[Commlist] Call for Papers - The Shifting Ecologies of Photochemical Film in the Digital Era

  CFP: The Shifting Ecologies of Photochemical Film in the Digital Era

*The Shifting Ecologies of Photochemical Film in the Digital Era*

7- 11 June 2021

Online, hosted by Aberystwyth University, Wales

In today’s high-tech media landscape, where cycles of consumption and 
disposal and upgrades and updates are commonplace, the subject of 
obsolescence takes on a heightened significance. Many technological 
changes have occurred during the history of cinema, but none have had 
such a transformative effect on the industry as the transition from 
analogue (or photochemical) film to digital. Since the early 2000s, the 
medium of film has moved from a dominant to a marginal position as 
digital technology has rendered photochemical and mechanical technology 
obsolete on a commercial scale. Despite this, artists are finding new 
ways to work with film, forging alternative communities, pursuing 
artisanal methods, repurposing abandoned equipment, reinventing 
primitive techniques and exploring new hybrid technologies.

Whilst academic scholarship is gradually acknowledging the importance of 
these activities to the development of film as an art form, as well as 
the theoretical discourses that surround it, a much broader approach is 
required to take into account the myriad shifts and challenges of 
photochemical film production, distribution and exhibition. What 
aesthetic modes and forms of material engagement are opened up through 
film’s new cultural status? If, as Walter Benjamin suggested, outmoded 
technology contains a radical, critical potential, how is this 
manifested in creative gestures, alternative communities and sites of 
encounter? How can so-called obsolete technologies articulate 
oppositional political positions, embracing different perceptions, 
marginal voices and uncomfortable contemporary realities? In a world so 
defined by digital interactions, how does film operate alongside and in 
dialogue with this technological landscape? Important questions also 
relate to the corresponding ecologies that allow photochemical film 
works to circulate as material objects and embodied experiences. At a 
time when most films are distributed and projected as digital files, 
what infrastructures are in place for the production and presentation of 
film prints? What arguments can be made in relation to the importance of 
mechanical projection? What is the role of institutions in safeguarding 
photochemical film of the past, present and future?

This conference sets out to investigate the current state of 
photochemical film and its future sustainability in the digital era. It 
aims to stimulate debate on all aspects of production, distribution and 
exhibition, exploring how these might be more effectively brought 
together through a combination of academic and artistic research, as 
well as self-organised networks and communities. Although photochemical 
film, particularly Super 8 and 16mm, is now mostly aligned with 
experimental and artists’ cinema, the conference welcomes interventions 
in all areas of creative practice and academic research. It aims to 
explore how academic perspectives on, curatorial interventions in, and 
creative responses to technological obsolescence might bring greater 
awareness to this marginal yet vital area of film culture.

The conference will now be held primarily online due to continuing 
uncertainties around the global pandemic. While this is unfavourable for 
photochemical film projection and installation, it opens up 
possibilities for broader participation, and the organisers particularly 
welcome proposals from researchers and artists working outside of 
European and American contexts, as well as presentations that centre the 
perspective of marginalised communities.

The organisers welcome academic papers, screenings, panel discussions 
and artist talks on a broad range of topics:

  * Photochemical film aesthetics and politics
  * New philosophical perspectives
  * Theories of obsolescence
  * Film phenomenology and the haptic image
  * Film archiving
  * Film decay and found footage
  * DIY exhibition and micro-cinemas
  * DIY film communities and networks (including artist-run film labs)
  * Global Photochemical Film Culture
  * Film installation
  * Expanded film performance
  * Film-digital hybrid works
  * Film technological research
  * Research into photochemistry
  * Hybrid research such as 3D printing for machine parts
  * Historical parallels with the current technological moment
  * Curating/programming photochemical film
  * Material perspectives on the gallery space
  * Embodied responses to film projection
  * Economic sustainability
  * Questions around access to resources
  * Maintaining film culture and exhibition practices during the pandemic

Confirmed contributors:

Richard Tuohy, artist (Daylesford, Australia)

Esther Urlus, artist and co-founder of Filmwerkplaats (Rotterdam, 
Netherlands)

Karel Doing, artist and academic (Oxford, UK)

Emmanuel Lefrant, artist and director of Light Cone Distribution (Paris, 
France)

Bea Haut, artist and producer of Loophole Cinema and Analogue Recurring 
(London, UK)

Vicky Smith, artist and academic (Bristol, UK)

James Holcombe, artist and Orwo UK supplier (Frome, UK)

*Proposal submission deadline: 15 March 2021*

Please send proposals of approx. 300 words, noting institutional 
affiliation if any, plus a short biography. Please indicate clearly the 
nature of your contribution and whether any particular technical set-up 
will be required. Academic presentations and artist talks should aim for 
a duration of around 20 minutes. We encourage a range of presentation 
formats and will do our best to accommodate non-standard set-ups. 
Notifications will be sent by 9 April.

The conference will not have registration fees. Proposals should be sent 
to: Dr Kim Knowles *(kik2 /at/ aber.ac.uk) <mailto:(kik2 /at/ aber.ac.uk)>*


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