therapy, and testimony Video confession Video therapy Video testimony Video against television, video for change CHAPTER 15 FILM: PRIVATE/PRODUCTION Reel families From family film to home video Counter-cinema counters cinema CHAPTER 16 ELECTRONIC DIARIES, CINEMATIC STORIES Lynn Hershman’s Electronic Diary Sadie Benning’s It Wasn’t Love PART IV VIOLENT FEATURES INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 17 OBJECTIVE REPRESENTATION Camera junctions Ethnographic film, in video Video looks: self-reflexive and involved The other video look: detached CHAPTER 18 THE PRODUCTION OF PORTABLE OBJECTS Relocating violence, violent relocations CHAPTER 19 FROM FREEZING TO TOUCHING Filmic fluxus vs. photographic fastening down (like butterflies) Captured by video Kicking with the camera Invading the body CHAPTER 20 SURVEILLANCE Seizing video power CHAPTER 21 VOYEURISM Other loopholes Feminist perspectives Counter-cinema and counter-video CONCLUSION An inverse(d) voyage, back to the waves Traveling along In the same boat NOTES BIBLIOGRAPHY LIST OF FILMS AND VIDEOS APPENDIX: FILM AND VIDEO STILLS INDEX