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 18, 2015:

9 – 10:45 a.m.
The Poetry of Industry 2: Sound
Alessandro Cecchi (Pisa)
Creative Films for Creative Corporations: Audiovisual Experimentation in Italian Industrial Films of the Economic Miracle and After
Annette Davison (Edinburgh) Listening to Shell’s (Films)
Chair: Marion Saxer (Professor of Musicology, Universität Frankfurt/M.)

11:15 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Industrial Cinema as Assemblage and Resource
Ira Plein (Luxemburg)
Beautiful Luxembourg, Steel Works and a Swimmingpool.
Notes on the Corporate Film Columeta (1921/22) and the Echo of Motifs in Luxembourgian Presentations of the Steel Industry
Alain Michel (Paris)
War, Peace and Education: Aux usines Renault and the Different Uses of the Same Moving Picture from 1917 to 1925
Chair: Sonia Campanini (Professor of Film Culture, Universität Frankfurt/M.)

1-2 p.m. Lunch break

2-3:45 p.m.
Screening 5 (@ Museum für Angewandte Kunst)
Czech and Sovjet Industrial Cinema
(curated and presented by Lucie Cesalkova and Maria Vinogradova)
Zemeˇ se otevírá / The Earth Opens (Jan Libora, 193, 11’, 35mm, BW)
Zdarˇ Bu ̊h, hoši / Godspeed, Guys (Jiří Krejčík, 1944, 15’, 35mm, BW)
Hrdinové práce / Heroes of Labour (Jiří Krejčík, 1945, 15’, 35mm, BW)
Bitva pod zemí / Underground Battle (Drahoslav Holub, 1949, 15’, 35mm, BW)
Mechanisace dolu ̊ / Mechanisation of Mines (František Lukáš, 1951, 13’, 16mm, BW; screening format Full HD/h264) Budnii Vecher / A Weeknight (MIIT-Film, Moscow, 1964, 9’, 35mm, BW)
V trude i na dosuge / At Work and Leisure (Amateur Film Studio of Ball-Bearing Factory No. 1 (GPZ No1), Moscow, 10’, 35mm, color)
Takoe bol’shoe pole / Such A Vast Field (Peoples’ Film Studio of DK Proftekhobrazovania, Leningrad, 1977, 10’, 35mm, BW)

4-6 p.m.
Panel Discussion: The Afterlives of an Ephemeral Form
Jan-Ottmar Hesse (Bayreuth; economic history/media studies)
Anja Laukötter (Berlin; history of science/film studies) Thomas Turnbull (Oxford; history of technology)
Daniela Zetti (Zurich; history of technology/media studies)
Moderators: Yvonne Zimmermann, Florian Hoof and Vinzenz Hediger

6 p.m.
Closing remarks

The whole program and all further information can be found in the attached PDF.

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.