Call for papers
ClosedGeneric proposal
12th AIM INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
May 30 - June 3, 2023
University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro
CALL FOR PAPERS
The deadline for submission of proposals: November 25, 2022
We invite submissions for individual presentations and pre-constituted panels in Portuguese, Galician, Spanish or English, not exceeding 1500 characters (including spaces), in the areas of film, television, video, and digital media studies. The list is indicative and may include other areas. In order to participate in the conference, you can submit your proposal as an AIM member (free registration) or as a non-member (60€ registration fee, paid after acceptance).
Each person may submit one paper proposal, either as an individual presenter or as part of a pre-constituted panel. Some panels may have respondents. Please note that, before submission, AIM members must renew their membership for 2023 until November 20, 2022 (30€/normal; 20€ / undergraduate and masters students).
Founded in 2010, AIM – Portuguese Association of Researchers of the Moving Image aims to gather scholars and researchers whose common subjects and research interests are related to the moving image. With this in mind, eleven annual meetings have been organized: at the University of Algarve, Faro (2011), at the Catholic University of Portugal, Lisbon (2012), at the University of Coimbra (2013), at the University of Beira Interior, Covilhã (2014), at ISCTE-IUL, University Institute of Lisbon (2015), at the Catholic University of Portugal, Porto (2016), at the University of Minho, Braga (2017), at the University of Aveiro (2018), at the University of Santiago de Compostela (2019), an online edition (2021), and an hybrid edition at the University of Évora (2022).
New publication
In 2023, the papers presented at the AIM International Congress will be accepted as articles for submission to peer review and publication in a book by the prestigious publisher Imprensa de Ciências Sociais. This initiative, which aims to give more relevance and prominence to the high-quality works presented at the Congress, is expected to occur on a regular basis. In due course, all guidelines, deadlines and other rules related to the submission of articles will be presented.
Workgorups proposal
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Visual Digital Culture
This workgroup will address the different iterations of visual culture in digital contexts and the miscegenation of different visual regimes and practices of the gaze. We are interested as much in the ruptures as we are in the continuities brought upon by the transformations in the production, circulation, and appropriation of visual culture, such as those introduced by the Web 2.0, digital cinema, and the small screen media that connect the private and public spheres on a daily basis. We privilege historiographical, cultural, and aesthetic researches of the relations between the different visual regimes such as the cinematic, the televisual, or the artistic. We pay special attention to the theories of intermediality as a way to cross fertilize knowledge about "new" and "old" media and we summon the contributions of film studies, media theory, art history and art theory, to research digital visual culture.
Suggested topics:
- media archeology;
- history of film and television;
- technologies cultural forms of internet 2.0;
- internet 2.0 and digital production, exhibition and distribution film experience relocated filmic and audiovisual dispositif theories;
- contemporary audiovisual culture ideologies;
- critiques of participatory culture;
- animation, documentary, live cinema, virtual reality, transmedia, music video, video-essay.
Proposals must be submitted through the proper form.
Should any doubt arise about this internal call, contact <mpinhoalves@gmail.com>, <nog.luis@gmail.com>, <merino@ubi.pt>
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Ecocinemas
The Ecocinemas Working Group maps the relationship between cinema and what we call the natural world, recognizing the human as a mediating element of this articulation, while responding and reacting to the tendency towards anthropocentrism that is found in both film production, and in the plurality of critical approaches canonized in the context of film studies. It promotes a broad discussion of this problem without governance, a priori, by focus on specific time periods, geographical provenances or genres. It explores the heterogeneity and rich configurations that the natural has obtained throughout the history of cinema, in fiction, documentary, and hybrid forms; in works that fit explicitly into the field of ecocriticism, as well as works that contain an ecological subtext that connotes an ecocinematic perspective. On the one hand, the Group explores the different ways in which cinema presents animals, plants, fungi, the elements, etc. On the other hand, it looks at the means by which cinema can question and transform these inhabitants and non-human elements of the planet, as well as the dynamics of power and influence that humans maintain with them. The breadth of the debate involves crossovers between more strictly philosophical or aesthetic issues and topics more directly associated with environmentalism and political activism. With a foundation in the field of film studies, activities developed in this group benefit from methods and epistemologies from other disciplinary areas, such as ecocriticism, philosophy, ecofeminism, queer studies, landscape and soundscape ecology, biology, botany, and geology, among others.
Papers may explore the following topics, among other:
- Documentary and nature film
- Poetics of contemplation
- The temporalities of film and the natural world
- Extinction and preservation
- Nature and film genres (cli-fi, eco-horror, disaster film, slow cinema, etc.)
- Anthropocentrism and non-human and more-than-human point of views
- Metamorphoses of the natural
- Nature and soundscapes
- Cinema and environmental politics
- Activist moving-image practices
- Experimental cinema and video-art
Proposals must be submitted through the proper form.
Should any doubt arise about this internal call, please contact: jlbertolo@gmail; mailecolbert@gmail.com; mouzinho.susana@gmail.com
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Cinemas in Portuguese
Among the objects of study of the Working Group Cinemas in Portuguese, and as potential guiding themes for this internal Call for papers, are issues related to the systems of co-production, distribution circuits, exhibition and circulation in the cinematographies of the Portuguese, Brazilian and Portuguese-speaking African countries. Special attention will be given to data collection work and to cultural and aesthetic investigations investigations into new processes of production and authorship that build links and inform about local, peripheral and/or supranational identity. All uses of audiovisual/cinema can be used in all different regimes of existence, expressiveness and identity.
Proposals must be submitted through the proper form.
Should any doubt arise about this internal call, please contact: Leandro Mendonça: ljrmendonca@gmail.com; Jorge Cruz: jlzcruz@gmail.com; laispllara@gmail.com
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Landscape and Cinema
Suggested topics:
- Everyday landscapes
- Soundscapes
- Landscape as a character
- Landscape as a visual motif
- Landscape allegories
- Phenomenology of landscape
- Ecology of landscapes
Proposals must be submitted through the proper form.
Should any doubt arise about this internal call, contact: Ana Costa Ribeiro: costaribeiroana@gmail.com / Filipa Rosário: filiparosario@gmail.com / Iván Villarmea Álvarez: ivillarmea@gmail.com
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Economics and Management in Moving Image
The work group Economics and Management in Moving Image has as its main goal to encourage the study and research of subjects related to the production department, within the most diverse fields of moving image creation, with a special focus on cinema and audiovisual. It is intended to explore the particularities of the various professions and main tasks of the production department, from the most technical to the most creative ones. Therefore, we refer to research questions related to the different stages of production and duties associated with moving image creation, such as budgeting, scheduling, financial arrangements, partnerships, co-productions, contracts, legislation, tools and software to support management, coordination and selection of teams, among others seen as relevant and that may affect the final work directly or indirectly. It is also intended to study the most creative and artistic work of professions seen as technical and how they influence the final product achievement.
This group aims to support researchers, students and professionals from the field in obtaining knowledge to overcome obstacles in the proper preparation and management of moving image works. For that, we intend to promote possible meetings and training aimed at the difficulties felt concerning the functioning of the film and audiovisual industries, with a special focus on the national panorama.
Proposals must be submitted through the proper form.
Should any doubt arise about this internal call, contact: cff.moreira7@gmail.com; insclh@gmail.com; angelicacoutinhorj@gmail.com
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Filmmakers on Film
The main goal of the GT "Filmmakers on Film" is to bring together cinema theory and the thought and poetics coming from the filmmakers in their endeavor to understand either their own artwork or cinema itself. We intend to stimulate a cinema theory whose fundamental reference and main sources are the films and both oral and written manifestations of the filmmakers. On the one hand, we understand that the most important sources to develop and expand cinema theory are the direct ones, namely the films, interviews, books or texts written by the filmmakers. On the other hand, filmmaker is a concept that covers not only the director but also whoever presents a valuable contribution to the cinematographic art like actors, screenwriters, cinematographers, etc. The purpose of studying cinema searching for filmmakers support is in itself an alternative to classical and recent cinema theory that usually has gone to seek other disciplines as support. We intend to rise up and test the novelty and originality of a theoretical study that works closely with the filmmaker’s thought and poetics. Likewise, we intend to continue existing processes of reflection on the filmmakers' thinking and poetics. Inspired by the book “The Théories des Cinéastes” (2002), by Jacques Aumont, the approach that has been developed has broadened the discussion on practically all aspects related to cinema, even going to the most fundamental questions of filmmaking, such as the creative process or the broadening of the notion of “filmography” to include unfinished and unmade films.
Suggested topics:
- the thought and poetics of the various filmmakers: directors, producers, actors, editors, directors of photography, etc., through their writings, such as manifestos, letters, books, texts, interviews, or other verbal and/or written manifestations;
- the theoretical dimension of film criticism (namely that produced by critics who are also filmmakers);
- revisit film theory discussing concepts and themes inspired by the perspective of filmmakers;
- how filmmakers influence each other;
- reports by filmmakers about unfinished or unmade films (to better understand the path of these filmmakers and fit these potential works in their filmography).
Proposals must be submitted through the proper form at: [to be released]
Proposals must be submitted through the proper form.
Should any doubt arise about this internal call, contact Manuela Penafria: penafria@ubi.pt
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Audiovisual Narratives
Narrative always had, since the beginning of time, great importance for the existence of human beings and the life of societies. In its most basic meaning, narrative presupposes the evolution from one state (a beginning) to another (an end), a transition which occurs in time and is acted by someone (author, narrator, character) or something (camera, the film itself) (Jost and Gaudreault, 1990). In the field of narratology (e.g. Gérard Genette), the act of narrating / enunciating is known as “storytelling”, and the content of the narrative / enunciation is the “story” [told].
AIM’s workgroup Audiovisual Narratives takes up the study of narrative content and form in all kinds of products and by all audio-visual processes, composed of images as well as sounds (together or separately), disseminated throughout all means, and for all types of audience. The sub-fields of literature, publicity, psychology, journalistic media, and the relationship with other art forms are considered relevant for this purpose, as long as presentations stick to narratologically-based form and content, as well as the narrative process and its outcome. We are looking for innovative proposals, original theories, creative film analysis and, of course, subject matter for long-lasting quality reflection.
Examples of specific possibilities:
- The importance of narrative.
- Story and plot.
- Matters pertaining to narration (e.g voice over).
- The Hero’s Journey. The classical narrative paradigm.
- Non-linear narrative structures.
- Recurrences, embeddings, metalepsis, and other narrative patterns.
- Formal experimentation.
- Narratives about narrative/metafiction/metanarrative.
- Narrative (im)plausibilities.
- Narrative contexts.
- Narrative forms its uses: society, culture, science, religion, art, etc.
- Any particular aspect of storytelling (e.g. characters, plot resolution, twist, foreshadowing, lack of dialogues, narrative worlds, etc.).
Proposals must be submitted through the proper form.
For more information regarding this internal call, contact: crdm@esmad.ipp.pt, mariaguilherminacastro@gmail.com, jorgepalinhos@gmail.com
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Cinema and the Other Arts
This working group aims to bring together investigations that articulate artistic manifestations in the context of cinema's relations with other arts. It is about accommodating studies that critically observe the bonds and thresholds between the fixed image, the moving image and experimental artistic processes. Cinema, audiovisual, photography and their hybrid forms are presented as strategic territories for us to think not only about the status of the image in contemporaneity, but also its ethical, aesthetic, political and affective uses.
- The relationships between still image, moving image and experimental artistic processes;
- Audiovisual and its hybrid forms;
- Ethics, aesthetics, politics and affects in moving images;
- Tensions around the relationship between cinema and other arts;
- The cinema device, its meanings, tensions and reformulations from its technological, aesthetic, architectural, political and economic dynamics;
- Creative process inherent in avant-garde, engaged or experimental cinema, video art, expanded cinema, activism, artist cinema and installation;
- What can an image and its movements make see, do?
Proposals must be submitted through the proper form.
Should any doubt arise about this internal call, contact: Anabela Dinis Branco de Oliveira: <literaturaecinema@gmail.com> / Felipe Muanis: <munis@mac.com> / Fernanda Bastos: <fernandabastos1@gmail.com>
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Cinema and Education
Film is an aesthetic object with its own specificities, whose fruition and reading requires a minimum of information on different aspects of its language, in order to understand more completely its expression and its receptive impact. Every film experience entails the potential of its usage and vital application, either from a formal as from a non-formal point-of-view. Therefore, film represents a relevant formative and educational resource, both potentially as accomplished. Its increasing usage as a didactic content or methodology comes from its inventive language, and from a narrative feature that fosters approaches to an unlimited number of themes and contents, referencing existent or simulated realities. Within educational contexts, film encourages experiences that motivate and involve students more intensely in their learning process, strengthening the edu-comunicational ecosystems in their multiple forms. In order to overcome the alienation of schools and society towards film, going from its instrumentalization towards an understanding of its social, cultural and educational specificity and importance, we intend to explore the theoretical and empirical potential of cinema, as a source for knowledge, critical thinking, sensitivity, and creativity.
Therefore, this call for papers addresses theoretical, methodological or empirical perspectives that focus on the possible relations between film and education.
Suggested topics:
- Teaching film (pedagogical approaches and projects that explore the artistic features of film);
- Teaching with film (didactic proposals for the usage of film within different curricular fields and teaching levels);
- Teaching through film (film artistic experiences produced within educational contexts).
Proposals must be submitted through the proper form.
Should any doubt arise about this internal call, contact: elsa.mendes@pnc.gov.pt, jmoreira@uab.pt or pmalves@ucp.pt.
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Post colonial and outer cinemas
The WG presented here is interested in the discussion of emerging cinemas in postcolonial contexts, many of which are the margins of national cinematography, usually in urban peripheries. By deepening the debate about the presence of "peripheries and margins" in postcolonial and outer cinemas around the world, in addition to conceptually organizing and systematizing a postcolonial cinema, we want to move in the direction that has presented itself as the most fundamental for these cinematographies: the image as representation and (more recently) as self-presentation in the cinema realized in the margins and peripheries of the world. We are interested in the critical revision of hegemonic and eurocentric forms and representations, as well as the social, cultural and artistic movements that have promoted the emergence of marginal artists in the film and art market, imposing images and other representations, as well as the production of artists from the diaspora, and the collective production of minority political groups.
Suggested topics:
- Research about cinemas produced in countries that underwent colonization;
- Reflection around cinemas produced after the independence cycles, featuring postcolonial cinemas;
- Research on cinemas produced on the outskirts;
- Reflection on the postcolonial concept adopted in contexts of culture, cinema and thought;
- Reflection on insurgent cinemas produced in Latin America and Asia;
- Reflection on Latin American Decolonial Thought;
- Feminist cinemas produced throughout the 20th and 21st century;
- Indigenous cinemas;
Proposals must be submitted through the proper form.
Should any doubt arise about this internal call, please contact : paulomfcunha@gmail.com / sales.michelle@gmail.com/ liliane.tashi.leroux@gmail.com
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Cinema and Materiality
The coordination of the WG Cinema and Materialities recommends that proposals focus on the general topic "Cinema and Materialities: Methodological Approaches", although papers outside this thematic scope may be accepted.
"Cinema and Materialities: Methodological Approaches" identifies a field of processes, analyses, interrogations around methodologies to investigate the materialities of cinema.
Suggested topics:
- cinema as material production;
- creative processes and stages of development of audiovisual works;
- film analysis with a focus on the materials worked by cinema;
- relationships between screenwriting, original or adapted, and film;
- filmic construction from elements of mise-en-scène (production design, costumes, props, make-up, lighting, and performance), photography, sound, and editing;
- censorship and self-censorship in the creative process;
- genetic criticism and forms of creation in traditional arts and audiovisual works;
- diversity of creative processes and different film forms such as the video essay;
- links between technology and film creation;
- new materialities of digital art;
- archaeology of moving image devices;
- preservation and restoration, curation and exhibition of the materiality of artistic media;
- theories of materiality and phenomenology.
Communication proposals should be submitted using the appropriate form.
If you have any questions about this internal AIM call, please contact: Caterina Cucinotta - caterinacucinotta@fcsh.unl.pt; Sérgio Dias Branco: sdiasbranco@fl.uc.pt / Alfonso Palazón alfonsopalazon@gmail.com
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Cinema, Sound, Music and Language
In cinema, we process the perception of sounds through images and the ways they assist us (an obvious example being the reading of subtitles). Film theory is not yet able to think images through sounds, to grasp the process of perception of objects (in images) and images (as objects) via the process of perception of sounds as objects.
How does the notion of sound-object arise?
The discovery of the sound-object by modern industrial societies is not simply a "technical" function of new scientific devices "disinterestedly" geared towards its mechanical (re)production, for the existence of these same devices is only possible from the viewpoint of a self-reflective regime of listening, a "listening of listening" interested in its precise inscription as commodity form. The question of the sound object cannot therefore be reduced to new contemporary musicality and any attempt to absorb noise into the 'discourse of sounds' (serial or minimal, concrete or electronic, pop, rock, rap or techno); or to new audiovisual possibilities of semiosis assimilating it into cinematic or audiovisual discourse (ambient sounds, direct sound, room noises, offs and the most diverse sound effects, as well as their ‘stereophonization’). The sound object is the result of permanently reconfiguring historical interaction between the strictly acoustic objectivity of the physical propagation of sound waves and the psychoacoustic subjectivity of their perception. Its historicity is the mark of a constitutively insurmountable gap between the physiology of human hearing and the temporality of the social listening regime to which each specific sound object corresponds. There is a disjunction that traverses the field of the audible between its utterances and the "purely" sensory level of its audibility (or loudness).
Sound archeology demonstrates not only how the concept of sound "slides" through this disjunction as it travels through its various archives - musical, radio, cinematic, etc, but also how sounds themselves (as objects we hear) are constituted by the differential variations that occur historically in this field.
While it recognises the historical importance of the phenomenology of listening for the "discovery" of sound as an object, archaeological research gives this concept a decidedly historicising rapport, conceiving it as "common to different types of listening (causal, reduced, codal, etc.), and not just the object of a 'reduced listening', such as with the Schaefferian sound object.
We invite all interested researchers to send their communications about cinema and its sound objects to the “Cinema, Sound, Music and Language” WG of the next annual AIM meeting.
Proposals must be submitted through the proper form.
Contact/Email: Ivan Capeller
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Silent Cinema and Early Cinema