Wissensraum Film

In recent years, film studies do not only investigate epistemological conditions but rather spatial aspects of film. Some studies have analyzed the order of discourses in film, practices of generating knowledge or the self-reflective knowledge of the medium. Others focus on spatial dimensions of filmic representation. There was little effort made to bring together the aspects mentioned. With this in mind, the present volume aims to explore for the first time filmic knowledge production with regard to filmic space.
Our model „Wissensraum Film“ („Film as Knowledge Space”) considers film as medium generating, disseminating, and transforming knowledge. At the same time, it is conscious of the fact that knowledge, as produced in film, is always already spatially composed. Film, thus, has to create spatial relationships, dynamics, and transformations to be able to develop its knowledge. The overarching question of the volume is concerned with the productivity of relational concepts of space in the investigation of knowledge generation: How does film create spatial structures and thus specific formations of knowledge? What is the relationship between individual epistemic elements? How do spatial conditions of screening influence filmic representation and how does self-reflective knowledge evolve in this process?
The volume investigates film as specific epistemic medium. Knowledge in film is not only confined to representing, interpreting, or transferring literary and scientific knowledge, just as the filmic space is not equal to Euclidean space in physics. Rather, there are multiple spatial and epistemic potentials exclusive to film in the different stages of its development. The contributions to this volume design models of describing this specific filmic mediality. They trace various genres, ouvres and aesthetics to determine their epistemic effects and correlate films with other types of media and non-filmic discourses.