XXII International Conference of Film Studies
Roma Tre University – Department of Philosophy, Media, and Performing Arts

Rome, November 24th–25th, 2016

EXTENDED DEADLINE: September 10th, 2016

Confirmed keynote speakers: Stella Bruzzi (University of Warwick), Torben Grodal (University of Copenhagen), Steven Shaviro (Wayne State University)

Audiovisual media are the basis for most of our experiences today. In a postdigital and postmedia age, they are a crucial element constituting the environment in which we are immersed, act, and sense ourselves and others. Furthermore, it is through media that we expand our sensorial abilities and redefine our own identity.
According to widespread opinion, contemporary audiovisual culture implies a deep reconfiguration of experience, and a resulting rethinking of the 20th century paradigms. Cinema, television, photography, videogames, media art, and the web – together with new interactive and immersive technologies – constantly permeate artistic and everyday spaces. They stimulate and mobilize our affective and sensorial spheres, and involve our consciousness on many different levels. Research about media experience is hence increasingly located at the crossroads of biology, technology, and culture.

Which are the main approaches deriving from the transformations in the contemporary audiovisual scenario? Film and media aesthetics has recently proposed new models to address the interactions of screens, minds, and bodies. The growth of new interdisciplinary research areas demonstrates a new sensibility, thus restoring the idea of aesthetics as a theory of sensory experience – an experience that is investigated from various different perspectives, from naturalism to culturalism, and inspired by both continental and analytic frameworks. However, the emergence of new media arts and forms induces the consideration of aesthetics as a philosophy of art, especially with respect to the many creative uses of new technologies. These two aspects are not mutually exclusive; rather, an exploration of their interactions can enrich both of them.

The 22nd International Conference of Film Studies addresses contemporary trends in media and film aesthetics. We invite scholars and researchers from any involved discipline to propose an abstract addressing one the following issues − but not limited to them. Each issue can be approached from a purely theoretical perspective, or through specific case studies.

• The interactions between mind and screen, and their impact on the sensorial and affective experience of the viewer.
• Medium-body relations, including the idea of the body as medium.
• The impact of film and media experience on agency, conscience, subjectivity, and identity.
• The social impact of media emotions, with particular reference to trauma studies.
• Film and media aesthetics and politics: the aesthetic sensorium.
• Applicative implications of theoretical models, with particular reference to gaming, education, and medicine.
• Analytic and continental aesthetics: contrast and compare.
• Interdisciplinary fields of research: from affect theory to sensory studies, from cognitive media theory to neuroaesthetics, and beyond.
• Beyond ocularcentrism: embodiment, hapticity, and synesthesia.
• Environment and visuality: rethinking the concepts of medium and visual regime.
• Classical film aesthetics and its development in the 21st century.
• Film aesthetic and ontology: parallels and differences.
• 19th and 20th centuries’ visual culture in light of the contemporary media landscape.
• Art in the postmedia age, and the new creative forms.

Contributors can send their abstract (300-500 words, 3-5 keywords, 3-5 bibliographic references) to roma3conference@uniroma3.it. Please include a brief biography of the author(s), together with the main contacts.

The abstract must be received by September 10th, 2016. All notifications of acceptance will be sent no later than September 15th, 2016.

Presentations will last 20 minutes. The conference’s languages are English and Italian.

Organizers: Enrico Carocci, Ivelise Perniola
(Roma Tre University – Department of Philosophy, Media, and Performing Arts)

Fee (speakers): 40.00 EUR

See more: roma3conference.wixsite.com/filmmediaaesthetics/call-for-papers-eng