Iluminace - Nejnovější články

From Post-Communist to Post-Human Care. A Comparative Study of The Death of Mr. Lazarescu and EdenČlánky

György Kalmár

Iluminace 2025, 37(1):5-25 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1802  

On basis of a comparative close reading of two paradigmatic Eastern European films about precarious lives and acts of care, this article explores the relationship between three distinct but interrelated phenomena: (1) the early 21st century experience of increased precatity and vulnerability, (2) certain philosophical or theoretical trends (such as care ethics and critical posthumanism) that aim to conceptualize this new state of insecurity, and (3) new Eastern European cinematic trends that can be understood as responses to the first two phenomena. The article’s starting hypothesis is that socially committed Eastern European art cinema responds...

The Clash of Sino-Tibetan Propaganda On-screen. A Case Study of Tibetan Exile Movie TheatreČlánky

Martin Špirk

Iluminace 2025, 37(1):27-47 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1804  

Different self-presentation strategies constantly compete on the battlefield between two propagandas using various media — documentary films and docudramas are among the most used persuasive tools to convey and disseminate a specific worldview through the mediation of selected information and analysis. The target audience of the films is influenced by techniques to maximize the effect of propaganda, including the emphasis on the credibility of the information conveyed, specific truth claims concerning the topic discussed, and, finally, the very nature of the visual message itself, which gives the impression of an authentic depiction of reality....

Visual Expansions in Narrating Contemporary Conflicts and History. The Possibilities of Virtual Reality (VR) FilmsČlánky

Agnieszka Kiejziewicz

Iluminace 2025, 37(1):73-91 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1803  

This article focuses on Virtual Reality films depicting contemporary conflicts, with an emphasis on building viewer-screen relations and considering the cinematographic elements establishing the emotional reaction to the films. Analyzing the visual and narrative architecture of chosen Virtual Reality productions, the author explains correlations between the level of immersion and the viewer’s experience from the perspective of film and media studies. Furthermore, the author uses multimodal critical theory as the primary methodological tool to focus on modes experienced through different sensual channels during the 360° screenings. Moreover, it...

Polish Contemporary Cinema. Between Right-wing Cultural Policy and Netflix ImperialismČlánky

Anna Wróblewska

Iluminace 2025, 37(1):49-71 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1798  

This article is the first synthesis of the social, political and economic conditions of Polish cinema in recent years and their influence on the current shape of Polish cinema. This shape is changing dynamically all the time, although the direction of the changes is not obvious at the moment. In many respects the situation of Polish cinema has been exceptional in recent years. But the processes or elements of the processes described in this article are reflected in the internal markets of Central and Eastern Europe. This situation should prompt researchers to analyse the impact of the external and internal environment on national film markets in this...

“Studios Are Fundamentally about Controlling the Environment.”
Space Control and Epistemologically Challenging Failures in the Film Studios’ Research 
An Interview with Brian R. JacobsonRozhovory

Pavel Skopal, Ewa Ciszewska, Michał Pabiś-Orzeszyna

Iluminace 2024, 36(3):127-135 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1797  

An Interview with Brian R. Jacobson.

Refusing to Fade: Soviet Domestic Photography Archives as Memory StrongholdsRecenze

Liri Alienor Chapelan

Iluminace 2024, 36(3):137-142 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1796  

Book review: Oksana Sarkisova and Olga Shevchenko, In Visible Presence: Soviet Afterlives in Family Photos (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2023).

Animation Studios: People, Spaces, LaborEditorial

Pavel Skopal, Ewa Ciszewska

Iluminace 2024, 36(3):5-10 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1794  

An Introduction to a Special Issue.

I provizorní zastávka může být cílRecenze

Even a Temporary Stop Can Be a Destination

Jan Bergl

Iluminace 2024, 36(3):143-150 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1795  

Recenze knihy Jiří Anger (ed.), Digitální Kříženecký: Nový život prvních českých filmů (Praha: Národní filmový archiv, 2023).

Bring Your Toys to Works.
Desk Displays at the Animation StudioČlánky k tématu

Colin Wheeler

Iluminace 2024, 36(3):101-125 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1789  

Animators distinguish themselves through decorating their workspaces, which is why we should explore how this social ritual reflects the values inherent in animation production culture. Previous analyses have interpreted these practices as resistance to the alienating power of the studio, focusing on large companies such as Nickelodeon. However, many diverse office environments remain unexplored. Drawing from long-form interviews with animators across Atlanta, Georgia, this research uses discourse analysis and ethnographic methods to study how decorations differ in their purpose and function. Participants revealed myriad motivations for their choices:...

How Serials Reshaped Animation Production. 
Comparative Analysis of Animated Film Serials Produced by the Studio in Gottwaldov and ‘Se-Ma-For’ Studio of Small Film Forms (1960s–1980s)Články k tématu

Michal Večeřa, Szymon Szul

Iluminace 2024, 36(3):11-34 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1793  

The 1960s marked a significant shift in animation production in socialist Czechoslovakia and Poland toward serial formats, and our text focuses on a comparative analysis of the adoption of animated serial production at the Polish studio Se-Ma-For and the Gottwaldov animation studio in Czechoslovakia. In Gottwaldov, evening serials for television were the predominant form of production, while Se-Ma-For favored co-produced serials. The shift to serial production required adjustments in production practices, including changes in workforce composition and skill requirements. Comparative analysis reveals divergent approaches to serial production, influenced...

Transcontinental Studio Collaboration in the Production of the African-futurist Anthology Kizazi MotoČlánky k tématu

Jane Cheadle

Iluminace 2024, 36(3):81-100 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1791  

This paper explores the production of the animated anthology Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire as a case study for understanding the transnational dynamics and power relations within the global animation industry in the post-colonial context. Utilizing qualitative research based on interviews with key decision makers, the paper examines the production culture, the complexities of identity and representation, and the ideological tensions embedded in the animation tools and processes. Through the interview record, moments of resistance and acceptance emerged, revealing uneven access to resources and the colonial legacies influencing contemporary African...

From Semi-Amateur to Professional Production Conditions.
The Irzykowski Film Studio and Animation in the Late People’s Republic of PolandČlánky k tématu

Emil Sowiński

Iluminace 2024, 36(3):63-79 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1790  

The present paper contextualises and closely analyses the production strategy of the Irzykowski Film Studio (a communist-era film institution founded in 1981 that produced debut films of all types and lengths) for animated films in the 1980s. In reconstructing the realities of animated film production, the author points out not only the reasons for their making, but also draws attention to production conditions. It proves that the Studio operated under semi-amateur (1980–1985) where films were produced on extremely limited budgets as well as professional (1986–1989) production conditions. The research draws on archival materials, including...

The Agency and Effect of Technical Equipment on Animation Production in Studios Se-Ma-For and FS Kudlov in the 1970s and 1980sČlánky k tématu

Tereza Bochinová, Agata Hofelmajer-Roś

Iluminace 2024, 36(3):35-62 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1792  

This study examines the animation studios FS Kudlov in Gottwaldov and Se-Ma-For in Łódź in the 1970s and 1980s through the lens of Actor-Network Theory (ANT). The goal is to demonstrate ANT as a tool for understanding the role of human and non-human actors (such as equipment, materials, and spaces) in shaping work processes. In Se-Ma-For, the “reprojector kit” used by Zbigniew Rybczyński for the Oscar-winning Tango (1981) prompted innovative techniques, while in FS Kudlov, a work process supplementing a copy machine influenced Karel Zeman’s work. Both studios faced constraints due to limited technology access in the Eastern Bloc,...

Seriously Unserious: Theoretical Implications of the Gimmick for Film and Media StudiesRecenze

Veronika Hanáková

Iluminace 2024, 36(2):133-139 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1787  

Book review: Sianne Ngai, Theory of the Gimmick: Aesthetic Judgment and Capitalist Form (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2020).

Configuring computer labor in film and audiovisual media:
an introduction to a special issueEditorial

Veronika Hanáková

Iluminace 2024, 36(2):5-22 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1786  

This text invites a critical examination of how computer labor – in all its diverse forms,  modes, and manifestations – has been represented, constructed, and reflected through the formal capacities of audiovisual media from the 20th century to the present day. In a world where technological advancements constantly introduce new gadgets, software, platforms, and algorithms, our perception of information technology is in perpetual motion. Computer labor encompasses all forms of work facilitated by information technologies, whether performed by humans, machines, or through human-machine collaboration. This concept provides a...

Karlovarský festival jako platforma kulturní výměny i zbraň hybridní válkyRecenze

Karlovy Vary Film Festival as a Platform for Cultural Exchange and a Weapon of Hybrid Warfare

Ondřej Zach

Iluminace 2024, 36(2):127-132 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1785  

Recenze knihy: Jindřiška Bláhová, ed., Proplétání světů: Mezinárodní filmový festival Karlovy Vary v období studené války (Praha: Národní filmový archiv, 2023).

Ordinatrices: About the Negative Spaces of Early ComputingČlánky k tématu

Occitane Lacurie

Iluminace 2024, 36(2):41-50 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1781  

The history of computing is notoriously incomplete when it comes to the women who have shaped it as engineers, scientists, and theorists. This video essay hypothesizes that this invisibility originated well before that, in the age of computing as manual labor, a profession once known as secretarial work. Two images support this view. The opening shot of Billy Wilder’s The Apartment, showing a colossal New York building full of rows of busy secretaries as far as the eye can see, might seem like a computer tower to the 21st-century eye that has since contemplated the humanoid programs that populate the mainframes of Tron. In the same...

Who Is Awful? Black Mirror and the Dystopian Imaginary of AI LaborČlánky k tématu

Tibor Vocásek

Iluminace 2024, 36(2):79-106 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1784  

The future of labor has become one of the most urgent topics in the current public debate regarding Artificial Intelligence. Related imaginaries, primarily following the emergence of Chat GPT, have gravitated towards blaming the technology for threatening people’s livelihoods. However, these visions suffer from “sociotechnical blindness” and overlook the human actors who create and hold the decisive power behind AI. One of the most mediatized examples of this was the strike by Hollywood workers in 2023. Pop culture, notably sci-fi television series, has been an influential source of inspiration for these dystopian visions. Despite...

The Allure and Threat of the Cine-Computer:
A Supercut of Onscreen Computers in Speculative Screen FictionČlánky k tématu

Daniel O’Brien

Iluminace 2024, 36(2):29-40 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1780  

This video essay explores the enticement and anxiety of onscreen computers across a range of films and television programmes. The onscreen computer is a frequent prop of dystopian fiction within the sci-fi genre, often presented as an allure that promises increased power or knowledge balanced by the anxiety of technophobic otherness. From the late 1950s onwards, cinema and television, particularly sci-fi and speculative fiction, have used computers as a form of adversary, which eventually turns on their human operators. The video essay portrays the evolvement of computing in regard to apparatus and embodiment through user interfaces, software, and...

Techniky a technologie na kompenzaci bezmociČlánky k tématu

Techniques and Technologies to Compensate for Powerlessness

Matěj Pavlík

Iluminace 2024, 36(2):71-78 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1782  

The video essay Techniques and Technologies to Compensate for Powerlessness is an artistic research output that exemplifies Matěj Pavlík’s approach to historiography, developed through individual projects and interdisciplinary collaborations. Pavlík’s work often focuses on a reflexive approach to fiction, speculation, or myth-making. In this essay, the artist examines the role of borderline science technologies invented in late socialist Czechoslovakia. These technologies (e.g., telesthesia, healing, and locating geopathogenic zones) were linked to research in borderline scientific fields like psychotronics and psychoenergetics. The artist...

Nostalgia Isn’t What it Used to Be:
On Vaporwave’s Glitched, Aspirational AestheticsČlánky k tématu

David Álvarez

Iluminace 2024, 36(2):107-126 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1788  

Vaporwave is an internet-native aesthetic movement that emerged in the early 2010s. It directly addresses the presumed condition of living at the “end of history” that was proposed during the 1990s by enmeshing images from aspirational consumerism into an audiovisual aesthetic. This aesthetic is mainly distinguished by its use of the glitch as a unifying element, ironically fusing different forms of noise, muzak and interference with visual and aural refrains and pop culture objects and other images belonging to neoliberal consumerism. This article argues that Vaporwave’s “glitched” aesthetics are the manifestation of...

Envisioning the InterfaceČlánky k tématu

Steve F. Anderson

Iluminace 2024, 36(2):21-28 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1779  

Envisioning the Interface presents an interpretive chronology of Hollywood’s imaginings of computer interfaces from the 1950s to the present. Although not rigidly chronological, this video essay observes a historical evolution from early visions of gestural interfaces when computers were linked with superhuman or extra-terrestrial intelligence, to the mundane, physical and punch-card based interfaces of the mainframe era, followed by a wave of strangely recalcitrant voice and anthropomorphic interfaces that emerged in the PC era. Drawing on the concept of cinema as a source of “diegetic prototypes” for the technology industries, this...

Do Corporate Films Dream of Cybernetic Governance?
Computers (as Metaphors of) Industrial Labor and Society in Olivetti-Sponsored FilmsČlánky k tématu

Simone Dotto

Iluminace 2024, 36(2):51-70 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1783  

Addressing the audiovisual construction of computer labor, the essay focuses on the relationship between computers and film in their lifetimes as useful media. It analyzes the films sponsored by the leading Italian IT manufacturing company Olivetti between the late 1950s and the 1970s. Questioning Vinzenz Hediger’s hypothesis on industrial cinema’s inability to make computing visible, it argues that the cinematic representation of computers is invested with broader rhetorical functions and responds to a specific form of governmentality, inflected by the application of cybernetics in scientific management. Based on this premise, the essay...

Sokol kinematografickýČlánky

Cinematographic Sokol

Ivan Klimeš

Iluminace 2024, 36(1):121-168 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1774  

Tělovýchovný spolek Sokol s masovou členskou základnou, s kořeny hluboko v 19. století a vysokým společenským kreditem díky nacionálnímu obsahu svého programu se stal v meziválečném Československu největším provozovatelem a budovatelem kin. Z přibližně 1 850 kin v republice jich patřilo Sokolu zhruba 40 %, což znamená, že z více než 3 000 sokolských poboček jich provozovala kino asi čtvrtina. Šlo většinou o kina venkovská a 80 % z nich hrálo jen jednou nebo dvakrát týdně. Článek sleduje, jak se pražská centrála Sokola snažila ve 20. letech sjednotit sokolská kina do jednoho gigantického sdružení, jehož členové by získávali od půjčoven filmy výlučně...

Peripheral Vision-MakersRecenze

Jonathan Owen

Iluminace 2024, 36(1):169-174 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1778  

Recenze knihy: Petr Szczepanik, Screen Industries in East-Central Europe (London: BFI and Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021).

Mnohohlas monologů o experimentálním filmuRecenze

Many Monologues about Experimental Film

Kryštof Kočtář

Iluminace 2024, 36(1):181-186 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1777  

Recenze knihy: Ksenya Gurshtein – Sonja Simonyi, eds., Experimental Cinemas in State-Socialist Eastern Europe (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2022).

Reframing Postsocialist Legacy and ImageryRecenze

Tanya Silverman

Iluminace 2024, 36(1):175-180 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1776  

Recenze knihy: Veronika Pehe, Velvet Retro: Postsocialist Nostalgia and the Politics of Heroism in Czech Popular Culture (New York: Berghahn Books, 2020).

Přímá profesionalizace režisérů v animované tvorběČlánky

Direct Professionalisation of Directors in Animation

Tomáš Hubáček

Iluminace 2024, 36(1):93-120 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1773  

Tato studie se zaměřuje na pozoruhodný fenomén československého animovaného filmu. V 70. letech 20. století došlo v Československu k unikátnímu spojení dvou odlišných světů – amatérského a animovaného filmu. Amatérští režiséři animovaných filmů mohli přejít přímo k profesionální režii, aniž by získali řádné vysokoškolské filmové vzdělání nebo museli absolvovat předchozí studiovou praxi. Pěti z nich to bylo umožněno na základě předchozích úspěchů na amatérských festivalech a jejich jedinečného výtvarného stylu. Pro tyto účely text definuje pojem "přímá profesionalizace" a vysvětluje její aspekty. Studie sleduje vstup režisérů do profesionální...

Negotiating Organizational Cultures
The Evolution of the VOD Platform Implementation in Czech Public Service TelevisionČlánky

Lukáš Slavík, Klára Smejkal

Iluminace 2024, 36(1):5-28 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1775  

In response to the digital transformation and the surge of commercial video-on-demand (VOD) platforms like Netflix, public service media (PSM) face the challenge of adapting while preserving their core values. While current studies predominantly focus on the adaptation process of the Western European PSMs, this research contributes a novel perspective by investigating the case of Central and Eastern European countries, specifically the Czech public service broadcaster Česká televize (Czech Television, CT). The emphasis on the role of the organizational culture within this institution shows the social nature of digital innovation. It complements the...

Sadismus vůči diváctvu filmového díla
Liminální zkušenost a modulace percepce při performanci Náš očistec (Martin Ježek, 2021)Články

Sadism Against the Film Spectator
Liminal Experience and Modulation of Perception in the Performance Our Purgatory (Martin Ježek, 2021)

Kryštof Kočtář

Iluminace 2024, 36(1):29-70 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1772  

Někteří filmoví tvůrci si zvolili, že divákům svých děl nezprostředkují příběh, nýbrž přímo zaútočí na jejich smysly. V této studii se budeme zabývat expanded cinema performancí experimentálního filmaře Martina Ježka Náš očistec (2021), která pomocí různých technik usiluje právě o tento typ tělesného a afektivního diváctví. Je určena pro tři projektory a trojici pláten, přičemž se s ní lze setkat pouze ve formě události. Z tohoto důvodu budeme vycházet z textů teatroložky Eriky Fischer-Lichte, která vypracovala koncept estetiky performativity, jenž nabízí vhodný teoretický rámec pro výzkum uměleckých děl v událostní podobě. Nejprve však musíme...