2013/1 – #Green

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Editorial Necsus
NECSUS Editorial Board (2013) , S. 1-3
‘Lively, radiant, lush…’ This is how colour authority Pantone Inc. describes emerald green (Pantone code 17-5641), the colour of the year for 2013. Welcome to NECSUS #3_Spring 2013 with a special section on ‘Green’. While springtime is normally an ideal season to evoke the greening of nature, our aim in this special section is to present ‘Greenness’ in a broader pallet of media-related issues, from sustainable media production to the use of the colour green in a variety of films. Emerald City comes to mind in THE WIZARD OF OZ (Victor Fleming, 1939), an iconic rendering of a brilliant Technicolor green forever linked with the annus mirabilis of classical Hollywood cinema. More recently, Isabella Rosselini made it clear that we do not just think of a lush, radiant paradise when thinking about the colour green. In GREEN PORNO (2008-present), a series of short environmental films distributed online (YouTube) and made in the spirit of George Méliès, Rosselini playfully performs as an earthworm, a firefly, a whale, and a shrimp as she guides us through the fascinating (and hilarious) variations on animal reproduction while raising critical awareness of the eco-systems of the earth. ‘Green’ has many connotations. What we offer in the special section of this new issue of NECSUS is a full spectrum of ‘green’ concerns, including a series of explorations of the many different ways in which media and ecology are entangled in our world today, fully acknowledging that media users and the media themselves are in many ways actors against nature on a planetary scale.
Painting the town green – From urban teleology to urban ecology in New York cinema, 1960-present
Fletcher, Brady; Rankin, Cortland (2013) , S. 113-144
New York City is perhaps the most iconic manifestation of urbanity in the 20th century. While the Manhattan skyline dominates the New York imaginary American cinema has also consistently qualified and complicated this architecturally-determined perspective by re-imagining the city in ecological terms. Over the past half-century many films set and largely produced in New York have deployed the imagery and metaphoricity of ecology to articulate urbanity, although in two distinct ways. We begin by tracing what we call an ‘urban teleology’ in which filmmakers re-envision the city in terms of the environmental conceits of wilderness and garden but from ideologically normative perspectives that privilege the managed urban sphere as the epitome of sociality. In contrast to this teleological model are cinematic experimentations that ‘re-inhabit’ urban space by foregrounding New York’s ‘urban ecology’. As such the second part of our article is concerned with how certain modes of cinema can re-orient or ‘queer’ notions of urbanity through the critical lens of ecology, thus cinematically ‘greening’ the city.
A filmic exploration by means of botanical imagery – Notes on Rose Lowder
Camporesi, Enrico (2013) , S. 145-158
I’d never been on a farm and am not even sure which are begonias, dahlias, or petunias. Plants, like algebra, have a habit of looking alike and being different, or looking different and being alike; consequently mathematics and botany confuse me. – Elenore Smith Bowen
Dialectical Modes of Nature in Terrence Malick’s THE THIN RED LINE
Wils, Tyson (2013) , S. 159-178
In Alfred Schmidt’s THE CONCEPT OF NATURE IN MARX it is argued that dialectical materialism introduced a ‘completely new understanding of man’s [sic] relation to nature (and) went far beyond all the bourgeois theories of nature presented by the Enlightenment’. Essentially this new understanding showed that nature is real but also something that exists in relation to human subjectivity, history, and ideology. Indeed, as Schmidt expresses it, the challenge Marx set for his contemporaries was to dialectically engage with nature as both a product of the human mind as well as an object external to mental abstractions, an object that could be physically changed by human action but which also never ceased to exist beyond human endeavour.
Her green materials – Mourning, MELANCHOLIA, and not-so-vital materialisms
Lord, Catherine (2013) , S. 179-196
‘I’m trudging through a grey woolly yarn. It’s clinging to my legs. It’s really heavy to drag along’, says Justine (Kirsten Dunst) to her sister Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourgh). Draped like a corpse in the whiteness of her wedding dress, Justine is immobile in a state of acute depression – that is, melancholia. The colour palette of Lars von Trier’s MELANCHOLIA (2011) with its opening sequence of slow motion sensuality establishes the thesis statement of the film’s narrative. The green and vital life of Earth, its cultural traditions and weddings, will be obliterated for eternity by an incoming rogue planet called Melancholia. This narrative premise allows the spectator to witness cinema at its most painterly, as tableaux vivant with compositions that illuminate Justine’s wedding in many shades of green. Grey and blue insert shots set in space foreshadow the film’s denouement: the grey and ashy blue absorption of Earth by Melancholia.
Still TV – On the resilience of an old medium
Dhoest, Alexander; Simons, Nele (2013) , S. 19-34
For more than a decade now the very status of television as a medium has been one of the predominant themes in television studies. The tone is mixed – both jubilant, welcoming all the exciting innovations which make television so much more than it was before, and fearful, for it is not clear whether television as we know it will survive all these changes. The sense of an end is looming, both in conferences (e.g. Ends of Television in Amsterdam, 2009) and in book titles (e.g. THE END OF TELEVISION?, TELEVISION AFTER TV, and BEYOND THE BOX). While the discipline as such is quite young – not so long ago we were wondering ‘What is the television of television studies?’ – and has not yet established its disciplinary boundaries it is already questioned, as are many classical fields of communication and media research in the era of digitisation and convergence. Convergence, in this context, refers to ‘the new textual practices, branding and marketing strategies, industrial arrangements, technological synergies, and audience behaviours enabled and propelled by the emergence of digital media’.
Disharmonious designs – Colour contrast and curiosity in Jane Campion’s IN THE CUT
Watkins, Liz (2013) , S. 197-212
An analysis of colour in Jane Campion’s IN THE CUT (2003) finds that the juxtaposition of red with its complementary colour green maps the visual connections and intercommunications of the female protagonist Frannie Avery and her sister Pauline. The chromatic schema of IN THE CUT juxtaposes red and green hues in a practice which makes each appear more vivid against its complementary colour. The visual effect of colour contrast inflects the protagonist’s perception of the city as it participates in the organisation of the image composition and highlights minute details that might otherwise remain on the periphery of the frame and narrative. This colour design offers nuance to the film’s imagery beyond its capacity to draw the viewer’s attention to the female body.
Greenface – Exploring green skin in contemporary Hollywood cinema
Hammond, Brady (2013) , S. 213-232
In the natural world human skin color has a limited range of pigments varying from dark brown to light pink. Still, even this small spectrum has been enough to fuel countless histories of prejudice where skin color has provided the justification for hate and violence. In the Western world where whiteness is presented as the norm this has often manifested itself as prejudice against those who are not white. However, given the primacy of whiteness in certain cultures authors such as Richard Dyer have argued that whiteness itself is invisible and is thus itself not perceived as a color. This invisibility has led others to develop further theories regarding color in visual media. For instance, in CHROMOPHOBIA David Batchelor states that ‘color has been the object of extreme prejudice in Western culture’. This prejudice, he argues, manifests itself by either dismissing color outright as ‘superficial’ or by denigrating it and ‘[making it] out to be the property of some “foreign” body – usually the feminine, the oriental, the primitive, the infantile, the vulgar, the queer or the pathological’. In this formulation white is safe and color is dangerous. Throughout color cinema in the 20th century there have been numerous instances which illustrate this point.
Scalar entanglement in digital media ecologies
Taffel, Sy (2013) , S. 233-254
Media ecology presents an emergent, non-representational approach towards the study of media systems. This article seeks to extend the theoretical underpinnings of media ecology by introducing the concept of scale – or more precisely scalar entanglement – as a way by which media ecology can usefully engage with a range of ethical and political issues. By positing content, software, and hardware as three entangled scales akin to the conceptual approach of the three ecologies of mind, society, and environment posited by Gregory Bateson and subsequently adopted and expanded by Felix Guattari, this article argues that a triadic schemata which encourages transversal thinking across and between these relational scales can allow media studies to approach a multiplicity of the ethical and political issues surrounding mediation; this ranges from traditional concerns surrounding representation and privacy to less familiar issues, such as the ecological costs of extracting ores for manufacturing devices or the ecological legacies of the toxic substances associated with media hardware.
Subjectivity and ostrannenie – Key debates in European film studies
Bianchi, Pietro (2013) , S. 255-261
Amsterdam University Press recently launched a book series titled The Key Debates: Mutations and Appropriations in European Film Studies. Directed by Ian Christie, Dominique Chateau, and Annie van den Oever, the series aims at focusing on the central issues animating the current theoretical debate within film studies (but with a special emphasis on its relation with digital media in general).
Screen dynamics – Mapping the borders of cinema
Brydon, Lavinia (2013) , S. 262-267
As the title of Gertrud Koch, Volker Pantenburg, and Simon Rothöhler’s edited collection SCREEN DYNAMICS: MAPPING THE BORDER OF CINEMA (Vienna: Austrian Film Museum, 2012) suggests, this volume provides an energetic, enthusiastic, and engaging journey through the particularities (and peculiarities) of cinema. Due attention is given to questions of cinematic spectatorship, the issue of cinema’s specificity, the relationship between the cinematic image and other screen images, as well as the impact that new technologies have on these images. Appropriate to the ‘volatile situation’ (p. 6) under discussion is the lively approach adopted by each of the 12 contributors. Indeed, it comes as no surprise that this collection is largely based on talks given at a conference in 2010, with the vigour and value of that initial debate nicely evidenced through shared beliefs, overlapping concerns, and recurring points of reference (for example, the concept of cinema as a utopian or heterotopian space appears several times).
Branding Television
Payne, Alisong (2013) , S. 268-273
Catherine Johnson’s book BRANDING TELEVISION (Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2012) contributes to television studies by describing, explaining, and illustrating why and how television industries have turned to branding as a response to changes in technology. The book examines the television industries in the United States and the United Kingdom suggesting that, while the evolution of television into a digital, multi-channel, multi-platform industry has not followed a common route or time frame, the adoption of branding as a strategy to respond to greater competition has been similar in both countries. Johnson illustrates her argument with case histories from Fox, HBO, and MTV in the United States and the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, and UKTV in the United Kingdom.
Go east by southeast – 13th Festival of Central and Eastern European Film Wiesbaden
de Cuir Jr, Greg (2013) , S. 274-280
The Festival of Central and Eastern European Film Wiesbaden, also known as ‘goEast’, is a key event on the German film festival calendar. This is perhaps in no small part due to the fact that the festival is organised by the Deutsches Filminstitut, also because it enjoys a dedicated following among enthusiasts of the larger, general festival community. GoEast is structured by a modestly-sized feature film competition section which also includes documentaries. The total number of titles in this section in 2013 was 17. There are a number of smaller special programs at the festival, including a retrospective homage to a master cineaste and a multi-part symposium.
From Chernobyl to Fukushima – The Uranium Film Festival
Sheehan, Courtney (2013) , S. 281-285
The Uranium Film Festival (UFF), the world’s only film festival focused on ‘the whole nuclear fuel chain’, is entering its third year in Rio de Janeiro. The organisers Marcia Gomes de Oliveira (Executive Director) and Norbert G. Suchanek (General Director) of the arts and education non-profit Yellow Archives began the festival with the mission of stimulating discussion about topics ranging from uranium mining, nuclear weapons, power plants, and nuclear waste. Rather than adopt a strict anti-nuclear stance the festival endeavors to present films about nuclear issues that audiences might not otherwise be able to access. This ambition to present audiences with information in addition to art (or embedded within art) reflects Leshu Torchin’s conception of the activist film festival as a ‘field of witnessing’. By fostering the conditions for audiences to interact with films as more than merely passive viewers the Uranium Film Festival represents an attempt to elevate the role of the film festival to that of politically-infused public sphere.
Indigenous film festival as eco-testimonial encounter – The 2011 Native Film + Video Festival
Monani, Salma (2013) , S. 285-291
In struggles for political and cultural recognition many Indigenous groups employ visual media to make their concerns heard. Amongst these various channels for media activism are Indigenous film festivals which, in the words of festival coordinator Amalia Cόrdova, work to convey ‘a sense of solidarity with Indigenous struggles’. Cόrdova’s essay on Indigenous film festivals appears in the collection Film Festivals and Activism (2012). In the introduction to the collection co-editor Leshu Torchin writes about activist festivals as testimonial encounters or fields of witnessing where the films offer testimony and the audiences serve as witnessing publics, ‘viewers [who] take responsibility for what they have seen and become ready to respond’. To better understand how Indigenous film festivals embody these activist imperatives as eco-activism I consider the case of the 2011 Native American Film and Video Festival (NAFVF) with its special eco-themed focus Mother Earth in Crisis.
Discovering repetition
Pitassio, Francesco (2013) , S. 292-302
Exhibition: Edvard Munch: The modern eye, Tate Modern, London (28 June 2012-14 October 2012)
Playing with digital byproduct data – An indicative example
Beer, David (2013) , S. 303-311
It is fairly common knowledge that all sorts of everyday interactions and engagements with media are captured as byproduct data. It is probably also fairly well-known that such data is routinely harvested by capitalist organisations which then use it in an attempt to predict things about us. However, the ways in which this byproduct data recursively feeds back into Web culture has received much less attention.
Screen industries in East-Central Europe – Cultural policies and political culture (22-25 November 2012, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic)
Hedling, Olof (2013) , S. 312-319
Credit must be given to the academics that created NECS less than a decade ago. After the organization’s first conference in Vienna in 2007 European film scholars finally had an annual venue where new acquaintances could be made and networks cultivated. This process has even facilitated new annual events, most often on a specific subject compared to the more wide-ranging NECS.
NENETTE – Film theory, animals, and boredom
Creed, Barbara (2013) , S. 35-50
There must be times when she can no longer stand this state, her condition. It’s the realm of ‘doing nothing’. She spends her life doing nothing.
Anecdotal evidence
Cubitt, Sean (2013) , S. 5-18

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