Conscientious Viscerality: The Autobiographical Stance in German Film and Video

Robin Curtis examines autobiographical films and videos that focus on aspects of space, and particularly viscerality, as well as an intense sense of corporeality instead of on time. The interdisciplinary study is based on the general assumption that culture and history have an influence on the notion of what is considered autobiographical. A striking feature of the films by artists such as Matthias Muller, Claudia Aravena, Abu-Ghosh, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Fatih Akin, Angela Melotopoulos, Oskar Fischinger, Birgit Hein and others is their emphasis of the present moment, or an avoidance of depicting the past. An analysis of the viewer’s physical involvement - based on the terms empathy and attention - results in nothing less than a theory of the visceral reception of time-related media. In line with the unconventional approach the book also functions as a flipbook.