Seeing and Doing. On the Gestural Program(s) of Werner Nekes' Experimental Films
Questions of operating and gestural programs are inherent in optical devices and thus characterize approaches to researching early cinematographic devices and media. The lecture strives to make such perspective useful for the examination of Werner Nekes' early experimental films. The aim of such a gestural-choreographic reading would be to uncover specific and recurring forms of movement in Nekes' experimental films. On one hand, these »micro-choreographies« will be used to investigate inscribed forms of corporeality - including their links to performance, dance and body art of the 1960s and 70s. On the other hand, the focus on gestures and media operations enables Nekes' experimental films to be thought of in a comprehensive sense as hand and body work. (Translation TWS)
Biography
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Kristina Köhler works as Junior Professor for Art and Media History of Visual Media at the University of Cologne. Prior to that, she studied media, film and theater studies in Brussels, Weimar and Lyon; doctorate with the thesis Der tänzerische Film. Early Film Culture and Modern Dance (Schüren 2017) at the University of Zurich, 2017 to 2020 Junior Professor of Film Studies at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. She is co-editor of the journal Montage AV and series editor of Film-Konzepte; since 2020 member of the Jungen at the Academy of Sciences and Literature Mainz. Main research interests: Theory and history of moving images at the interface of art, media and dance history; history of film theory and knowledge; textiles and fashion in visual culture around 1900; media archaeology/media change. (Translation TWS)