Zombies, Conspiracies, and Esthetics in Crisis. A Computational Engagement with Genre Esthetics

in Ritzer, Ivo (Ed.) Media and Genre. Dialogues in Aesthetics and Cultural Analysis (2021)

This chapter analyzes narrative representations of political crises in two different genres—the zombie film and the political thriller—by focusing on the question whether a movie only speaks of such ... [more ▼]

This chapter analyzes narrative representations of political crises in two different genres—the zombie film and the political thriller—by focusing on the question whether a movie only speaks of such societal disruptions, or if it also develops an esthetics of disruption that provokes or challenges its viewers. A political esthetics of disruption would be one that could show reality as not-yet-framed, as something that is open for interpretation, meaning and conflict. Such moments of esthetic and political in-determination can appear on different levels of cinematic representation; they can refer to the formulas and stereotypes of genre, to the semantics of space in mainstream cinema, to pictorial traditions or to the political imaginary as a whole. In their analysis, the authors approach movies on at least three different levels: on the level of content with a focus on the political crisis the film presents; on the level of narrative structure; and on the level of esthetic design, which they analyze by a computational calculation of the course of esthetic parameters across the movies. Based on these case studies, the article summarizes methodological implications of the demonstrated digitized approach by advocating an organic and embedded application of computation in film genre analysis. [less ▲]

Digitale Praktiken

in Montage AV (2020), 29(1),

Welten abnehmenden Lichts. Ein Multi-Scale Viewing des Politthrillers im 21. Jahrhundert

in Montage AV (2020), 29(1), 59-82

Beyond the Flow : Scholarly Publications During and After the Digital

Book published by Meson Press (2019)

In the wake of the so-called digital revolution numerous attempts have been made to rethink and redesign what scholarly publications can or should be. Beyond the Flow examines the technologies as well as ... [more ▼]

In the wake of the so-called digital revolution numerous attempts have been made to rethink and redesign what scholarly publications can or should be. Beyond the Flow examines the technologies as well as narratives driving this unfolding transformation. However, facing challenges such as the serial crisis, knowledge burying or sudoku research the discourses and practices of scholarly publishing today are mainly shaped by confusion, heterogeneity and uncertainty. By critically interrogating the current state of digital publishing in academia the book asks for how a sustainable post-digital publishing ecology can be imagined. [less ▲]

Scalable Viewing. Digitale Methoden und die Digital Humanities

E-print/Working paper (2019)

Color Contrast Data for a Corpus of 24 Political Thrillers

Textual, factual or bibliographical database (2019)

The repository contains data for several color contrasts of 28 political thrilles. It is part of a film studies research project described in: Johannes Pause, Niels-Oliver Walkowski: Zombies, Conspiracies ... [more ▼]

The repository contains data for several color contrasts of 28 political thrilles. It is part of a film studies research project described in: Johannes Pause, Niels-Oliver Walkowski: Zombies, Conspiracies, and Aesthetics in Crisis. In: Handbook of Film and Genre, forthcoming. Johannes Pause, Niels-Oliver Walkowski: Welten abnehmenden Lichts. Ein Multi-Scale Viewing des Politthrillers im 21. Jahrhundert. In: MontageAV. Digitale Praktiken. forthcoming. The data was created with python library citten and analyzed with the panel/HoloViews based dashboard phos, both developed by the authors. Movies in the Corpus Banchiero di dio Das Phantom Der blinde Fleck Fair Game Geheime Staatsaffäre Ghostwriter The Ides of March Il Divo In the Loop J'ai vu tuer be barka Kings Game König von Schottland L'Albatros Lücke im System= Lügen der Sieger Manipulation Michael Clayton Nichts als die Wahrheit Operation Duval Page Eight Pioneer Spotlight State of Play Syriana The Interpreter Third Wave Une affaire d'etat Was niemand weiss [less ▲]

Cittena. A Python Library for the Analysis of Color Contrasts in Movie Corpora

Software (2017)