{"id":6007,"date":"2012-06-07T13:16:50","date_gmt":"2012-06-07T18:16:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/?p=6007"},"modified":"2012-06-07T13:16:50","modified_gmt":"2012-06-07T18:16:50","slug":"nature-the-popular-imagination-keynote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2012\/06\/07\/nature-the-popular-imagination-keynote\/","title":{"rendered":"Nature & the Popular Imagination keynote"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here’s the abstract for the keynote I will be giving at Nature and the Popular Imagination<\/a> in Malibu this August. It builds on my recent talk<\/a> at Bucks College, but without the nod to pop-cultural interest in Avatar<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n

THE AGE OF THE WORLD MOTION PICTURE<\/strong><\/p>\n

starring the Cinematic Earth, with cameo appearances by Charles Darwin, Rachel Carson, Martin Heidegger, C. S. Peirce, Gilles Deleuze, Lynn Margulis, James Cameron, Stanley Kubrick, Donna Haraway, and Koko the Gorilla<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Philosopher Martin Heidegger once characterized the modern world as the “age of the world picture,” an era when the world itself became conquered by humanity as a picture or representation set fully and clearly before our gaze. In the 1960s, the first images of the Earth from space delivered a glimpse of a world picture that was global and ecological, but that also suggested humanity’s domination both of the earth (today) and of outer space (tomorrow).<\/p>\n

Fifty years later, we have not colonized other planets, but we can speak instead of the “age of the world motion<\/em> picture,” an era when our colonization extends to imaginary planets (like James Cameron’s Pandora), and where we see our own world and our very selves in turbulent and uncontrollable motion — on screens around the globe. The moving image in all its variations — from the first short films through the eras of talkies, technicolor, IMAX and 3-D, alongside television, videos, virtual reality games and the rest — has been with us a little over a century, but over that time it seems the world itself has come to move faster and faster all around us.<\/p>\n

A conference on nature in the popular imagination, held in the region with the greatest density of film and television production sites and studios on Earth, provides an opportunity for a reflection on the ways in which the moving image has changed our perception of ourselves, the Earth, and our place in the universe. This talk will provide glimpses across that history, in its evolution from the first motion picture shorts to epics like\u00a0Avatar<\/em> (2009) and The Tree of Life<\/em> (2011), with many stops along the way. Films like 2001, A Space Odyssey<\/em> (1968), Solaris<\/em> (1973), and others have delivered powerful images by which viewers have made sense of ourselves and an uncertain, mysterious cosmos. Like Darwin’s image of nature as an ever branching bush, a “tangled bank” so “interesting to contemplate,” cinema’s branching bush continues to become ever more interesting to contemplate.<\/p>\n

For cineaste and philosopher Gilles Deleuze, it was cinema that provided the greatest resource for reviving our lost \u201cbelief in this world.\u201d How is cinema faring today, on the cusp of a digital era that heightens the speed of life in every direction — through the uncertainties of global hyperfinance, the turbulence of cultural identity clashes and looming ecological collapses, and the rapid mutations of all manner of images, representations, spectacles and simulacra? Is there a picture of the world that can carry us safely through this torrent of cataclysmic motion?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s the abstract for the keynote I will be giving at Nature and the Popular Imagination in Malibu this August. It builds on my recent talk at Bucks College, but without the nod to pop-cultural interest in Avatar. THE AGE OF THE WORLD MOTION PICTURE starring the Cinematic Earth, with cameo appearances by Charles Darwin, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[196,689354],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ecoculture","category-image_nation"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4IC4a-1yT","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1104,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2009\/07\/26\/interview-on-heidegger-deep-ecology-moon-shots-more\/","url_meta":{"origin":6007,"position":0},"title":"interview on Heidegger, deep ecology, moon-shots, & more","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"July 26, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Paul Ennis has posted an interview with me over at Another Heidegger Blog. It follows a few great interviews with distinguished company -- philosophers Graham Harman, Levi Bryant, and Lee Braver -- and I hope it and the rest of the series generate productive cross-currents and conversations between philosophers, greens,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Eco-theory"","block_context":{"text":"Eco-theory","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/ecophilosophy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"EveningCanal2-m.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2009\/07\/EveningCanal2-m.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5725,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2012\/03\/30\/nature-the-popular-imagination-redux\/","url_meta":{"origin":6007,"position":1},"title":"Nature & the Popular Imagination (redux)","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"March 30, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"We're getting some good submissions, but there's room for more. The deadline for proposals has been extended to May 1. I'm sharing the call for papers again here... The International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture (ISSRNC) is pleased to announce its next conference in Malibu, California\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Academe"","block_context":{"text":"Academe","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/academe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6063,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2012\/08\/07\/earthset\/","url_meta":{"origin":6007,"position":2},"title":"Earthset?","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"August 7, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"It's high time for an update here... I'm in Malibu for Nature and the Popular Imagination (conference program here), where I'll be giving a keynote on \"The Age of the World Motion Picture.\" I blogged about this part of the California coast the last time I was out here, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Academe"","block_context":{"text":"Academe","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/academe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/files\/2012\/08\/300px-NASA-Apollo8-Dec24-Earthrise-e1344369947611-275x275.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6468,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2013\/01\/30\/talking-in-amsterdam\/","url_meta":{"origin":6007,"position":3},"title":"Talking in Amsterdam","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"January 30, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I'll be giving the following talk next Wednesday, February 6, at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. It's part of the series Where Are We Going, Walt Whitman? An Ecosophical Roadmap for Artists and Other Futurists. (The series looks incredible. I wish I could be there for all the other\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1141,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2009\/10\/25\/heidegger-smash-up-as-live-web-philosophy\/","url_meta":{"origin":6007,"position":4},"title":"Heidegger smash-up as live web philosophy","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"October 25, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=8ScGLdfqdYo&hl=en&fs=1& There's something about the flare-up over Carlin Romano's Chronicle of Higher Ed article \"Heil Heidegger!\" that manages to crystallize both the virtues and the potential utter barrenness of the web as a site for direct philosophical action (i.e., constructive debate that contributes, however marginally, to philosophy). Romano's article takes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Academe"","block_context":{"text":"Academe","link":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/category\/academe\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/8ScGLdfqdYo\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5690,"url":"https:\/\/blog.uvm.edu\/aivakhiv\/2012\/03\/16\/only-a-god-can-save-us\/","url_meta":{"origin":6007,"position":5},"title":"“Only a god can save us…”","author":"Adrian J Ivakhiv","date":"March 16, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 In a comment to my last post on triads and divinities, my frequent commenter\/interlocutor \"dmf\" points out a nice essay by Robert Gall called \"From Daimonion to the 'Last' God: Socrates, Heidegger, and the God of the Thinker,\" which Mark Fullmer has made available beyond the restricted-access community. 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