SCREEN THOUGHT JOURNAL: Volume 6, December 2022


ARTICLES

Alex D'Aloia: On Da-sein and Doctor Who

Keywords: being, Doctor Who, Da-sein, Heidegger, narrative, phenomenology, time 

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This paper revisits my previous publication On the Future of Narrative by addressing the concept of the future with regard to time-travel tropes and Doctor Who (2005–). It was previously demonstrated that the concept of the past is an uncharacteristically introduced theme within the concept of the future, the germ of which can be traced throughout the many adaptations of H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine, and derivatives thereof—including, but not limited to, the TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension In Space) in Doctor Who. The characterisation of The Doctor as a Time Lord, however, blurs the lines between what is past, what is present, and what is future, by challenging the nature of a being in time in which being constitutes an extension, or expression, of this time in being in ways that recall Martin Heidegger’s Being and Time. Indeed,  “If being is to be conceived in terms of time and if the various modes and derivatives of being, in their modifications, and derivations, and in fact to become intelligible through consideration of time,”according to Heidegger, “then being itself—and not only beings that are ‘intime’—is made visible in its ‘temporal {‘zeitlich’} character.” (p. 16). The very characterisation of this character, in turn, calls for a film philosophical interpretation of Doctor Who, as well as a careful re-examination of the relationship between being and time and the future of narrative as both the MacGuffin and The Hero With a Thousand Faces.

Shaun Wilson: The Affordances of Digital Aesthetics

Keywords: Metamodernism, screen culture, art, digital aesthetics, NFT, artificial intelligence

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This article will examine the changing role of digital aesthetics in art and screen in a context of Metamodernism. As the problem of a structure of feeling will be argued as lacking the formalism of its cultural predecessors, the rapid proliferation of artificial intelligence as both a creative producer and distributor will be framed as an ‘autonomous other’ to hypothetically attest to the defunct of human orientated born digital artefacts. As much as this proposition is akin to a re-examination of metamodernity, a proposed formalism thought of as a structure of reason is as determinant to the shaping of digital aesthetics as the deployment of opposition in an era of self-aware pictorial networks.


REVIEWS

Graham K. Young: Between Hope and Melancholy: a Metamodern Examination of Lars Von Trier's Melancholia

Keywords: Metamodernism, Lar Von Trier, Danish cinema

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For over three decades, critics have claimed postmodernism is no longer the dominant cultural paradigm in contemporary Western societies. However, few tend to agree on what exactly is taking its place. This review will examine evidence of an emerging ‘structure of feeling’ called metamodernism by examining the form, feeling, and function of Lars von Trier’s Melancholia (2011).

Damien Schofield: Salt (2023) - Would you Watch an AI-Produced Synthetic movie?  

Keywords: AI, AI cinema, Salt movie, autonomous movies

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This essay introduces Salt (2023) by Fabian Stelzer, a non-linear sci-fi film experiment, created by Artificial Intelligence (AI). The recent widespread use of AI text and image generators has recently sparked debate about the impact of this technology on creative industries, with many feeling threatened by it.

Joshua Adams: Her Smell - A Look Back

Keywords: Her Smell, rock and roll, rock movies, Alex Ross Perry
 
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An explosion of narrative rock and roll films flooded the box office in 2018 and quickly shifted to documentary films in the five years since. I focus on one film, Her Smell, which stands above a handful released that year which remains overlooked and undervalued. The films Bohemian Rhapsody and A Star is Born captured accolades from the critics, and the hardware during awards season; however, neither fully captured a truer feeling of a troubled musical artist like Alex Ross Perry’s gritty punk grunge motion picture.


ARTEFACTS

Kim Percy, Finding Difference

Keywords: Video art, metamodernism, affect, structure of feeling

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