By maintaining the tension between artists’ imaginative approaches to technology in the Soviet Union (Meyerhold’s Biomechanics), film directors’ use of science such as physiology (Eisenstein’s Expressive Movement), and scientists’ own theorization of art history (Lev Vygotsky’s The Psychology of Art), this workshop aims at unpacking the historical and political forces behind Soviet film theory, film practice, and art history in relation to science and technology. While examining the juncture between art, science, and technology in post-Revolutionary Russia, with a focus on the avant-garde period until the death of Joseph Stalin, cinema is thus considered as a device beyond its medium of film (Francois Albera, Maria Tortajada: Cinema Beyond Film) and the medium-specificity of the arts is called into question.

Argument

By maintaining the tension between artists’ imaginative approaches to technology in the Soviet Union (Meyerhold’s Biomechanics), film directors’ use of science such as physiology (Eisenstein’s Expressive Movement), and scientists’ own theorization of art history (Lev Vygotsky’s The Psychology of Art), this workshop aims at unpacking the historical and political forces behind Soviet film theory, film practice, and art history in relation to science and technology. While examining the juncture between art, science, and technology in post-Revolutionary Russia, with a focus on the avant-garde period until the death of Joseph Stalin, cinema is thus considered as a device beyond its medium of film (Francois Albera, Maria Tortajada: Cinema Beyond Film) and the medium-specificity of the arts is called into question.

Main questions

Research papers might include, but are not limited to questions such as:

• In what ways did cinema bring about new interpretations of art preceding film and re- readings of art history?
• What were the new paradigms that science and technology offered, supporting the construction of Soviet film theory, practice, and aesthetics?
• How did dominant views on the history of art in the Soviet Union relate to science and technology and how did they challenged each other?

• How was medium-specificity reconfigured in the light of new technological and scientific advances?

Submission guidelines

We invite doctoral students, postgraduate researchers, and established academics to submit proposals for 30-minute presentations. Interdisciplinary approaches are very welcome. Please submit your English-language paper proposals of no more than 500 words along with a short biographical note before June 15, 2016 to the scientific committee.

Notifications will be sent in mid-July. Please note that travel and accommodation expenses will not be reimbursed.

Scientific committee

• Hanin Hannouch, PhD Candidate at IMT Lucca, Institute For Advanced Studies/Guest researcher at Jacobs University, Bremen: h.hannouch@jacobs-university.de
• and Prof. Dr. Isabel Wünsche (Professor of Art History at Jacobs University, Bremen): i.wunsche@jacobs-university.de

For further information on the Russian Art & Culture Group, see

http://russian-art.user.jacobs-university.de