FEATURED PROJECT
CINEPHILIAFaculty: Scott BalcerzakTeam Member(s): Scott Balcerzak, Jason Sperb Third-year Brittain Fellow Scott Balcerzak introduces the "Cinephilia in the Age of Digital Reproduction: Film, Pleasure, and Digital Culture" project. Please briefly explain the project. What is it about? Long a part of the theatrical experience, "Cinephilia" denotes a deep, even limitless passion for the medium; consuming, defining, sharing, discussing, and writing about films. But what happens when the experience of the movies becomes something different, something increasingly complemented by digital means? This volume of new essays explores the pleasures of cinema within online communication, digital imagery, and digitized home viewing. Including the work of critics, scholars, and bloggers from the US, the UK, and Australia, Cinephilia in the Age of Digital Reproduction provides an innovative and multifaceted approach to the ever-evolving world of cinema culture. Who are the team members? I am writing this book with Jason Sperb, Associate Instructor from the Indiana University, Bloomington. What is your role in the project? I conceived this project with Jason Sperb originally as a panel at the 2006 meeting of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies in Vancouver, BC. Since then, it has grown to include the work of film and media writers, scholars, and bloggers from around the world. In addition to co-editing, I contribute a chapter that theorizes recent motion capture special effects processes in relationship to cinematic acting. Presented at the 2007 Society for Cinema and Media Studies conference, this work is a continuation of some of my previously published scholarship on the cinematic actor`s role within a theatrical history of acting. I also co-author an introduction with Sperb entitled "Presence of Pleasure." How long have you been working on this project? I have been working on this project for the last three years. What outputs do you expect from this project? This first volume of Cinephilia in the Age of Digital Reproduction is to be published by Wallflower Press later this year. It includes contributions by Robert Burgoyne, Zach Campbell, Tobey Crockett, Brian Darr, Kevin Fisher, Andy Horbal, Christian Keathley, Andrian Martin, Jenna Ng, Lisa Purse, Dan Sallitt, and Girish Shambu. What are the biggest challenges with this project? One of the issues found in many discussions of cinephilia is an inability simply to define the word in concrete terms. This problem might be based in the word`s irreducibly dual connotation both as a historical notion (defining multiple 20th century movements of cinema fandom) and as a sensorial concept (the response of an individual cinephile to a film). But, I believe, my co-editor and I found that most exciting possibilities reside within the word`s multiplicity. What is the importance of this project? At this moment, cinephilia is a topic worthy of serious investigation because digital technology reconfigures pleasure for the film fan. Therefore, this project embraces multiple interpretations of not only cinephilia but of the digital; including online communication, digital imagery, and digitized home viewing. Prepared by Tanla Bilir |
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