Monday, June 30th, 2022, 7pm
OPTIC NERVES AND THEIR TIME
Solveig Qu Suess & Asia Bazdyrieva
Image: Making of Earths (2021), Geocinema.
Optic Nerves and their Time
In our session we will unpack the key questions which sit at the core of Geocinema— both as a documentary-led research project and a collaborative practice. We will depart from the unobvious images of the Earth (such as calibration images, mathematical modeling of climates, satellite footage, etc.) to speak of the distributed and decentralized processes of sensing and imaging. We consider these processes of recording, transmission, archiving, stitching and distribution of data as an assemblage of technologic mediations that constitute a vastly distributed cinematic apparatus— a camera. Throughout we will unpack Geocinema through two strands; the first being epistemological. Here, cinema refers to a technique of mediating space and time in ways that are potent of feedback loops between our optical nerves, sensory experiences and the moving image. Secondly, while in conversation with media theorist Jussi Parikka and inspired by film and media theorists Ute Holl and Jenyfer Gabrys, we question the nature of such images to understand geometries of power and the agency that are implicit to the medium.