Indefinite Visions

Examines the aesthetics, concepts and politics of chaotic and obscured moving images Audiovisual culture often privileges the instantly identifiable: the recognizable face, the well-timed stunt, the perfectly synchronized line of dialogue. Yet order and clarity do not come 'naturally' to the moving image. Light, motion, definition, compression: the conditions of recording, storing and screening can subject audiovisual media to countless variations, pulling them towards the indefinite and illegible. Filmmakers and artists often seek out and work with the resulting uncertainty, from the warping of space to the melding of senses, from glare to shadow and blur to glitch. This collection concerns itself with the aesthetics, concepts and politics of indefinite and obscured moving images, examining what is at stake in their foregrounding of materiality and mediation, evanescence and flux. Pursuing a range of approaches (spanning history, theory and close analysis), the authors in this volume investigate techniques, effects and themes that emerge from the wilful excavation of the moving image's formal and material base. Contributors Emmanuelle Andre, Universite Paris 7 Diderot Jacques Aumont, Universite Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3 Erika Balsom, King's College London Raymond Bellour, French National Center for Scientific Research Martine Beugnet, Universite Paris 7 Diderot Christa Blumlinger, Universite Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3 Allan Cameron, University of Auckland Michel Chion, Composer, Filmmaker and Essay Writer Sean Cubitt, Goldsmiths, University of London Catherine Fowler, University of Otago Tom Gunning, University of Chicago Julian Hanich, University of Groningen Martin Jay, University of California, Berkley Kim Knowles, Aberystwyth University Richard Misek, University of Kent Giusy Pisano, Ecole Nationale Superieure Louis Lumiere Kriss Ravetto-Biagioli, University of California, Davis D. N. Rodowick, University of Chicago Steven Shaviro, Wayne State University Carol Vernallis, Stanford University