Desktop Films: Forms, Uses, Circulations
Le Desktop film : formes, usages, circulations
Published on Monday, March 23, 2026
Abstract
This conference stems from an interest in an emerging form of filmmaking, the desktop film or screen film, arising from the convergence of two related phenomena: the exponential acceleration in the circulation of moving images enabled by digitization and the development of Web 2.0, and the evolutions in audiovisual and media creation that incorporate digital aesthetics and practices into their modes of operation. Positioning ourselves within the field of post-media studies initiated by Lev Manovich in 2001, and more specifically within what is now referred to as the field of “post-cinema”, this conference seeks to foster a resolutely interdisciplinary reflection (Art Studies, Film and Audiovisual Studies, Information and Communication Sciences, Cognitive Sciences, Anthropology, Narratology, etc.) structured around the following axes: semiotic and multimodal approaches; narrative and discursive approaches; actors and Networks; archaeology of the Desktop Film.
Announcement
Argument
This conference stems from an interest in an emerging form of filmmaking, the desktop film or “screen film” (Bex 2022), arising from the convergence of two related phenomena: the exponential acceleration in the circulation of moving images enabled by digitization and the development of Web 2.0, and the evolutions in audiovisual and media creation that incorporate digital aesthetics and practices into their modes of operation.
Filmmaker Kevin B. Lee was the first to use the expression Desktop documentary, as the subtitle of his 2014 film Transformers: The Premake (Kiss 2021). Ever since then, the term has become established and now refers to a specific form of filmmaking that “uses screen-capture technology in order to treat the computer screen both as a camera lens and as a canvas. [Desktop Documentaries] seek to represent and question the ways in which we explore the world through the computer screen” (Grant 2015). These films are therefore intimately linked to the very physiognomy of the computer screen — a frame-window opening onto various textual and audiovisual interfaces — as well as to the narrative plasticity of web navigation’s winding pathways, characterized by the articulation of “the most heterogeneous multiplicities” (Sieux 2004) imposed by the digital environment.
Positioning ourselves within the field of post-media studies initiated by Lev Manovich in 2001 (Bešlagić 2019; De Rosa 2020, 2024), and more specifically within what is now referred to as the field of “post-cinema” (Hagener, Vinzenz & Strohmaier 2016; Denson & Leyda 2016; Château & Moure 2020; Galibert-Laîné & Hernández López 2022…), this conference seeks to foster a resolutely interdisciplinary reflection (Art Studies, Film and Audiovisual Studies, Information and Communication Sciences, Cognitive Sciences, Anthropology, Narratology, etc.) structured around the following axes:
Semiotic and Multimodal Approaches
From a semiotic perspective, drawing on the tools of multimodal semiotics and media semiotics (Bezemer & Kress 2015; Mitropoulou & Pignier 2014, etc.), we aim to examine the uses and reappropriations that characterize these films’ deployment of their various constituent materials, their interactions, and ultimately the ways in which these films renew cinematic language through the singularity of their device.
The complex medium of the computer enriches the multimodality specific to Desktop films (Zhuoqun 2025), granting a distinctive role to architextual writing and to the branching structure of content within a “spatial and dynamic perspective” (Souchier 1996). These works negotiate with the computational environment: the screen becomes an interface for thought, a new aesthetic, narrative, and cognitive model to be examined.
Narrative and Discursive Approaches
The conference will also address questions related to enunciation and narratology as applied to audiovisual devices. In particular, it will explore when, how, and why these films sometimes adopt first-person modes of enunciation, investigate “the different expressions of what might be called ‘desktop subjectivity’” (Galibert-Laîné & Lee 2019), and develop new modalities of “self-consciousness” (Sobchack 1996) — or even “enunciability” (Foucault 1969) — of objects reappropriated within a performative montage. More broadly, this mode of filmmaking invites reflection on the place occupied by the filmmaker/internet user within the narrative — sometimes interacting with other human or non-human actors mobilized through web networks. The position of the spectator is also at stake, often involved in the narrative process (Anger & Lee 2022) and in a new cohabitation of bodies with the digital (Dupas 2024).
Actors and Networks
This conference also suggests examining the nature of the various actors engaging in Desktop film practices and the contexts of their production. Some creators position themselves within experimental cinema and contemporary art, two spheres sharing a common interest in the creative, aesthetic, and expressive possibilities offered by new digital media. Another field of experimentation emerges in pedagogical practice and research-creation, which approaches Desktop film as a category of video essays (Lee & Avissar 2023) that question art, creation, or the ways in which the Internet constitutes a new and limitless territory for contemporary ethnography. These considerations logically extend to the question of the networks through which these films circulate: both online, as products of the Internet itself, and within academic research and research-creation networks (Galibert-Laîné 2021); in museums as installations; within experimental cinema circuits; and even in traditional film distribution networks.
Archaeology of the Desktop Film
To fully explore this object, we also invite contributions that interrogate the genealogy of the Desktop film. This entails reflecting on the creative forms that prefigure it in the history of cinema, as well as its genealogies and influences, and on the emergence of forms that might be described as proto-desktop. Finally, the categorization of this corpus as a genre will be examined.
These proposals are not restrictive; other approaches and perspectives will be welcomed with interest.
Submission guidelines
Paper proposals should consist of an abstract of approximately 3,000 characters and a brief biographical note.
Proposals must be submittedby email to: colloque.desktopfilm@powermail.fr,
by April 30, 2026.
The conference proceedings will be published.
Organizing Committee (LIRCES / Université Côte d'Azur)
- Bruno Cailler
- Sarra Chamam
- Alena Ianushko
- Cathy Margaillan
- Céline Masoni
- Charles Meyer
- Sophie Raimond
- Guglielmo Scarifimuto
- Christel Taillibert
- Alesya Trafimovich
- Laura Vichi
LIRCES (Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Récits, Cultures et Sociétés) has, since its creation, been engaged in an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research project bringing together Psychology, Anthropology, Ethnology, Civilizations and Literatures, Information and Communication Sciences, around a unifying theme: narrative, and more specifically narrativity understood as the power of storytelling. https://lirces.univ-cotedazur.fr/
Subjects
- Representation (Main category)
- Society > Ethnology, anthropology > Cultural anthropology
- Mind and language > Representation > Visual studies
- Mind and language > Information > History and sociology of the media
- Society > Sociology > Sociology of culture
- Mind and language > Epistemology and methodology > Digital humanities
Event attendance modalities
Full on-site event
Date(s)
- Thursday, April 30, 2026
Keywords
- Desktop film, postcinéma, arts visuels et audiovisuels, médias numériques
Contact(s)
- Comité d'organisation
courriel : colloquedefensepassive [at] gmail [dot] com
Information source
- Sophie Raimond
courriel : sophie [dot] raimond [at] univ-cotedazur [dot] fr
License
This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.
To cite this announcement
« Desktop Films: Forms, Uses, Circulations », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Monday, March 23, 2026, https://doi.org/10.58079/15xj0
