[ecrea] Gorizia International Film Studies Spring School

*X MAGIS **=96 **Gorizia International Film Studies Spring School -* *POSTCINEMA SECTION*

Gorizia (Udine) , March 23-29, 2012, Italy

*A New Syntax of Desire: Postcinema, Videogame, Comics*

The history of Western thought from Plato to Deleuze, has taught us how
desire could have multiple definitions, although, in general terms, it
could be traced back to two fundamental aspects: the birth of the desire
from a =93lack=94 and the corresponding tension towards an object or that h=
as
an end in itself.

Contemporary society, primarily through technological development, has
given rise to new needs and new requirements, and with them desires were
reconfigured. The emergence of media transformations implies the
establishment of new relations among subjects and objects, and a subsequent
renewal of =93lacks=94 and =93desiring tensions=94. Those who move in the I=
nternet
and make use of new technologies deprive themself of their and own identity
(gender, social affiliation, group belonging) and acquire a diversified,
polyvocal and provisional one, pushing the desire towards the most varied
technological forms and for the most different and volatile content. The
technology provides new possibilities and almost all the communication
tools conforms as multimedia systems, being representatives of the same
=93Software Culture=94 (Manovich): smartphones, tablet, digital cinema, 3D,
particular architecture of personal computer and special programs or the
dematerialization of the software itself as Cloud Computing or Digital
Delivering platforms, different console and increasingly involving all the
sensory dimensions interfaces (Kinect, Move, Wii U).

Each one of these tools is invested with a =93libidinization=94 and become =
the
object of new desires and, at the same time, creates new needs, causing
further new desires. With New Media, that are associated with new desires,
emerge new narrative configurations, new subjects of storytelling and
re-working of characters represented in traditional media. These figures
pose themselves as objects of new desires (i.e. the protagonist of video
games, comics or films related to the themes of the contemporary pop
culture, from movies inspired by the cyberpunk science fiction to the
superhero movies).

Desire and technology develop in two directions. The first is a desire for
the machine, the technical device itself, which provides new possibilities
/ capacities for human knowledge and its relationship with the world.

The world and our relationship with it, mediatize itself: for example,
augmented reality or the possibility of using images from anywhere, from
public transport to shopping centers, from portable technological devices
to the advertising totems.  Result of mediatization is the creation of each
object as a potential object of desire.  All the external reality mediatize
itself, getting rich with =93extrareal=94 size and becoming an object of de=
sire
by virtue of the "surplus" of fascination that comes from this same media
coverage.

The second way in which the desire develops in the contemporary times is
inside the media forms, the texts and the protagonists of them.  Through
the forms of contemporary popular culture (cinema and digital culture, the
Internet, new media, video games and comic books) are developed different
forms of desire or in a complex dialectic relationship with those of the
past.

The purpose of the section Postcinema, video games and comic of the Magis
Spring School is to observe this process of formation of the new desire and
investigate its roots and historical background, setting the following
questions:


   1. What are the new needs  and new lacks that  the new media stimulate?
   Are there some specific forms of sexual,  social, economic desire relate=
d
   to the forms of contemporary pop culture?  Do movies, video games, comic=
s
   enable a particular concept of desire? How do they develop this new noti=
on
   and how does this process differ from the past one?  Is there a
   relationship between evolution and medial desire?
   2. What theoretical forms of the classic desire are growing  with
   postcinema, video games and comics (Ataraxia, absolute tension, dependen=
cy,
   need, lack, hedonism)? What are the new theoretical forms of the desire
   inscribed in these products?  Does the media  convergence enable  the
   development of specific forms of desire? Is there a link between the
   fragmentation of the desire and audiovisual snack-culture?
   3. What configurations of the subjectivity are built between the
   desiring subject of modernity? And which of the desired objects?  Are th=
ey
   only dematerialized, alienated, masked identities, such as those often
   inhabiting  the Internet, or do they keep something physical and tangibl=
e
   quality? Are there still sexual, social, political, economic identities
   through which the desires are created? How the evolution of the "to be
   desired", as expressed by the relationship between  audio-visual culture=
,
   social networks and self-consumer display, fits into this theoretical
   evolution of the concept of desire?
   4. What are the characters=92 specificities that constitute the epitomes
   of the desire in contemporary popular culture? What characteristics of t=
he
   heroes of pop culture constitute a solicitation strategy of the desire a=
nd
   of what kind of desire?
   5. What are the roots of the contemporary desire in the pop culture?
   What past media experiences constitute nodal points in the history of th=
e
   desire in this culture?
   6. Do the evolutions of body configurations in contemporary media, from
   dematerializations to human-machine hybridizations, make up new desires?
   Can the fascination with the possibility of strengthening of their human
   resources developed by new techniques  be the new frontier of the desire=
?
   7. Does the dependence on the texts of popular culture and on the
   technological tools often reminded by the socio-pedagogical researches
   represent a new form of inexhaustible desire or the new suite of fetishi=
sm?
   Are there any formal or rhetorical devices that attract a specificity of
   the modern desire  in this sense (for example, the mechanisms of addicti=
on
   in television serials)? How the old contents adapt themselves to new
   technological configurations? And within the texts, is there a relations=
hip
   between desire and iteration (sequels, remakes, media franchise).

Applicants are invited to submit abstracts addressing the main topic and
its articulations. Proposals can be: individual paper proposals and panel
proposals for the plenary sessions; workshop proposal. *Deadline for paper
proposals: November 30, **2011. Proposal length*: 1 page max. A short CV
(10 lines max.) should be sent together with the paper proposal.

e-mail: (gospringschool /at/ gmail.com)


*For more information, please contact:*

Dipartimento di Storia e Tutela dei Beni Culturali - Universit=E0 degli Stu=
di
di Udine, Palazzo Caiselli, Vicolo Florio 2 - 33100

Udine, Italy fax: +39/0432/556644 - e-mail: (gospringschool /at/ gmail.com) -
http://filmforum.uniud.it


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