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Vertov, Snow, Farocki David Tomas

Vertov, Snow, Farocki By David Tomas

Vertov, Snow, Farocki by David Tomas


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Vertov, Snow, Farocki Summary

Vertov, Snow, Farocki: Machine Vision and the Posthuman by David Tomas

Vertov, Snow, Farocki: Machine Vision and the Posthuman begins with a comprehensive and original anthropological analysis of Vertov's film The Man With a Movie Camera. Tomas then explores the film's various aspects and contributions to media history and practice through detailed discussions of selected case studies. The first concerns the way Snow's La Region Centrale and De La extend and/or develop important theoretical and technical aspects of Vertov's original film, in particular those aspects that have made the film so important in the history of cinema. The linkage between Vertov's film and the works discussed in the case studies also serve to illustrate the historical and theoretical significance of a comparative approach of this kind, and illustrate the pertinence of adopting a 'relational approach' to the history of media and its contemporary practice, an approach that is no longer focused exclusively on the technical question of the new in contemporary media practices but, in contrast, situates a work and measures its originality in historical, intermedia, and ultimately political terms.

Vertov, Snow, Farocki Reviews

Tomas' ideas are fascinating . . . [and his book] presents these ideas in a measured way, precisely and deliberately considering his key examples. The volume is a must for anyone interested in technology or cinema, or for the greater implications of a society who carries in their pocket the capacity to record and represent the world around them. -- Daniel Binns, University of West Sydney, Australia * Cinema Journal *
Tomas, an artist and anthropologist at the Universite du Quebec, Montreal, continues the work he undertook in Beyond the Image Machine: A History of Visual Technologies, exhorting readers to view visual technologies differently. In this volume, Tomas attempts to shift attention from aesthetic products to ritual practices. Specifically, he argues for understanding the mechanical process of filming as a rite of passage whereby the image is taken, processed, and reincorporated into the socio-symbolic order. This ritual structure becomes the basis for a comparative anthropological study of Dziga Vertov's The Man with a Movie Camera, Michael Snow's La Region Centrale and De La, and Harun Farocki's trilogy Eye/Machine and Counter-Music. The experimental, posthuman processes involved in shooting these unique films is of primary interest, leading to detailed discussions of the filmmaker's intentions and abstract theorization of their specific execution. For this reason, Tomas's esoteric, though intriguing, revisioning of film's history and future is likely of most use to experts. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty. -- T. J. Welsh, Loyola University New Orleans, USA * CHOICE *

About David Tomas

David Tomas is a Professor at the School of Visual Arts, University of Quebec, Montreal, Canada.

Table of Contents

Introduction Part I: Threshold: When a Ritual Process Speaks of Machine Vision and Cyborg Prototypes: A Film Document, Circa 1929 Chapter 1. Manufacturing Vision and the Posthuman Circa 1929: Kino-eye, The Man with a Movie Camera, and the Perceptual Reconstruction of Social Identity Part II: Enigma of the Central Region: A Microhistory of Machine Vision and Posthuman Consciousness, Circa 1969-1972 Chapter 2. La Region Centrale: Basic Cultural, Technical and Formal Filiations Chapter 3. Toward a Cosmic Rite of Passage: External & Internal Locations and a Play of Authorship Chapter 4. La Region Centrale: Liminality, Knowledge Production, Pedagogy Chapter 5. La Region Centrale: From Cosmic to Posthuman Rite of Passage Chapter 6. De La (1969-71): Authorship, Automation and the Posthuman Chapter 7. A Comparative Schematic Analysis of the Automated Narrative and its Mechanical Logic in Vertov's The Man with a Movie Camera (1929) and Michael Snow's De La (1969-1972) Part III: The Public Deployment of Machine Vision and the Programmed Materialization of the Posthuman in Collective Social Space, Two Early Twenty-First Century Video Documents Chapter 8. A Posthuman Future in the Age of the Algorithm: Farock's Documentation of the Operational Image and its Culture of Surveillance Bibliography Index

Additional information

NLS9781501307294
9781501307294
1501307290
Vertov, Snow, Farocki: Machine Vision and the Posthuman by David Tomas
New
Paperback
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
2015-04-23
304
N/A
Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
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