Research master thesis | Arts and Culture (research) (MA)
open access
Neoliberalism has altered the way in which the subject consumes and subsequently reflects upon media. A popular media genre on the internet nowadays is instruction videos, which can be consumed for...Show moreNeoliberalism has altered the way in which the subject consumes and subsequently reflects upon media. A popular media genre on the internet nowadays is instruction videos, which can be consumed for various reasons, but usually rely on the notion of conveying to the viewer a certain set of skills. Since these media are therefore consumed for a specific purpose intended, the viewer already pre-establishes a certain attitude and understanding, and furthermore gains a reflective understanding of this phenomenon itself. This thesis aims to reconsider the notion of spectatorship through a lens of phenomenology, in order to reevaluate the idea of a spectator's own understanding of their experience of a medium, which this thesis names "cognitive spectatorship," and shows how the genre of instruction videos and this new viewing attitude play into the Neoliberal ideology.Show less
Embalming Time is a theoretical inquiry into the temporality of film - consisting of three parts - in associative conversation with a visual thesis. The first chapter of the thesis is centered...Show moreEmbalming Time is a theoretical inquiry into the temporality of film - consisting of three parts - in associative conversation with a visual thesis. The first chapter of the thesis is centered around more ‘classical’ thought about the temporality of film; ranging from Andre Bazin to Roland Barthes’ view on cinema and its impossibility to have a punctum - and how these are brought together and critically reworked by Laura Mulvey. The second chapter revolves around Gilles Deleuze’s Cinema books and the Bergsonian heritage of his conception of film as a medium. The third and last chapter (featuring at once one of the most recent film-philosophers and arguably the oldest) discusses Jacques Rancière’s writings on cinema, focusing on film’s opsis -its pure visuality -over the narrative qualities of the medium, and dives deeper into the influence of Jean Epstein’s thinking about film, focused through his discussions of photogénie and slow motion. Together, these three chapters form a tentative inquiry towards the possibility of a new cinematic form, of which the temporality of the filmic medium is integrally and inextricably part.Show less
A closer look at three case studies in which genderfluidity within 2D animation is portrayed and drawn outside the conventional gender binary. Case studies include Steven Universe, Toph Beifong,...Show moreA closer look at three case studies in which genderfluidity within 2D animation is portrayed and drawn outside the conventional gender binary. Case studies include Steven Universe, Toph Beifong, and Jiro Ghianni's non-gendered shapes.Show less
Film theory is focussed on (dis-)identification however new media and (video) games changed film by introducing new aesthetics and conventions, which means new analythical methods are also needed.
