Maurizio Ferraris

Enrico Terrone

The essays presented in this volume investigate the relationship between cinema and ontology. This investigation unfolds, on the one hand, through an ontological understanding of cinema, that is, an understanding of the specificity of if its being. On the other hand, it highlights the ways in which cinema can help us to shed some light on the domain of ontology, namely, what exists. The five sections of this volume, each containing a pair of complementary essays, analyse the following topics: the place of cinema in the system of the arts, the connection between cinematic realism and philosophical realism, the transition from analog to digital cinema, the specificity of films made through cell phones, and the representation of non-human animals in films.

Cinema and Ontology

Luca Bandirali

Television series seem to be made of images and sounds just like films, but Luca Bandirali and Enrico Terrone suggest an alternate framework for understanding television series: as concepts whereby narratives made of images and sounds can be constructed.

An Aesthetics of Television Series

Concept TV

Al volgere del secolo le serie tv si sonoimposte come nuova forma d’arte capacedi sfidare il cinema sul suo stesso terreno,quello della narrazione attraverso leimmagini e i suoni. Titoli come CSI, 24,Dexter, Mad Men, Il Trono di Spade hannoraggiunto livelli di elaborazione stilistica,di articolazione narrativa e di profonditàtematica con cui pochi film contemporaneisono in grado di competere. Le serie tvhanno riportato al centro della culturapopolare le nozioni di mimesi, di epose di grande narrazione, delle quali i teoricidel postmoderno avevano avventatamenteproclamato l’obsolescenza. In quantonuova forma d’arte, la serialità televisivarichiede una nuova filosofia che siain grado da una parte di individuarei tratti peculiari delle serie tv, dall’altradi mostrare la rilevanza filosoficadelle riflessioni narrative sui ruolidegli individui all’interno della comunità,sulla natura della forza e delle norme,sulla costruzione della realtà sociale.

Dalla scena del crimine al trono di spade

Filosofia delle serie tv

"What is a television series? A widespread answer takes it to be a totality of episodes and seasons. Luca Bandirali and Enrico Terrone argue against this characterization. In Concept TV: An Aesthetics of Television Series, they contend that television series are concepts that manifest themselves through episodes and seasons, just as works of conceptual art can manifest themselves through installations or performances. In this sense, a television series is a conceptual narrative, a principle of construction of similar narratives. While the film viewer directly appreciates a narrative made of images and sounds, the TV viewer relies on images and sounds to grasp the conceptual narrative that they express. Here lies the key difference between television and film. Reflecting on this difference paves the way for an aesthetics of television series that makes room for their alleged prolixity, their tendency to repetition, and their lack of narrative closure. Bandirali and Terrone shed light on the specific ways in which television series are evaluated, arguing that some apparent flaws of them are, indeed, aesthetic merits when considered from a conceptual perspective. Hence, to maximize the aesthetic value of television series, one should not assess them in the same framework in which films are assessed but rather in this new conceptual framework"--

Enrico Terrone

Books

Your next favorite book is out there