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The Thickness of Cinema is CIRCUIT’s 5th annual symposium exploring artists moving-image practice in Aotearoa New Zealand and internationally.

This symposium asks the following questions:
What might be the role of the body and the sensorial experience in the emergence of cinematic intelligibility and meaning?
How does film affective experience contribute to our knowledge of the world? In what ways might we be able to analyse and get beyond sensation and emotion to explore cultural, gender or ideological implications?
How have cinema, and phenomenological approaches to film, been influenced by and respond to recent technological developments in our digital age that offer new and expanded sensory and experiential dimensions?
What might the cinematic experience be destined to offer us in lieu of the new sensorial experiences brought by these technological advances?

The Thickness of Cinema is curated by CIRCUIT 2017 curator-at-large Dr Mercedes Vicente, an independent curator and writer who has recently completed her PhD at the Royal College of Art, London on the work of New Zealand pioneer video artist Darcy Lange.

Delivering the keynote speech is Dr Erika Balsom (CAN). Erika Balsom is a senior lecturer in film studies and liberal arts at King's College London. She is currently visiting film curator in residence at the Govett Brewster Art Gallery / Len Lye Centre. Erika’s research interests include moving image installation, experimental cinema, the history of film theory, and documentary cinema. Her most recent book, After Uniqueness: A History of Film and Video Art in Circulation, was published by Columbia University Press in 2017. She is author of Exhibiting Cinema in Contemporary Art (2013), the co-editor of Documentary Across Disciplines (2016), and a frequent contributor to Artforum and Sight and Sound. Her work has appeared in publications such as Grey Room, e-flux, Cinema Journal, and numerous exhibition catalogues.

The 2017 CIRCUIT Symposium is preceded by an Artist’s Week of screenings and installations in a variety of locations across Christchurch. Artists include Kevin Jerome Everson (USA), Ursula Mayer (Austria), Peter Wareing (NZ/UK) and an ambitious installation shot in St Bathans in 2016 by CIRCUIT’s inaugural international artist in residence Alexandre Larose (Canada). More details to be announced.

CIRCUIT director Mark Williams says ‘We are delighted to present our first symposium in the South Island in Ōtautahi Christchurch. The many partnerships we’ve established locally to produce this event are a reflection of what a vibrant cultural hub the city is. We hope that this event offers a sense of radical possibilities in art and cinema at a time of great political and social change worldwide.’

For enquiries:
Mark Williams
director@circuit.org.nz