Audiovisual histospheres Experience and Reflection of Latin American contemporary History in fictional Film

• Duration: 2017 – 2020
• Project lead: PD Dr. Rasmus Greiner

Head: Dr. Rasmus Greiner

ZeMKI Labs “Audiovisual Media and Historiography” and “Film, Media Art and Popular Culture”

Foundation: Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)

Duration: 2017 – 2020

The project “Audiovisual Histospheres: Experience and Reflection of Latin American Contemporary History in Fictional Film” is funded as part of the “Small Subjects – Great Potentials” program of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The initiative aims to further strengthen the small subjects and support outstanding young academics with innovative research projects.

The Bremen-based project ties in with the field of research “Film and History”, which was initially explored by the ZF-funded exploration project “Audio History” (Winfried Pauleit, Rasmus Greiner, Mattias Frey) and established in the ZeMKI labs “Film, Media Art and Popular Culture” (Winfried Pauleit) and “Audiovisual Media and Historiography” (Delia González de Reufels). The project explores the “audiovisual histosphere” – a cinematically constructed and modeled space-time structure in which film images and film sound make history tangible and reflect it. Representations of the military dictatorship in Argentina in fictional film serve as the object of investigation. The project is thus located at the intersection of film studies and Latin American history. On this basis, the project aims to exploit the potential for explorative interdisciplinary research within the framework of the aforementioned minor disciplines and to make the knowledge gained accessible to larger fields of research in the field of media studies and history.

In order to be able to examine the interaction of the various levels of meaning of the audiovisual histosphere in a model-like manner, film studies methods that are oriented towards narration, the film image and film sound are integratively intertwined. Theories on history and film as well as the medium’s interrelationship with culture and society are also included in the considerations. The study thus understands film not only as a form of representation, but also as the production of ‘reality’, which is expressed in particular in the aesthetic and narrative modeling of historical worlds and processes, as well as in the provision of historical interpretations.

The innovative core of the audiovisual histosphere lies in the integrative processing of theoretical considerations on film and history, which have so far been largely monolithic, on the specific nature of film as a combination of moving images and sound, on the experience of history and on the role of film as a medium of reflection in Latin American contemporary history. The funding period is three years.