Iluminace, 2020 (vol. 32), issue 2
Interface
Editorial
Editorial: Interface
Jiří Anger, Lucie Česálková
Iluminace 2020, 32(2):31-33 
The editorial of this thematic issue, which follows up on the Prague symposium "Interface," places the theoretical concept of film as an interface in the context of contemporary digital reality and presents original studies devoted to spatial installations, netnographic film, virtual reality, and a discussion on remediation.
Theme Articles
On Interfaces as Moving Image Configurations in Space
Miriam De Rosa
Iluminace 2020, 32(2):35-52 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1664
The article focusses on artistic moving images and takes its cues from Studio Azzurro's Sensitive City (2010) to offer a reading in light of the postdigital that revolves around the concept of space-image. To do so, the author reflect upon space and place, and interrogates the environmental dynamics triggered by screen media interfaces from a phenomenological point of view.
Netnographic Cinema as a Cultural Interface
Chloé Galibert-Laîné
Iluminace 2020, 32(2):53-69 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1665
This article introduces the notion of "netnographic cinema" and contextualizes this contemporary filmmaking practice in the light of Lev Manovich's 1997 article "Cinema as a Cultural Interface". First, I present a corpus of contemporary experimental films that are entirely made of appropriated online media and argue that it is productive to interpret this new filmmaking practice in the light of the history of ethnographic cinema. The second part of the article offers a comparative close-analysis of two netnographic films made from the same online material, but adopting different formal strategies for representing that material: Penny Lane's feature-length...
Mystical-Type Experience at The Virtual Reality Interface. Technics, Aesthetics, and Theology in the Search for Cosmic Connection
Daniel Strutt
Iluminace 2020, 32(2):71-95 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1666
In the context of a recent proliferation of Virtual Reality content that focusses on spiritual, religious or "mystical-type experiences" (MTEs), this article speculates on its cultural and subjective value, to ask if new immersive technologies might offer an enhanced interface to sensations of "cosmic connection". Drawing issues of critical theology and media technology together with a consideration of the aesthetics of mystical or metaphysical experiences, the author asks what specific types of VR content might actually have a capacity to offer sensations that approximate mystical or transcendent experience. Can these then be deployed as healing or...
Articles
Who, with Whom, about What, for Whom. The Genesis of the Television Song Format and Culture Industries Cooperation in Czechoslovakia in the 1960s
Miroslava Papežová
Iluminace 2020, 32(2):5-29 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1662
This study is a historical research work focused on the specific audiovisual format called television song, which was the music video forerunner made by Czechoslovak Television since 1958. The research is focused on the early years of working with this format until 1968/1970, which was the historical milestone representing the shutdown of the liberalization process in Czechoslovakia following the Soviet-led invasion on 21st August 1968. The aim of this work is to clarify the genesis of the television song format as a part of television entertainment which was the production field for filming this format. This study also proves how elastic the format...
Edition
"Who Knows? So, Who?" Cinema Survey of Národní listy (1927)
Jaroslav Lopour
Iluminace 2020, 32(2):109-131 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1668
This edition of historical materials, compiled by Jaroslav Lopour, presents the results of a newspaper survey conducted by Večerník Národ in 1927, in which contemporary witnesses recall the earliest beginnings of Prague cinema, with their diverse testimonies focusing in particular on the establishment of Viktor Ponrepo's first permanent cinema and Jan Kříženecký's pioneering filming of the first Czech movies.
The Past on the Horizon. An Afterword to the Edition of Documents
Ivan Klimeš
Iluminace 2020, 32(2):132-136 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1669
Ivan Klimeš's afterword analyzes the role of contemporary sociological and journalistic surveys in early cinematography research and, using the example of a memoir survey from Národní listy, shows how these texts, looking back at the past at the end of the silent era, captured the subtle emergence of historical awareness of the film medium.
Interviews
From Remediation to Digital Plenitude and Back Again. An Interview with Jay David Bolter
Lukáš Likavčan
Iluminace 2020, 32(2):97-107
Lukáš Likavčan's interview with new media theorist Jay David Bolter reflects on the relevance of his influential concept of remediation in the era of virtual and augmented reality and presents his new book on so-called digital plenitude , which analyzes the current unprecedented proliferation of media forms in a horizontally interconnected culture without traditional hierarchies.
Horizon
What Do You Want to Know about Sound Theories in Film... (James Buhler, Theories of the Soundtrack)
Petr Mareš
Iluminace 2020, 32(2):137-141
Petr Mareš's review presents James Buhler's comprehensive publication Theories of the Soundtrack, which systematically maps, compares, and critically interprets the development of film sound theories from the beginnings of sound film to the current digital era. While the reviewer highlights the author's extraordinary erudition and creative analytical contribution, but also points out the book's Anglocentric linguistic limitations and its disproportionate focus on film music.
Designing for/against Extinction: Images of the Planet in Times of Climate Crisis (Lukáš Likavčan, Introduction to Comparative Planetology)
Noemi Purkrábková, Jiří Sirůček
Iluminace 2020, 32(2):142-147
Noemi Purkrábková and Jiří Sirůček review Lukáš Likavčan's book Introduction to Comparative Planetology, which, in the context of the current ecological crisis, critically reevaluates existing models of perceiving the planet as the so-called "Globe" or "Earthling," and proposes a new philosophical figure of the "Planetary," which radically decentralizes the role of humans and emphasizes interconnectedness with non-human and technological actors in designing our common future.