Gertrud Koch
Gertrud Koch (Freie Universität Berlin)
The Masses as Medium: The Medium of the Masses
Show Video Recording
Hardly anybody seems to be thinking about “the masses” in conceptual terms anymore, even as they continue to surface in composite constructions, such as “mass media” or “mass communication”. I will attempt, however, to bring the concept and phenomenon of the masses newly into focus. In this regard, I am concerned with a medial constellation: does the mass media “think” the masses? Drawing on Benjamin, Adorno and Kracauer, the presentation will both remap the ambivalent resonant spaces of the masses and define them as a reference of film aesthetics.
Workshop with Gertrud Koch from 2-4 pm, IG Building, Room 7.312 (Film Studies Room). For registration and information contact us at info@kracauer-lectures.de.
Gertrud Koch is Professor for Film Studies at the Freie Universität in Berlin and, since 2009, the speaker for the Collaborative Research Group “Aesthetic Experience and the Dissolution of Artistic Limits.” She has had numerous visiting professorships and research positions in the USA and Europe. Her research interests focus on aesthetic theory, film and image theory and questions of political and historical representation. Her recent publications and edited volumes include Fiktion – es ist als Ob (München, 2008), Perspektive – Die Spaltung der Standpunkte, (München, 2010), Die Mimesis und ihre Künste, Edited with Martin Vöhler and Christiane Voss (München, 2010).