FIRST CALL FOR PAPERS

10th Laterna Film Academy
Pécs, Hungary
September-15th-17th, 2003

SOUND AND IMAGE: the Understanding of Scenes
Film Theory and Practice Across Disciplines

Aims and perspectives
Prompted by the success of our previous conferences, we would like to continue encouraging scholars from different disciplines and applying different methodologies to come together and keep up the interdisciplinary dialogue. With due respect to all who do not want to expose their ideas to general assessment, we invite film scholars with an incentive to share their insights to make an effort at a multilevel and multidisciplinary debate. For us there is special emphasis on our next conference as this conference is going to be the tenth of its kind. Also, we are launching a full major program in film studies, so we would like to encourage Ph.D. students to apply for a special session (A4). Since we had very good feedbacks from previous participants, we would not change the basic structure of the sessions in that we have four sessions (2 days) devoted to theory and two sessions (1 day) to practice.
The topic of the 2003 conference is the correlation or non-correlation of image and sound in filmic understanding. Because there are different theoretical levels at which a given aspect of filmic understanding like the integrity of scenes or the question of affect can and are in fact treated, but it is equally true that different methodologies reveal, and centre on, different themes, we would organise the theoretical and methodological papers into three separate sessions (A1-A3) according to the topics treated; over and above the proposed topics, we would like to have a special panel on the perception and understanding of scenes (A4). The third day we leave for practical analysis (B1-B2). Each session will be opened by a keynote lecture of 45 minutes given by a leading scholar of the field. Session papers will be alotted 30 minutes including discussion.The program also includes the premiere screening of a Hungarian film as a closing event.

(A1-A3) As for the theoretical part, papers are welcome on the special topics generally associated with the following four fields of interest (but they are by no means exclusive):

Ecological approaches:
- Low level coordination of image and sound,
- Multimodal perception of scenes;
- Simulating visual and aural perception;
- The relevance of dorsal and ventral processing of image and sound;

Cognitive approaches:
- Cognitive aspects of musical scores;
- Coordinating image and sound as structuring principle of filmic narration
- Orientation in fictional space;
- Problems of seeing-as;
- Constructing impossible scenes on the basis of (non-)coordinating image and sound;
- Emotional impact of music and sound;

Film and Phenomenology:
- From raw sense data to scenic perception;
- phenomenological representations of scenes;
- The phenomenology of the sensible and/or the sensual;
- Materiality in films;
- Intuiting scenes;

Film and Philosophy
- Music as the Representation of Time;
- Music and narration;
- Visual metaphors of music and/or musical metaphors of image;
- The noncorrelation of image and sound as a form of the rhyzome (Deleuzian aesthetics);
- Sound as a source of conceptual personae (Deleuzian aesthetics);
- The work of Stanley Cavell

A4) Special Panel for the Understanding of Scenes
(the application of Ph.D. Students are specially welcome):

B1) Practical analysis I.

Aki Kaurismaki: (Mies vailla menneisyyttä)

B2) Practical analysis II.

Jean-Luc Godard: The Passion

We have chosen these films because, even though  *The Man without a Past* is a relatively new release, gained considerable attention and success and are also sensitive to various kinds of approaches. Each film will be addressed in a separate session with no restriction in the methodology applied. We welcome papers, over and above the four fields mentioned above in the theoretical proposal, from other areas such as postmodern and psychoanalytic analysis, cultural and femminist studies, semiotics, etc.

Closing Event

Screening and debating the newly released film by András Jeles based on a handful of folk versions of biblical stories.

Invitations for keynote lecturers have been sent out to (some to be confirmed)
Richard Allen
Ed Branigan (confirmed)
Stanley Cavell
Gregory Currie
Charles Eidsvik (confirmed)
Torben Grodal
Dirk Eitzen
Martin Lefebre
Johannes Riis
Vivian Sobchack (confirmed)
Murray Smith
Ed Tan

Important dates
Deadline for submission of a one page abstract: March-20th 2003
Notification of acceptance: April-20th, 2003
Conference: Sept.-15th-17th, 2003

The venue of the conference
The Dominican House,
2, Színház Square
Pécs, Hungary

Accommodation
Participants will be accommodated in the University Guest House (36, Damjanich street)
Other hotel accommodations will be available within walking distance of the conference venue. Bookings will be made by the organisation committee if the Travel Information Form located at our website has been sent back by the indicated time.
(Important: participants should cancel their own reservations within two weeks of conference time, otherwise their accounts will be charged by the hotel management!)

Participation fee
Particpation fee is 200 US $ or 190 Euros, which includes accomodation (four nights), the train fare to/from Budapest Airport-Pécs, lunches and coffee, and a welcome evening party with wine tasting in the country. Tickets for Tuesday and Wednesday dinners can be purchased for 15 US $ or 16 Euros each.

Grants
There are a limited number of grants available for students, which include accommodation (four nights), lunches and coffee, and the train fare to/from Budapest Airport-Pécs.

IMPORTANT!
Either to apply for the grant or to participate with or without paper, please, fill out the application form at our website: http://sophia.jpte.hu/~laterna
Participation does not require submission of an abstract, but in awarding grants speakers will be favoured.