The truth-machine: continuity and the ontology of the moving image of cinema

The analytical nature of representation is inconsistent with the homogeneity of the continuum. This inconsistency determines the moving image of cinema; for, the cinematographic apparatus employs photographic still images to reconstitute the appearance of motion of the real world. Bergson claims that this cinematographic perception is also characteristic of our understanding of the real world; the qualitative essence of movement and time is spatially abstracted through representation for the demands of differentiation and quantification. Ensuing an overturning of time's relation to movement in modern philosophy, Deleuze's theory for the image rectifies the misconception of cinematic movement as discontinuity. Considering the novel representability of continuity in the cinema, this thesis proceeds to a rethinking of the image's significance for an understanding of worldly being by defining a new ontological account for the moving Image. The study of the technological genesis of the moving image discloses its ontological difference from the photographic image. Scrutinizing representation of movement in chronophotographic practice, the spatial abstraction of continuity caused by photographic seriality Is revealed thus enabling a departure from the traditional understanding of cinema's temporality. The practice based research - which is also concerned with the issues of continuity's representability and the falsification of perception of the moving and still Image - produces formal cinematic devices used for the making of the feature length documentary an Anthology of Easter. Challenging the conventional poetic and aesthetic modalities of non-fiction film, it addresses the question of the continuity of movement, time and space and engages with the intelligible perception of the real world as a referent of the moving image. Finally, the thesis proposes that the moving image of cinema enhances the notion of indexicality; for, it provides us the unique representational sign that retains the continuous nature of time, in the image of the real world

European Avant-Garde: Art, Borders and Culture in Relationship to Mainstream Cinema and New Media

This research analyses the impact of transformation and hybridization processes at the intersection of art, science and technology. These forms of transformation and hybridization are the result of contemporary interactions between classic and digital media. It discusses the concept of 'remediation' presented by Bolter and proposes the concept of 'digital ekphrasis,' which is based on Manovich' s analyses of the interactions between classic and digital media. This is a model which, borrowed from semiotic structures, encompasses the technical as well as aesthetic and philosophical transformations of contemporary media. The thesis rejects Baudrillard's and Virilio's proposed concepts of 'digital black hole' as the only possible form of evolution of contemporary digital media. It proposes a different concept for the evolutionary model of contemporary hybridization processes based on contemporary forms of hybridizations that are rooted in aesthetic, philosophical and technological developments. This concept is argued as emancipated from the 'religious' idea of a 'divine originated' perfect image that Baudrillard and Virilio consider to be deteriorated from contemporary hybridization experimentation. The thesis proposes, through historical examples in the fine arts, the importance of transmedia migrations and experimentations as the framework for a philosophical, aesthetic and technological evolutionary concept of humanity freed from the restrictions of religious imperatives

Gilbert Simondon: Causality, ontogenesis & technology

This PhD thesis focuses on the elucidation, development and application of Gilbert Simondon's realist philosophy of individuation. In particular the thesis has three main goals: First, to provide a developed account of Simondon's ontology. Second, to develop a coherent account of causality in line with Simondon's theorization of individuation. Third, to give a full account of Simondon's philosophy of technology and evaluate its relevance for the contemporary technological state of affairs.To answer the third of these questions it is necessary to address the others. A realist, non-anthropological account of technology necessarily requires the development of a robust ontology and a suitable theorization of causality.In this thesis this is achieved by developing the key concepts involved in Simondon's theory of individuation such as transduction, metastability and pre-individuality. Before developing an account of transductive operation in the three regimes of individuation which Simondon stipulates (physical, vital and psycho-social) we argue for Simondon's account of allagmatics (theory of operations) as consistent with and in some ways superior to some contemporary powers based theories of causality.Having established the broad scope of Simondon's axiomatic use of individuation it is then utilized in order to fully examine his philosophy of technology. This is achieved by bringing together Simondon's theorization of individuation in multiple domains (e.g. the image-cycle, transindividual) in relation to that of technology. In doing this we also develop other important aspects of Simondon's philosophy such as aesthetics, epistemology and ethics.By necessity the thesis has a broad scope in order to reflect the encyclopedic ambition which Simondon had for his genetic philosophy and without which his work is prone to be misunderstood. As such it describes a novel encounter between cybernetics, phenomenology and energetics