Thorsten Botz-Bornstein: Werckmeister Harmonies - a podcast by ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medien Karlsruhe

The Real of Reality | International Conference on Philosophy and Film

Wed, 02.11.2016 – Sun, 06.11.2016

ZKM_Media Theater, ZKM_Lecture Hall, ZKM_Media Lounge, ZKM_Cube

In Tarr’s film »Werckmeister Harmonies« the musicologist Eszter is haunted by a question that can be seen as the theme of the film: is math real or simply imagined? It is possible to derive from this question further questions about the reality character of film. Can math be the arbiter of beauty or is there something more fundamental about beauty, which the human ear can hear but which logic and math cannot grasp? The Werckmeister Harmonies problem questions the categorical distinction between the given (nature) and the constructed (culture) and asks whether culture (in the film designated as “math”) is real.

Eszter discovers that there is a gap between math (or mathematically established music) and reality (or real music). The philosophical criticism addresses the »reality character« of geometry/math altogether. Mathematically, if one goes up seven octaves from a C (an octave defined as an interval that always doubles the frequency of the preceding note), one should end up on exactly the note that the human ear identifies as a higher C. The problem is that one doesn’t. After seven octaves, the note that we land on will be a quarter of a semitone off if measured mathematically. Is this an imperfection of the human ear, of mathematics, or of nature? Ratios that appear to exist in nature do not necessarily overlap with mathematical order. Natural laws hold the individual intervals together inside a harmonic system that might be irrational from a mathematical point of view but still needs to be accepted.

Eszter’s questions bear a strong metaphorical link with philosophical questions concerning the reality character of cinema. What is »reality« for cinema? Is it calculated beforehand (in terms of time and space) or is there an organic reality that evolves in cinema and from cinema?

International Conference on Philosophy and Film

Photography and film in particular paved the way for complex philosophical questions regarding the nature of reality and its mechanical reproduction. What does film reproduce and how can we grasp this element, which has the transactive ability to form reality although originating in reality? This shaping takes palce through a complex interaction of image, action and narration and tends to permeate reality completely. It is an inconspicuous process that already affects our everyday life profoundly and is based on a revolution of the real. What does film show? Do we have access to reality that is not based on images or narrations? And what can film and its analysis contribute to philosophical debates on the real?

These are questions we are asking to engage in a dialogue between philosophy and film. For five days, one hundred and fifty philosophers, media scholars and filmmakers will connect philosophical theory with cinematic practice and open up new ideas and concepts. To accompany the program, there will be film screenings of documentaries of the invited filmmakers.

The participation at the conference is also possible without the presentation of a paper.

The conference will be held in English.

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Internationale Konferenz zu Philosophie und Film

Mi, 02.11.2016 – So, 06.11.2016

ZKM_Medientheater, ZKM_Vortragssaal, ZKM_Medialounge, ZKM_Kubus

Fotografie und insbesondere Film haben den Weg bereitet für komplexe philosophische Fragestellungen bezüglich der Natur der Realität und ihrer technischen Reproduktion. Denn trotz ihres Abbildcharakters sind Fotografie und Film keine bloßen Kopien der Realität, sondern besitzen die Fähigkeit Realität selbst zu formen. Diese Gestaltung geschieht sowohl durch Bilder als auch durch Erzählungen. Die apparat-basierten (Ab)Bilder der Realität streben durch ihre Präsenz dahin, die Realität zu ersetzen. Dies ist ein unauffälliger Prozess, der bereits unseren Alltag tiefgreifend beeinflusst. Was zeigt ein Film? Haben wir überhaupt einen Zugang zur Realität jenseits von Bild und Erzählung? Und was können Filme und deren Analyse zur philosophischen Debatte über das Reale beitragen?

Diesen Fragen versuchen wir in einem Dialog zwischen Philosophie und Film näher zu kommen. Über hundert PhilosophInnen, MedienwissenschaftlerInnen und FilmemacherInnen werden in fünf Tagen philosophische Theorie und filmische Praxis miteinander verknüpfen und neue Gedanken offenlegen. Begleitend zum Programm wird es Vorführungen von Dokumentarfilmen eingeladener FilmemacherInnen geben.

Die Veranstaltung findet in englischer Sprache statt.

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