The Desire for History in Lars von Trier’s Europa and Theo Angelopoulos’ The Suspended Step of the Stork

THE PERSISTENCE OF DIALECTICS OR THE DESIRE FOR HISTORY IN LARS VON TRIER'S EUROPA AND THEO ANGELOPOULOS' THE SUSPENDED STEP OF THE STORK In this article I intend to discuss cinema’s potential to represent history in a period that political conflict and historical referents seem to be absent. I am going to pursue this argument through a comparative reading of two films, Lars von Trier’s Europa (1991) and Theo Angelopoulos’ The Suspended Step of the Stork (1991). My contention is that these two films exploit historical narratives of the past and the present with the view to negating teleological and ahistorical assumptions that history has come to a standstill. The central topos of the postmodern theory is that the distinctions between real and fictional reference are not clear-cut and in order to gain an historical understanding one has to go beyond reductionist simplifications between facts..

Theatricality as Cruelty

This essay suggests that theatricality is key to understanding Artaudian cruelty. I clarify this with reference to two films by Sergei Eisenstein and Abel Gance. The essay draws attention to the multimedia aspect of Artaud's aesthetic and proposes a pathway that can help us reconsider distinctions between theatricality and cinematic specificity

‘From Binary to Rich Dialectics: The Revolt of the Fishermen and Mauser’

Dialectics constitutes one of Marx’s key theoretical formulations. For Marx, the dialectic stands for a method of negation that reveals the mediated aspect of what appears to be evident and immediate. While Marx’s view of the dialectic goes beyond Hegelian binaries, the prototype of dialectical cinema as typified in the films of Eisenstein relies on the employment of binaries, whose collision produces a synthesis that offers a concrete hermeneutical schemata. Although such a paradigm offers an elementary introduction to the Marxist approach to history, it ignores the richness of Marxist dialectics and offers a somehow mechanistic understanding both of the historical process as well as of cinema’s ability to employ the dialectical method productively. This article explores the shift from a binary to a rich dialectic by focusing on two case studies: Erwin Piscator’s The Revolt of the Fishermen (1934) and Philippe Vincent’s adaptation of Heiner Müller ’s Mauser (1999). Though both films are grounded in a dialectical staging reliant on fragmented sequences that generate associations in place of diegetic linearity, they differ in their employment of the dialectical method. In offering a comparative reading of these two films, the article intends to open up different ways of thinking about cinema and dialectics so as to redeem the dialectical method as a valid means of addressing political questions in the present

'A film should be like a stone in your shoe': a Brechtian reading of Lars von Trier

This central premise of this thesis is that Lars von Trier is a political director. Through a detailed formal analysis of five films I proceed to discuss the political implications of form, something that has not been acknowledged by scholarship so far. In this thesis, I employ Brecht as a methodological tool so as to discuss the shift from a dialectical cinema devoted to the production of knowledge effects, to a post-Brechtian one that brings together points of tension that remain unresolved. Chapter 1 proceeds to a historical evaluation of Brecht’s reception in film theory and considers the ways that Brecht’s theory and practice can address the cinematic and political concerns of the present. The chapter also locates von Trier under the rubric of the post-Brechtian by comparing him to past film practices. Chapter 2 moves to a discussion of von Trier’s Europa trilogy and focuses on issues of historical representation. Emphasis is placed on formal elements that challenge the narrative laws of classical cinema. The chapter argues that von Trier follows Brecht’s mistrust of a historical representation based on pictorial verisimilitude, without however sharing his forward-looking politics and his view of history as Marxist science. Chapter 3 discusses Dogme 95 and The Idiots (1998). Firstly, the chapter discusses Dogme’s combination of a political modernist rhetoric with a realist one and places Dogme’s return to the past in a historical context. Secondly, the chapter considers the role of performance as a formal and thematic element in The Idiots. I draw attention to the ways that the camera becomes performative and brings together material of dramaturgical importance with moments that are the product of cinematic contingency. My discussion is very much informed by contemporary post-Brechtian performance and film studies invested in the discussion of ‘corporeal cinema’. Chapter 4 discusses Dogville, a film with obvious references to Brecht. Unlike previous readings, I shift the emphasis from the film’s assumed ‘Anti-Americanism’ and proceed to a formal analysis that can rethink the film’s politics and innovations. While Brecht has been thought to be as a fleeting presence in von Trier’s films by most critics, this thesis suggests that our knowledge of von Trier’s formal innovations can be deepened and enlivened by discussing them in conjunction with Brecht’s theory. By returning to Brecht, we can also rethink the importance of form as the key to a film’s politics

Compressed sensing current mapping spatial characterization of photovoltaic devices

In this work a new measurement technique for current mapping of photovoltaic (PV) devices is developed, utilising the compressed sensing (CS) sampling theory. Conventional current mapping measurements of PV devices are realised using the light beam induced current (LBIC) measurement method. For its realization, a light beam scans a PV device and the induced current is measured for every point, generating the final current map of the device. Disadvantages of the LBIC method are the low measurement speed, the complicated and usually expensive measurement layouts and the impractical application of the method on PV modules. With the development of CS current mapping in this work, the above issues can be mitigated. Instead of applying a raster scan, a series of illumination patterns are projected onto the PV sample, acquiring fewer measurements than the pixels of the final current map. The final reconstruction of the current map is achieved by means of an optimisation algorithm. Spatially resolved electrical simulations of CS current mapping demonstrate that theoretically the proposed method is feasible. In addition, it is shown that current maps can be acquired with even 40% of the measurements a standard LBIC system would require, saving a significant amount of measurement time. The performance of CS current mapping is the same, regardless of the features a sample may contain and measurements can be applied to any type of photovoltaic device. The ability of the method to provide current maps of PV modules is demonstrated. The performance of several reconstruction algorithms is also investigated. An optical measurement setup for CS current mapping of small area PV devices was built at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), based on a digital micromirror device (DMD). Accurate current maps can be produced with only 40% of the measurements a conventional point by point scan would need, confirming simulation results. The measurement setup is compact, straightforward to realise and uses a small number of optical elements. It can measure a small area of 1cm by 1cm, making it ideal for current mapping of small research samples. A significant signal amplification is achieved, since the patterns illuminate half of the sample. This diminishes the use of lock-in techniques, reducing the cost for current mapping of PV devices. Current maps of an optical resolution up to 27μm are acquired, without the use of any demagnification elements of the projected pattern that the DMD generates. v A scale up of this new current mapping method is demonstrated using Digital Light Processing (DLP) technology, which is based on DMD chips. A commercial DLP projector is utilised for building a proof of concept CS current mapping measurement system at the Centre of Renewable Energy Systems Technology (CREST). Current maps of individual PV cells in encapsulated modules can be acquired, something that is extremely difficult to achieve with conventional LBIC systems. Direct current mapping of a PV module with by-pass diodes is successfully applied for the first time. Specific shading strategies are developed for this purpose in order to isolate the cell under test. Due to the application of compressive sampling, current maps are acquired even if the signal-to-noise-ratio levels are so low that a point by point scan is not possible. Through the above implementations of CS current mapping of this work, the proposed technique is studied and evaluated. The results demonstrate that this novel method can offer a realistic alternative approach for current mapping of PV cells and modules that can be cost effective and straightforward to implement. In addition, this work introduces the application of the CS theory and DLP technology to PV metrology in general

Large eddy simulation of plume dispersion behind an aircraft in the take-off phase

The aim of this paper is to provide an investigation, using large eddy simulation, into plume dispersion behind an aircraft in co-flowing take-off conditions. Validation studies of the computational model were presented by Aloysius and Wrobel (Environ Model Softw 24:929–937, 2009) and a study of the flow and dispersion properties of a double-engine aircraft jetwas presented by Aloysius et al. EEC/SEE/2007/001,EUROCONTROLExperimentalCentre, http://www.eurocontrol.int/eec/gallery/content/public/document/eec/report/2007/ 032_ALAQS_comparison_of_CFD_and_Lagrangian_dispersion_methods.pdf), in which only the engine was modelled. In this paper, the complete geometry of a Boeing 737 is modelled and investigated. The currentwork represents a contribution towards a better understanding of the source dynamics behind an airplane jet engine during the take-off and landing phases. The information provided from these simulations will be useful for future improvements of existing dispersion models