Timothy Druckrey

Cinemedia: Archaeologies of Computation in Cinema – On the Archaeology of the Computer in Cinema

(Lecture in English)

Since its origins, cinema has been inextricably linked
with mechanization and culture in equal measure through the technical equipment required
and the emerging metaphors
. The “omnipresence” of the machine fills the archives of
film history, as the omnipotent technical gaze of the camera or as an
observer of the process of mechanization itself.

In the 1950s, the computer appeared on the
screen in entertainment, experimental and documentary films.
At the same time, a whole range of film material emerged from
corporate archives, advertising films and television documentaries.
Misguided scientific research, scientists who had lost their
minds and out-of-control machines were
replaced by autonomous technologies; images of insidious
programmers and sentient and ultimately superior
computers contrasted with the glorification of amazing
progress on the one hand, and lamentations about the consequences of automation or
the dangers of artificial intelligence on the other.

Godard’s “Alphaville”, Fassbinder’s “Welt am Draht”,
Marker’s “Level 5”, Scott’s “Bladerunner”, the Wachowski brothers’ “Matrix”,
Rusnack’s “The 13th Floor” and Cronenberg’s “eXistenZ” can be found on the
long list of films that reveal an ongoing interrogation of the
after-effects of digital technologies, simulation and
artificial intelligence in cinema. Documentaries such as
“The Machine that Changed the World”, “Computer Pioneers”, “The Net”
by Dambeck or “The Century of the Self” by Curtis examine
the stages of development and implications of computer culture in a more targeted way.
Numerous films and videos produced for advertising,
focus on specific technologies and their applications.

The lecture will be comprehensively illustrated by examples
from this fund, which were selected
in particular from the point of view of providing historical access to a fascinating tradition at
and at the same time a critical consideration of the attractiveness of
simulation, the consequences of artificial intelligence and the significance
of this special film material, which represents an important component in the
development history of media art.

Short biography:

Timothy Druckrey directs the Graduate Photography and
Digital Imaging Program at the Maryland Institute, College of Art. He lives
in New York City and works as a freelance curator, writer and editor.
He lectures worldwide on the social impact of digital
media, the transformation of representation and communication in
interactive and networked spaces. He is co-organizer of the
international symposium “Ideologies of Technology” at the Dia Center of
the Arts and co-editor of the volume “Culture on the Brink: Ideologies
of Technology” (published by Bay Press). He also served as co-curator of the exhibition “Iterations: The New Image” at the International Center of Photography and edited the volume of the same name published by MIT Press. He published “Electronic Culture:
Technology and Visual Representation” and is editor of the series
“Electronic Culture: History, Theory, Practice”, also published by MIT
Press. This series includes the volumes “Ars Electronica: Facing the
Future”, “net_condition: art and global media” (with Peter Weibel),
Geert Lovink’s “Dark Fiber”, and “Future Cinema: The Cinematic
Imaginary After Film” (edited by Jeffrey Shaw and Peter Weibel),
“Stelarc. The Monograph” (ed. by Marquard Smith), “Deep Time of the Media: Toward an Archaeology of Hearing and Seeing by Technical Means” (by Siegfried Zielinski). Recent exhibitions curated by Druckrey include “Bits and Pieces” and “Critical Conditions”, and he was co-curator of the exhibition “New Media” in Beijing (2006). He
held visiting professorships at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna
(2004) and at the Richard Koopman Distinguished Chair for the Visual Arts
at the University of Hartford (2005).

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