{"id":246,"date":"2015-09-06T09:21:12","date_gmt":"2015-09-06T09:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thepromiseofcinema.com\/?page_id=246"},"modified":"2017-10-23T00:28:12","modified_gmt":"2017-10-23T00:28:12","slug":"essays","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.thepromiseofcinema.com\/index.php\/essays\/","title":{"rendered":"Essays"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Essays<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"#Mirror\">&#8220;Mirror Mirror on the Wall&#8221; by Garrett Stewart<\/a><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"#Ripples\">&#8220;Ripples of Sound&#8221; by Lutz Koepnick<\/a><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"#Lethen\">&#8220;Hans Richters Frauen im Pelz&#8221; by Helmut Lethen<\/a><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"#Flaig\">&#8220;The Promise of Chaplin&#8221; by Paul Flaig<\/a><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"#Eiland\">&#8220;On Benjamin&#8217;s Theory of Film&#8221; by Howard Eiland<\/a><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"#Koehler\">&#8220;A Dancer on Film: Rudolf Laban\u2019s Film Theory&#8221; by Kristina K\u00f6hler<\/a><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"#Born\">&#8220;The Promise of Television&#8221; by Erik Born<\/a><\/p>\r\n<p><a name=\"Mirror\"><\/a><\/p>\r\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n<hr \/>\r\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">Mirror Mirror on the Wall<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">GARRETT STEWART<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'helvetica', serif; font-weight: normal;\"><span style=\"font-size: x-large;\">S<\/span>tart anywhere. Dip in at random. Begin with name recognition if the temptation can\u2019t be resisted. From 1925, from <em>Der Tag<\/em>, this, for instance, from B\u00e9la Bal\u00e1zs (no. 23, \u201cReel Consciousness\u201d) on the auto-documentary impulse of the new medium, including the record of a filmmaker\u2019s own death in certain celluloid cases. Bal\u00e1zs\u2019s is a reaction to motion capture extraordinary for its time and proleptic of ours: <\/span><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'helvetica', serif; font-weight: normal;\">This is a new form of self-reflection. These people reflect themselves by filming themselves. The inner process of accounting for oneself has been externalized. This self-perception until the final moment is mechanically fixed. The film of self-control, which consciousness used to run within the brain, is now transposed onto the reel of a camera, and consciousness, which has mirrored itself <em>for itself alone <\/em>in internal division until now, delegates this function to a machine that records the mirror image <em>for others to see as well. <\/em>In this way, subjective consciousness becomes social consciousness. <\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'helvetica', serif; font-weight: normal;\">More than film theory, a whole ambient field of psychoanalytic criticism is anticipated there. (<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'helvetica', serif; font-weight: normal;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thepromiseofcinema.com\/index.php\/mirror-mirror\/#mirror1\">Read more<\/a>)<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><a name=\"Ripples\"><\/a><\/p>\r\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n<hr \/>\r\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">Ripples of Sound<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">LUTZ KOEPNICK<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/48454665\" width=\"410\" height=\"240\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'helvetica', serif; font-weight: normal;\"><span style=\"font-size: x-large;\">C<\/span>ontemporary German sound artist Carsten Nicolai is internationally known for his experimental music performances and installation works such as <em>wellenwanne <\/em>(2001\/2003\/2008), in which water trays visualize musical sounds through changing wave and interference patterns<em>.<\/em> In fall 2015, Nicolai presented a new work of immense proportions, <em>unitape<\/em>, at the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.kulturstiftung-des-bundes.de\/cms\/permalink\/8be9ddea-15bd-11e5-a2fd-758370b66048.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.kulturstiftung-des-bundes.de\/sites\/KSB\/img\/ap_juni_2015\/01_CNicolai_unitape_2015_Foto-Uwe-Walter.jpg?resize=30%2C30\" alt=\"\" width=\"30\" height=\"30\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><\/a><a href=\"#_ftn1\" name=\"_ftnref1\"><sup>[1]<\/sup> <\/a>Twenty-five meters in length and four meters in height, <em>unitape<\/em> puts to work different encodings of sound and music, its visual structure recalling the look of punch cards as they had first been used in the weaving industry around Chemnitz in the mid-1800s. Cascading from the gallery\u2019s ceiling, ever-changing arrangements of quadrilateral marks trigger the production of acoustical signals, their vibrations so intense that we can literally sense them with our entire bodies. (<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'helvetica', serif; font-weight: normal;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thepromiseofcinema.com\/index.php\/ripples-of-sound\/#ripples1\">Read more<\/a>)<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p><a name=\"Lethen\"><\/a><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<hr \/>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">Hans Richters Frauen im Pelz<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">HELMUT LETHEN<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'helvetica', serif; font-weight: normal;\">It is not true that so-called avant-garde artists, if they even exist, harbor utopian goals.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'helvetica', serif; font-weight: normal;\">Hans Richter, Avant-garde in the Realm of the Possible (1929), text no. 214<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'helvetica', serif; font-weight: normal;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'helvetica', serif; font-weight: normal;\">I.<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'helvetica', serif; font-weight: normal;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'helvetica', serif; font-weight: normal;\"><span style=\"font-size: x-large;\">H<\/span>ans Richters Film <em>Die neue Wohnung<\/em>, uraufgef\u00fchrt 1930 auf einer Ausstellung des Schweizer Werkbundes, beginnt mit elegant ausschwingenden, von keinen Zwecken gesteuerten Kamerafahrten entlang den Wei\u00dfen Kuben der Architektur des Schweizer Werkbundes. Die Kamera passiert m\u00fchelos die Schwellen von Innenr\u00e4umen und angrenzenden Naturr\u00e4umen. Ein Fest der Mobilit\u00e4t.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gAUhQHRANj4?rel=0&amp;start=2&amp;end=205&amp;autoplay=0\" width=\"420\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\">\u00a0<\/div>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'helvetica', serif; font-weight: normal;\">Das Schwarz-Wei\u00df der Fotografie scheint der Natur der Geb\u00e4ude zu entsprechen. Starke Linien- und Kantenbetonung der Schwarz-Wei\u00df-Fotografien hatten schon die BAUHAUS-Architektur ber\u00fchmt gemacht, sie verst\u00e4rkten die perspektivischen Fluchten, denen nun auch Richters Film folgt.\u00a0(<span style=\"font-family: 'helvetica', serif; font-weight: normal;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thepromiseofcinema.com\/index.php\/lethen\/\">Mehr lesen<\/a>)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p><a name=\"Flaig\"><\/a><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<hr \/>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">The Promise of Chaplin<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">PAUL FLAIG<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'helvetica', serif; font-weight: normal;\"><span style=\"font-size: x-large;\">T<\/span>he\u00a0fifth and final act of Walter Ruttmann\u2019s <em>Berlin: Symphony of a Great City<\/em> (1927) begins at the close of day, as electric lights stream from apartment windows, film palaces and car headlights. Ruttmann shifts from rain-swept, glistening streets to crowded sidewalks, as people go up and down one of Berlin\u2019s most fashionable thorough-fairs, Tauentzienstrasse, looking for an evening\u2019s entertainment. Such entertainment is represented first and foremost by the cinema, as we see the impressive facades of the Berliner Kino and the Atrium, the latter\u2019s awning advertising in dazzling lights the New Woman-themed romantic comedy, <em>Venus im Frack<\/em> (Land, 1927)<em>. <\/em>Outside a series of smaller, storefront cinemas, so-called <em>Ladenkino<\/em>, a placard for American cowboy Tom Mix and photographs of other movie stars surround a box office busy with customers queuing for tickets or waiting for their film-going companions. For <em>Berlin<\/em>\u2019s own audience, a sense of expectation builds as we wonder what film and which stars these surrogates for ourselves are seeking inside the cinema. Concluding the film-themed introduction to his final act, Ruttmann shows, in a quick glimpse lasting no more than five seconds, the interior of a cramped <em>Ladenkino<\/em> to give an answer: a pair of all too familiar, ragged and over-sized shoes gambol forward, accompanied by equally iconic bamboo cane and baggy trousers. (<span style=\"font-family: 'helvetica', serif; font-weight: normal;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thepromiseofcinema.com\/index.php\/the-promise-of-chaplin\/\">Read more<\/a>)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p><a name=\"Eiland\"><\/a><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<hr \/>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p><strong><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">On Benjamin&#8217;s Theory of Film<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">HOWARD EILAND<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div id=\"attachment_1838\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1838\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-1838 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.thepromiseofcinema.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Benjamin-researching.jpg?resize=300%2C212\" alt=\"Gis\u00e8le Freund, Walter Benjamin in the Biblioth\u00e8que Nationale&quot; (1939) -- maybe below the picture --on the right margin\" width=\"300\" height=\"212\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.thepromiseofcinema.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Benjamin-researching.jpg?resize=300%2C212 300w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.thepromiseofcinema.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Benjamin-researching.jpg?resize=768%2C542 768w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.thepromiseofcinema.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Benjamin-researching.jpg?resize=1024%2C723 1024w, https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.thepromiseofcinema.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Benjamin-researching.jpg?w=2340 2340w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-1838\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Gis\u00e8le Freund, Walter Benjamin in the Biblioth\u00e8que Nationale (1939)<\/p><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'helvetica', serif; font-weight: normal;\"><span style=\"font-size: x-large;\">A\u00a0<\/span><\/span><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, serif;\">highly condensed note in <em>The Arcades Project<\/em>, dating probably from the late 1920s, offers what is possibly the broadest and boldest statement on film that we have today from Walter Benjamin. The note has its place in the context of methodological formulations concerning the temporality of historical interpretation and what is conceived of, in this serendipitous study of nineteenth-century Paris, as historical dream and historical awakening. One awakens from \u201cthat dream we name the past\u201d only by descending back through remembrance into the convolute of the dream itself; one wakes simultaneously <em>from <\/em>and <em>to<\/em> a dream past in order to waken a present day. So historical awakening is prepared in dreaming of the past. It is nothing short of a \u201cCopernican revolution in historical perception\u201d that Benjamin announces here, in Convolute K of the <em>Arcades<\/em>: a momentous theoretical turn toward a dialectical method of historical remembrance pivoting on \u201cthe higher concreteness of now-being.\u201d<a href=\"#_edn1\" name=\"_ednref1\">[1]<\/a> Such perception is dialectical because it is turned toward past and present at the same time; it is their virtual convergence as monad and mutual tension in an experience of recognition. In this precipitous constellatory temporality, in which time at once shrinks and expands, the moment of remembrance is thus \u201cpreformed\u201d in its object. (<span style=\"font-family: 'helvetica', serif; font-weight: normal;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thepromiseofcinema.com\/index.php\/on-benjamins-theory-of-film\/\">Read more<\/a>)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p><a name=\"Koehler\"><\/a><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<hr \/>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">A Dancer on Film: Rudolf Laban\u2019s Film Theory<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">KRISTINA K\u00d6HLER<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'helvetica', serif; font-weight: normal;\"><span style=\"font-size: x-large;\">T<\/span>he fact that film became an object of analysis at a time when dance, body culture and life reform movements were on the agenda has received comparatively little attention in film historical scholarship to date. Yet, especially in Germany, gymnastics and modern dance formed an important context that clearly resonated in the debates surrounding the new medium.<a href=\"#_edn1\" name=\"_ednref1\"><sup>[1]<\/sup><\/a> Not only were the same people\u2014intellectuals, artists and critics\u2014commenting on contemporary events in film and dance, but early film theory and modern dance were also surrounded by similar concerns and inquiries: When is a movement \u201cbeautiful\u201d? What makes a body expressive? And which specific forms of a viewer\u2019s aesthetic experience are addressed through movement? (<span style=\"font-family: 'helvetica', serif; font-weight: normal;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thepromiseofcinema.com\/index.php\/a-dancer-on-film\/\">Read more<\/a>)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p><a name=\"Born\"><\/a><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<hr \/>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">The Promise of Television<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, serif;\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\">ERIK BORN<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'helvetica', serif; font-weight: normal;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\r\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'helvetica', serif; font-weight: normal;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'helvetica', serif; font-weight: normal;\"><span style=\"font-family: 'helvetica', serif; font-weight: normal;\"><span style=\"font-size: x-large;\">W<\/span>hich\u00a0<\/span><\/span>came first\u2014cinema or television?<a href=\"#_edn1\" name=\"_ednref1\">[1]<\/a> Until recently, the origins of moving images were usually taken to be synonymous with those of \u201cthe movies,\u201d and the year 1895 was commonly considered the <em>annus mirabilis<\/em> in the history of cinema. Despite some dissenting work on the development of moving images over the millennia,<a href=\"#_edn2\" name=\"_ednref2\">[2]<\/a> the date remained significant in mainstream film studies for marking at least three decisive conditions of possibility for the appearance of the medium: the availability of the cinematograph; the genesis of production and exhibition practice; and the emergence of aesthetic considerations. In television studies, on the other hand, there was never a similar consensus. Over two decades before the consolidation of cinema, there were already models for televisual machines, and the earliest patent for a mechanical television system, which looms especially large over the German historiography of television, was granted a decade prior to the first patents for cinematographic devices. Nevertheless, the promise of electronic television would remain unfulfilled throughout the <em>anni horribiles <\/em>of two world wars, an extended incubation period representing a long-standing source of irritation for media studies. As the editors of a recent collection on <em>German Television <\/em>observe, \u201cUntil the mid-twentieth century, television remained only an epistemic object, not fully realized and thus partly latent in the history of media.\u201d<a href=\"#_edn3\" name=\"_ednref3\">[3]<\/a> By extension, one of the editors wonders, \u201cMight television be a latency or blind spot of media theory?\u201d<a href=\"#_edn4\" name=\"_ednref4\">[4]<\/a> (<span style=\"font-family: 'helvetica', serif; font-weight: normal;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thepromiseofcinema.com\/index.php\/the-promise-of-television\/\">Read more<\/a>)<\/span><\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Essays &#8220;Mirror Mirror on the Wall&#8221; by Garrett Stewart &#8220;Ripples of Sound&#8221; by Lutz Koepnick &#8220;Hans Richters Frauen im Pelz&#8221; by Helmut Lethen &#8220;The Promise of Chaplin&#8221; by Paul Flaig &#8220;On Benjamin&#8217;s Theory of Film&#8221; by Howard Eiland &#8220;A Dancer on Film: Rudolf Laban\u2019s Film Theory&#8221; by Kristina K\u00f6hler &#8220;The Promise of Television&#8221; by Erik<div class=\"theme-button\"><a class=\"transparent-btn\" href=\"http:\/\/www.thepromiseofcinema.com\/index.php\/essays\/\" >READ MORE<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"spay_email":""},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P6B84P-3Y","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thepromiseofcinema.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/246"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thepromiseofcinema.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thepromiseofcinema.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thepromiseofcinema.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thepromiseofcinema.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246"}],"version-history":[{"count":48,"href":"http:\/\/www.thepromiseofcinema.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/246\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2239,"href":"http:\/\/www.thepromiseofcinema.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/246\/revisions\/2239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thepromiseofcinema.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}