Allison Van Pelt

Jean Epstein's Early Film Theory and Modern Aesthetic Experience: The Material of Distance
by Jennifer Wild

This talk went completely over my head, but as my French Cinema professor explained later (she was hosting the talk in her classroom) it went over many scholar's heads as well so that made me feel a bit better. Because of that however I feel like I really missed out on the point of the talk. Going in expecting a talk on cinema theory I was surprised to be lectured on a volcano eruption and the "sublime." However that seemed to be the most important points of the lecture, Jean Epstein's experience with a volcano, and his film about it, "Eruption de L'Etna en 1923" (which is lost). He talks about the volcano taking on a human face and how he wants to overcome natures natural romanticism and be more focused on the technology, which I didn't quite understand. He was also focused on Walter Moore Coleman an American psychologist(?) He also concentrated on close ups in American cinema, the face in cinema and the volcano's face. And how the volcano and cinema's views are a force at a distance. She also briefly discussed telepathy but I missed what that had to do with her talk. As I said I was really lost for most of the talk so I expect my summary to confusing in itself.


"The Hysterical Alphabet: A Multi Media History"
by Terry Kapsalis

Being already interested in the history of "hysteria" I found this performance especially engaging. I loved the way they combined live reading and sound with pre-recorded reading and edited film. The combination of live and nonlive media was surprising at first but is what led to me to be further engaged. One of my favorite parts was seeing the artists interacting with the equipment live and reacting to the film and timing in front of the audience. And them playing with recording things and when to do it live kept the performance fresh in it's length. Other parts I loved was her reading voice as well as the edited film. The scenes chosen as well as how they were edited were especially affective in describing each woman. Each shot was interesting in it's own (he did a wonderful job picking scenes, but I also heard he has a fantastic memory when it comes to cinema and is able to pick out plenty of scenes off the top of his head), but the way he used repetition as well as flipping the shots emphasized each girl's story. The sound was one of the most surprising aspects. Many of the sound was unexpected, and mostly bizarre but it kept the play between audio and visual complicated. (I also heard that he played upon using the instruments live, letting the needle hit records randomly instead of picking exact points).

I had the wonderful opportunity of being able to talk to Terry Kapsalis after the performance as well and bought her book. She talked about in performance how she has a want of hiding which is why she enjoyed reading behind a table instead of using her body in they way she had done when she was younger. And I agree it's definitely a different type of performance with connections more to story telling then performances that are more forceful and use their bodies to express feelings. She also explained the hand gestures above each page number in her book, apparently doctors had come up with a series of hand gestures that described or were the supposed hand gestures of "hysterical" women. They are beautiful and a lovely small addition to the book.