The Humanities Council’s Committee for Film Studies has launched a new compact lecture series, titled “Figure Ground Media” for spring 2023.
“Featuring some of the most exciting scholars working across media studies today and highlighted by a Faber Lecture by leading film theorist and historian Mary Ann Doane, the series explores the production of space in film, television and virtual reality and the forms of embodiment, consciousness and affect that arise within those spaces,” said Steven Chung (East Asian Studies), acting chair of the Committee for Film Studies.
The program begins with “The Background Fantastic: Ambient Fantasy from YouTube to the Metaverse” on Wednesday, March 29 at 4:30 pm in 100 Jones Hall. Paul Roquet (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) will examine the prominent role of fantasy settings in the spread of YouTube ‘ambience’ and ‘study with me’ videos, as well as the fantasy backdrops so central to life in social VR.
On April 10, Mary Anne Doane (UC-Berkeley) will present a Faber Lecture titled “Cinematic Faces and Hands,” which will explore the history of the cinematic close-up, and the relationship to space and the body. The series will conclude on April 26 with “Inside the Mind of the Influencing Machine: Set Design in the Age of Cold War Television,” a lecture from Weihong Bao (UC-Berkeley). All events are open to the public.
For more information, please visit the Committee for Film Studies website.
