Body Films: New Approaches to Medicine and Film

Body Films: New Approaches to Medicine and Film
Date: Monday 12 July 2010
Time: 4:00 - 6:00pm
Venue: Convocation Room, Room 218, Main Building

Mediatizing Epidemics: Filming an Outbreak of an Unknown Disease
Prof Charles Briggs (Department of Anthropology, UC Berkeley)

The Moving Image: Touch, Sound and the Sensory Medical Film Body
Prof Lisa Cartwright (Department of Communication Studies, UC San Diego)

Bare Feet, Fine Hands, and Flexible Bodies: Visual and Filmic Representations of Barefoot Doctors
Prof Laikwan Pang (Department of Cultural and Religious Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong)

From Medical Imaging to Experiments of Wetware: Art Projects for the Mediated Body and the Cyborg
Ms Ellen Pau (co-founder and artistic director of the media art organization Videotage)

How are medical technologies shaping contemporary visual culture, in particular, the moving picture? And conversely, how is film impacting upon the ways we think about and experience health and illness? In this symposium, participants from medicine, anthropology, communication studies and beyond will address these issues and explore the complex ways in which medicine and film are enmeshed. Participants will consider the moving image and the sensory medical film body, visual and filmic representations of barefoot doctors, and the issues at stake in the making of 'health' documentaries.

This event is co-sponsored by the Summer Institute in the Arts and Humanities.