Featuring the work of specialists from Europe, the United States and
Asia, the conference works from the assumption that economic development
requires industrial organization, while industrial organization
requires communication and communication requires media.
Bringing
together perspectives from cinema and media studies, economic history
and science and technology studies, this conference aims to develop an
analytical framework for understanding the uses of art in industry and
the media culture of industry.
The conference is open to the
public and includes screenings of rare films from archives in the United
States, Great Britain, Italy and Central and Eastern Europe.
Conference Locations, Frankfurt am Main:
– Museum Angewandte Kunst, Schaumainkai 17
– Kino im Deutschen Filmmuseum, Schaumainkai 41
Programm on December 17, 2015:
9 – 10:45 a.m.
The Politics of Performance: Energy and Work 1
Patrick Russell (London)
Transfer of Power: Film and the Competing Energy Industries of Post-War Britain
Lucie Cesálková (Brno)
Energy of a Tamed Element: Water Management Films between Science, Industry, Ecology and Art
Chair: Yvonne Zimmermann (Professor of Media Studies, Philipps-Universität Marburg)
11:15 a.m. – 1 p.m.
The Politics of Performance: Energy and Work 2
Yvonne Zimmermann (Marburg)
Energy Flows: Circulation and Transformation in Films on Hydropower in Switzerland before 1965
Maria Vinogradova (New York)
Soviet Industrial Film: Types, Production, Uses
Chair: Jan-Ottmar Hesse (Professor of Social and Economic History, University of Bayreuth)
1 – 2 p.m. Lunch break
2 – 3:45 p.m.
Expanded Industrial Cinema
Haidee Wasson (Concordia)
Expansionist Experiments: Film Technologies and Industrial-Military Ecologies
Giulio Bursi (IUML University Milan)
The Future of What? Edgar Reitz’s Variavision and its Afterlives
Chair: Rembert Hüser (Professor of Media Studies, Universität Frankfurt/M.)
4 – 5:45 p.m.
The Poetry of Industry 1: Rhetoric
Gwenaële Rot/François Vatin (Paris)
Le chant du styrène: Poetry and Corporate Communications in 1950s France
Anna Maria Falchero (Perugia)
Movie and industry in Italy: The “Golden Age” of Italian Industrial Documentary (1950–1970)
Chair: Clemens Zimmermann (Professor of Media and Cultural History, Universität Saarbrücken)
6:15 – 8 p.m. Screening 4
Mobility and Communication. A Program of US Industrial Films
(curated and presented by Rick Prelinger)
Master Hands (Jam Handy Organization for Chevrolet Motor Company, 1936, 32’, 35mm, B&W)
American Look (Jam Handy Organization for Chevrolet Motor Company, 1958, 28’, 35mm, SuperScope, Technicolor)
In the Suburbs (On Film Inc. for Redbook Magazine, 1957, 22’, Kodachrome, digital)
Long Distance (Audio Productions Inc. for the Bell System 1941, 14’, BW, digital)
The whole program and all further information can be found in the attached PDF.