Screening Nature Network: Flora, Fauna, and the Moving Image

Screening Nature Network通过一个混合平台解决了自然世界和运动图像之间的关系，该平台包括一系列研讨会，策划放映，电影制片人，学者和公众之间的讨论以及项目网站。这项研究探讨了关于自然世界的想法如何促进早期电影的发展，以及自然如何继续为今天的媒体提供信息。关于电影传达非以自然为中心的观点的能力（和局限性）的想法是该项目的核心，其生态美学重点与关于自然作为经济和美学资源的地位的主题问题密切相关。将探讨的其他主题是非人类机构，气候变化，可持续性和人类与动物关系的问题。该网络展示了一个罕见的活动图像作品节目，从早期的档案作品到最近的电影和录像作品，目的是扩大关于自然世界表现形式的辩论范围，超越流行的自然历史广播（例如英国广播公司的《行星地球》或《冰冻星球》）。该网络将汇集多个学科的利益相关者：电影研究，生态学，哲学，电影和艺术实践，文化研究以及公众。第一系列活动将于2012年9月7日至8日在惠特斯泰布尔双年展上举行。这是学术研讨会和主题系列放映首次成为双年展的组成部分，在学者、艺术家和公众之间建立了一个创新的交叉网络。惠特斯泰布尔活动将以在霍斯布里奇艺术与社区中心举行的研讨会“自然筛选”开幕，著名学者W.J.T.米切尔（芝加哥大学）和克莱尔·科尔布鲁克（宾夕法尼亚州立大学），以及特邀演讲者，生态批评家格雷格·加拉德（巴斯温泉），历史学家乔纳森·伯特（《电影中的动物》的作者），媒体和文化研究学者乔迪·伯兰德（约克大学）。研讨会之后是六个策展的植物群和动物放映，展示了早期电影和当代艺术家的电影，视频和声音作品，这些作品涉及生态，自然和图像之间的关系。放映将包括与电影制片人的问答和艺术家小组讨论，从而在电影观众，双年展参观者，学者和艺术家之间进行全面的对话。第二个系列活动（11月12日至2013年1月）将在歌德学院伦敦举行，其中包括两部获奖纪录片的公开首映式，这些纪录片讲述了生态学在更广泛的政治和社会背景下的地位。放映之后还将举行电影制片人、电影学者和公众之间的讨论。2013年的另外两个研讨会将完成该网络这一阶段的研究，并为其未来的工作铺平道路。通过将广泛的社区联系起来，包括当地居民、惠特斯泰布尔双年展的参观者、电影观众、学者、活动家和艺术家，该项目致力于促进真正的跨部门对话，讨论电影中的自然位置以及历史、政治、文化和社会等问题。以及自然图像的媒体传播的日常后果。最近自然历史电视节目、商业纪录片（如《企鹅进行曲》）或BFI发行的《自然的秘密》DVD的激增，表明人们对探索更广泛的自然电影制作的兴趣越来越大。该网络利用这种欲望来展示和辩论历史上至关重要的电影材料（早期科学和探索电影，当代艺术家电影和视频以及实验电影），所有这些都为流行的野生动物电影制作提供了迷人的对比。该网络旨在弥合艺术、学术和公众参与之间的差距。因此，该网络试图在生态危机时期，在多样化的电影文化中，对现有的关于自然位置的对话进行具体干预。

The Screening Nature Network addresses the relationship between the natural world and the moving image via a mixed platform that includes a series of symposia, curated screenings, discussions between filmmakers, academics, and the public, and a project website. The research asks how ideas about the natural world contributed to the development of early cinema and how nature continues to inform the medium today. Ideas about cinema's ability (and limitations) to convey a non-anthropocentric perspective are at the heart of the project, whose eco-aesthetic focus is intimately linked to topical questions about the status of nature as an economic and aesthetic resource. Other themes that will be explored are the question of nonhuman agency, climate change, sustainability, and human-animal relations. The network showcases a programme of rarely seen moving image work, from early archival pieces to recent film and video work, with the aim of broadening the scope of debate on representations of the natural world beyond popular natural history broadcasting (e.g. the BBC's Planet Earth or Frozen Planet). The network will bring together stakeholders across several disciplines: Film Studies, ecology, philosophy, film and arts practice, cultural studies, as well as the general public. The first series of events will take place on 7-8 September 2012 at the Whitstable Biennale. This is the first time that an academic symposium and a themed series of screenings form an integral part of the Biennale, establishing an innovative crossover network between academics, artists, and the public. The Whitstable events will open with the Symposium Screening Nature held at the Horsebridge Arts & Community Centre, with confirmed keynotes by the renown scholars W.J.T. Mitchell (University of Chicago) and Claire Colebrook (Penn State), and invited speakers, ecocritic Greg Garrard (Bath Spa), historian Jonathan Burt (author of Animals in Film), and media and cultural studies scholar Jodi Berland (York University). The Symposium is followed by six curated Flora & Fauna screenings featuring a mixture of early film and contemporary artist film, video and sound works that deal with the relationship between ecology, nature, and the image. Screenings will include Question & Answers with the filmmakers and artist panel discussions, resulting in a comprehensive dialogue among filmgoers, visitors to the Biennale, academics, and artists. The second series of events (November '12-January '13) will be at the Goethe-Institut London, and include two public premieres of award-winning documentaries on ecology's place in the wider political and social context. The screenings will also be followed by a discussion between the filmmakers, film scholars, and the public. Two additional symposia in 2013 will complete this phase of the network's research and pave the way for its future work.By linking a wide range of communities, including local residents, visitors to the Whitstable Biennale, filmgoers, academics, activists, and artists, the project centres on fostering a genuine intersectional dialogue on the place of nature in film and the historical, political, and everyday consequences of the media circulation of natural images. The recent surge in natural history TV programming, commercial documentaries (e.g. March of the Penguins), or the BFI's DVD release of Secrets of Nature suggests a growing appetite to explore a wider range of nature filmmaking. The network harnesses this appetite to exhibit and debate historically crucial filmic materials (early scientific and exploration films, contemporary artist film and video, and experimental film), all of which offer fascinating counterpoints to popular wildlife filmmaking. The network sets out to bridge the gap between art, academia, and public engagement. Thus, the network seeks to make a concrete intervention into existing conversations on nature's place within a diverse film culture at a time of ecological crisis.