Please join the Chicago Film Seminar at 6:30 pm on Thursday, November 7 to welcome James Hodge (Northwestern) for his talk, "Lateral Time." Daniel Morgan (UChicago) will provide the response. The CFS will be held at DePaul's Loop Campus in the Daley Building at 14 E. Jackson Blvd., Room LL 102, using the State St. entrance located at 247 S. State.
Thursday, November 7 at 6:30pm
James Hodge, Northwestern
"Lateral Time"
Respondent: Daniel Morgan, UChicago
Hodge describes his talk as follows:
This talk comes from the second chapter of my book project, Animate Archaeology: Digital Media and the Aesthetics of History. In the book I argue for the novel significance of animation for the aesthetic expression of historical temporality in the age of new media. This talk examines the concept of lateral time, which I define as the temporal regime native to processes operating beyond the threshold of human experience. Building upon Paul Ricoeur, I argue for the centrality of lateral time for the task of articulating historical temporality in the context of digital networks. Moving beyond the primacy Ricoeur accords the written trace, I also argue that animation plays a crucial role in opening up encounters with the lateral time of networks. In the latter sections of the talk I pursue these arguments through the analysis of two long duration experimental, digital art works: John F. Simon Jr.'s Every Icon and Barbara Lattanzi's Optical De-dramatization Engine. The stakes for this argument rest (1) with the contemporary specification of historical temporality and (2) with the elucidation of the critical role played by digital moving image aesthetics in that endeavor.
