Conceptual conditions

As an academic field film studies did not develop overnight. Its growth and consolidation rests on several factors including “conceptual” ones that pertain to how film has been conceived within given cultural and social environments. For instance, since its invention, film has been conceived alternatively as a mere recording device, a form of artistic expression, a mirror of society, a conscious or unconscious expression of culture, a tool for education and social change and reform, a form of discourse, a form of entertainment, etc. Yet how do these conceptions interact and how — under what sort of pressures — do they change? For example, we may ask how and under what conditions did the conception of film as a recording device come to transform itself into the conception that film is something that requires interpreting? In similar fashion, the  entry of film into academia also rests on ideas about the role and function of academia itself — especially with regards to the humanities — throughout the last century. Our aim here is not to consider which conceptions of film are “better” or more appropriate but rather to study the emergence and expression of these ideas in their various contexts in order to see how they have affected and contributed to the development of film studies. To fulfill this goal, ARTHEMIS researchers are investigating how the cinema has been represented through different discourses. We also examine how and under what conditions the various concepts and notions that have emerged from these discourses  — including concepts developed within the realm of academic film studies — have changed from one period to another and how they participate in a larger context provided by socio-cultural and intellectual movements. Finally, ARTHEMIS researchers study the interaction between the discursive representation of film (in the popular press, trade journals and academic publishing) and transformations in the practices of filmmaking.