Indefinite Visions : Cinema and the Attractions of Uncertainty Hardback

Examines the aesthetics, concepts and politics of chaotic and obscured moving images Audiovisual culture often privileges the instantly identifiable: the recognizable face, the well-timed stunt, the perfectly synchronized line of dialogue.

Yet order and clarity do not come 'naturally' to the moving image.

Light, motion, definition, compression: the conditions of recording, storing and screening can subject audiovisual media to countless variations, pulling them towards the indefinite and illegible.

Filmmakers and artists often seek out and work with the resulting uncertainty, from the warping of space to the melding of senses, from glare to shadow and blur to glitch. This collection concerns itself with the aesthetics, concepts and politics of indefinite and obscured moving images, examining what is at stake in their foregrounding of materiality and mediation, evanescence and flux.

Pursuing a range of approaches (spanning history, theory and close analysis), the authors in this volume investigate techniques, effects and themes that emerge from the wilful excavation of the moving image's formal and material base. Contributors Emmanuelle Andre, Universite Paris 7 DiderotJacques Aumont, Universite Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3Erika Balsom, King's College London Raymond Bellour, French National Center for Scientific ResearchMartine Beugnet, Universite Paris 7 DiderotChrista Blumlinger, Universite Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3Allan Cameron, University of AucklandMichel Chion, Composer, Filmmaker and Essay WriterSean Cubitt, Goldsmiths, University of LondonCatherine Fowler, University of OtagoTom Gunning, University of ChicagoJulian Hanich, University of GroningenMartin Jay, University of California, BerkleyKim Knowles, Aberystwyth UniversityRichard Misek, University of KentGiusy Pisano, Ecole Nationale Superieure Louis LumiereKriss Ravetto-Biagioli, University of California, DavisD.

N. Rodowick, University of ChicagoSteven Shaviro, Wayne State UniversityCarol Vernallis, Stanford University