Master class – Peter Galison, Robb Moss and Frank Kessler

Filming animals

The Center for the Humanities, Utrecht University, in cooperation with the OGC, the Department of Media and Culture Studies and the Research School Media Studies (RMeS) organizes a seminar conducted by Peter Galison, Robb Moss, and Frank Kessler entitled ‘Filming animals’.

This mini film festival will explore human-animal relationship and the perception of animal movement in film.

When? 22 October 2012, 09:30 – 17:30
Where?: Studio, Kromme Nieuwegracht 80, Utrecht
Offered by? CfH of the UU, OGC, Dept. of Media and Culture Studies and RMeS
For whom? RMA students and PhD researchers
Credits? 2ECTS for RMa-students; 1 ECTS for PhD’s
Registration? via cfh@uu.nl

Programme

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Research MA students can earn 2 ECTS for this seminar. Requirements: assigned readings, active participation, final paper (see required viewing and readings listed below).

PhD students participating can receive 1 credit for assigned readings and active participation.

In order to register please send an email to cfh@uu.nl.

About the Speakers

Professor Galison has a strong background not only in theoretical physics but also and more especially in the history and philosophy of science. He has been a visiting professor at the prestigious École Normale Supérieure in Paris, as well as in the equally renowned École des Mines and other leading research institutes in both the USA and Europe. Through seminal academic publications like: Image and Logic: A Material Culture of Microphysics. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press); Einstein’s Clocks, Poincaré’s Maps. (W.W. Norton: New York) and the volume co-authored with L. Daston. Objectivity. (Boston: Zone Press), Professor Galison has developed the field of history and philosophy of science into an accessible inter-disciplinary domain. The combination of disciplinary depth with a broad span of interdisciplinary knowledge makes his work a unique contribution to his field.

Robb Moss is an independent documentary filmmaker and professor at Harvard University. Notable work includes such films as The Same River Twice, Secrecy and The Tourist. His films are often about the passage of time and its effect on characters, stories, and memories. The Same River Twice was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award in 2004 as well as being listed as the Best Documentary and Cinematography of 2003 by film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum, Best Documentary at the Nashville Film Festival, Sidewalk Moving Picture Film Festival, and the New England Film Festival. Secrecy, directed with Peter Galison, was awarded Best Documentary at the Newport International Film Festival and Special Jury Prize at the International Film Festival in Boston. The Tourist premiered at The Telluride Film Festival.

Frank Kessler is Professor of Media History at the Utrecht University and currently the director of the Research Institute for History and Culture (OGC). Professor Kessler is co-founder and member of the editorial board of both Montage AV. Zeitschrift für Theorie und Geschichte der audiovisuellen Kommunikation [Montage AV. Journal for Theory and History of Audiovisual Communication] and KINtop. Jahrbuch zur Erforschung des frühen Films [KINtop. Yearbook for Research on Early Cinema]. From 2003 to 2007, Professor Kessler was the president of DOMITOR, an international association to promote the study of early cinema. In 2009 Kessler was a Research Fellow at the International Reasearh Institute for Cultural Technologies and Media Philosophy (IKKM) Weimar.

Assigned viewing and readings for RMA and PhD students:

Viewing:

• Bear 71 (Web-Documentary) http://bear71.nfb.ca/#/bear71

Readings:

• De Bont, Raf (2008) “Savage Beauty and Brute Force. Colonials and Big Game Hunting”. In: Eric de Kuyper et al., Animalomania. Brussels: VDFC/Koninklijk Belgisch Filmarchief, pp. 40-65
• Gaycken, Oliver (2002) “‘A Drama Unites Them in a Fight to the Death”: Some Remarks on the Flourishing of a Cinema of Scientific Vernacularization in France, 1909-1914”. In: Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television 22, 3, 353-374
• Holthof, Marc (2008) “Natura Artis Magistra. The Zoo as a Viewing Machine”. In: Eric de Kuyper et al., Animalomania. Brussels: VDFC/Koninklijk Belgisch Filmarchief, pp. 14-39
• Mitman, Gregg (2009) Reel Nature: America’s Romance with Wildlife on Film. Seattle: University of Washington Press, pp. 26-108; 109-131
• Painlevé, Jean (2000) “Feet in the Water” [1935]. In: Andy Masako Bellows, Marina McDougal (ed.), Science is Fiction. The Films of Jean Painlevé. Cambridge, Mass., London: The MIT Press / San Francisco: Brico Press, pp. 130-139
• — (2000) “Scientific Film” [1955]. In: Andy Masako Bellows, Marina McDougal (ed.), Science is Fiction. The Films of Jean Painlevé. Cambridge, Mass., London: The MIT Press / San Francisco: Brico Press, pp. 160-169