A recorrência, no cinema experimental contemporâneo, de obras que enfatizam a instabilidade material da película - tal como Decasia, de Bill Morrison e Materia Obscura, de Jürgen Reble e Thomas Köner - vem sendo apontada por alguns autores como um retorno às questões da materialidade cinematográfica (outrora empregada pelo Cinema Estrutural) na era da passagem do analógico ao digital. Tal ênfase material se dá, em obras como essas, através do emprego de imagens degradadas, por vezes permeado de um caráter nostálgico e mórbido, que põe em cena a perda do corpo orgânico da película a partir de sua obsolescência. Ao se voltarem ao corpo analógico na era digital, essas obras tensionam, assim, imaginários associados a ambas tecnologias, criando cruzamentos que ultrapassam a mera associação do digital com o imaterial e com a película enquanto fixadora do real, numa \"alquimia de mídias\" como caracteriza Giuliana Bruno (2014). Cruzando noções de \"velho\" e \"novo\", num engajamento direto com o aparato e suporte das imagens, aproximamos essas obras das discussões de arqueologia das mídias em Thomas Elsaesser (2016) e Jussi Parikka (2015), bem como avaliamos seus procedimentos estéticos e investimento sensorial nas imagens, a partir de suas afinidades com a questão do informe nas artes e na visualidade háptica, como propõe Laura U. Marks (2002). Assim, esta pesquisa abordará a passagem, por esses trabalhos, da materialidade da película à materialidade do digital, a partir da análise de obras-chave do cinema experimental contemporâneo, de forma a destacar os fenômenos sensíveis de \"tensão superficial\" evocados nas texturas ruidosas dessas obras, que, em suas existências híbridas e fragmentadas, surgem como ruínas, entre obsolescência e renovação. Buscamos, enfim, atribuir à passagem do cinema analógico para o digital esse lugar paradoxal da ruína que, em sua complexa materialidade, oscila entre o material e o imaterial - e que, tal como dessas imagens em dissolução, instiga considerações acerca de um reconhecimento da efemeridade do mundo (e cultura), seja em modo melancólico ou afirmativo (como observaremos em Buci-Glucksmann), permitindo observar as mudanças tecnológicas do cinema sob um eixo de transmutações e passagens. / The recurrence, in contemporary experimental cinema, of works that emphasize the material instability of film - such as Decasia, by Bill Morrison, and Materia Obscura by Jürgen Reble and Thomas Köner - has been pointed by certain authors as a return to issues regarding the materiality of cinema (once a resource of Structural Film) in an era of passages between analog and digital media. Such material emphasis occurs, in these works, through the use of degraded images, often marked by a morbid and nostalgic character, that sets in scene the loss of the organic body of analog film in its obsolescence. By turning to this analog body in the digital age, these works put into friction the imaginary associated with each set of technologies, establishing intersections that go beyond the mere association of digital with the imaterial and film as \"fixer of the real\", in a form of \"media alchemy\", as put forth by Giuliana Bruno (2014). Crossing over notions of \"old\" and \"new\", in direct engagement with the apparatuses and the physical substrata of images, we relate these works through discussions of media archeology of Thomas Elsaesser (2016) and Jussi Parikka (2015) and approach their aesthetic processes and sensorial engagement through their affinities with the question of the formless and of haptic visuality in art, as discussed by Laura U. Marks (2002). This research, then, observes the passage from the materiality of film to the materiality of digital, through the analysis of key works in recent experimental cinema, highlighting the sensible phenomena of \"surface tension\" evoked in the noisy textures of these works, which, in their hybrid and fragmented existences, emerge as ruins between obsolescence and renovation. We search, finally, to attribute to this passing of film to digital media this paradoxical space of the ruin, which, in its complex materiality, oscillates between the material and the virtual - such as these images in dissolution, it instigates reflections on the ephemerality of the world (and our culture), be it in a melancholic or affirmative mode (as we learn from Buci-Glucksmann), allowing for a particular way of observing the technological change in cinema, in this axis of transmutation and transit.

A recorrência, no cinema experimental contemporâneo, de obras que enfatizam a instabilidade material da película - tal como Decasia, de Bill Morrison e Materia Obscura, de Jürgen Reble e Thomas Köner - vem sendo apontada por alguns autores como um retorno às questões da materialidade cinematográfica (outrora empregada pelo Cinema Estrutural) na era da passagem do analógico ao digital. Tal ênfase material se dá, em obras como essas, através do emprego de imagens degradadas, por vezes permeado de um caráter nostálgico e mórbido, que põe em cena a perda do corpo orgânico da película a partir de sua obsolescência. Ao se voltarem ao corpo analógico na era digital, essas obras tensionam, assim, imaginários associados a ambas tecnologias, criando cruzamentos que ultrapassam a mera associação do digital com o imaterial e com a película enquanto fixadora do real, numa \"alquimia de mídias\" como caracteriza Giuliana Bruno (2014). Cruzando noções de \"velho\" e \"novo\", num engajamento direto com o aparato e suporte das imagens, aproximamos essas obras das discussões de arqueologia das mídias em Thomas Elsaesser (2016) e Jussi Parikka (2015), bem como avaliamos seus procedimentos estéticos e investimento sensorial nas imagens, a partir de suas afinidades com a questão do informe nas artes e na visualidade háptica, como propõe Laura U. Marks (2002). Assim, esta pesquisa abordará a passagem, por esses trabalhos, da materialidade da película à materialidade do digital, a partir da análise de obras-chave do cinema experimental contemporâneo, de forma a destacar os fenômenos sensíveis de \"tensão superficial\" evocados nas texturas ruidosas dessas obras, que, em suas existências híbridas e fragmentadas, surgem como ruínas, entre obsolescência e renovação. Buscamos, enfim, atribuir à passagem do cinema analógico para o digital esse lugar paradoxal da ruína que, em sua complexa materialidade, oscila entre o material e o imaterial - e que, tal como dessas imagens em dissolução, instiga considerações acerca de um reconhecimento da efemeridade do mundo (e cultura), seja em modo melancólico ou afirmativo (como observaremos em Buci-Glucksmann), permitindo observar as mudanças tecnológicas do cinema sob um eixo de transmutações e passagens. / The recurrence, in contemporary experimental cinema, of works that emphasize the material instability of film - such as Decasia, by Bill Morrison, and Materia Obscura by Jürgen Reble and Thomas Köner - has been pointed by certain authors as a return to issues regarding the materiality of cinema (once a resource of Structural Film) in an era of passages between analog and digital media. Such material emphasis occurs, in these works, through the use of degraded images, often marked by a morbid and nostalgic character, that sets in scene the loss of the organic body of analog film in its obsolescence. By turning to this analog body in the digital age, these works put into friction the imaginary associated with each set of technologies, establishing intersections that go beyond the mere association of digital with the imaterial and film as \"fixer of the real\", in a form of \"media alchemy\", as put forth by Giuliana Bruno (2014). Crossing over notions of \"old\" and \"new\", in direct engagement with the apparatuses and the physical substrata of images, we relate these works through discussions of media archeology of Thomas Elsaesser (2016) and Jussi Parikka (2015) and approach their aesthetic processes and sensorial engagement through their affinities with the question of the formless and of haptic visuality in art, as discussed by Laura U. Marks (2002). This research, then, observes the passage from the materiality of film to the materiality of digital, through the analysis of key works in recent experimental cinema, highlighting the sensible phenomena of \"surface tension\" evoked in the noisy textures of these works, which, in their hybrid and fragmented existences, emerge as ruins between obsolescence and renovation. We search, finally, to attribute to this passing of film to digital media this paradoxical space of the ruin, which, in its complex materiality, oscillates between the material and the virtual - such as these images in dissolution, it instigates reflections on the ephemerality of the world (and our culture), be it in a melancholic or affirmative mode (as we learn from Buci-Glucksmann), allowing for a particular way of observing the technological change in cinema, in this axis of transmutation and transit.

O presente trabalho tem como proposta estudar o uso de estruturas documentais no cinema ficcional de horror, tipo de narrativa que ficou conhecida popularmente como found footage. Esses filmes fazem uso de uma linguagem propositalmente híbrida, associando a forma do documentário ao conteúdo da ficção e, hoje, encontram-se tão em voga que já possuem até mesmo clichês e estereótipos. A intenção é entender de que forma o gênero do horror se apropria douso de uma estética associada a registros documentais para favorecer as reações de medo no espectador. Para tanto, privilegiamos recortes na história do cinema e conceitos que possam contribuir para o desenvolvimento de nosso estudo, tanto no que diz respeito ao cinema documental, quanto no que diz respeito ao gênero de horror. Como objeto de análise mais detalhada, trazemos a trilogia inicial de da franquia Atividade Paranormal / This paper aims to study the use of documentary structures in the fictional horror movies, kind of narrative that became known popularly as found footage. These films make use of a purposely hybrid language, linking the form of documentary to fictional content and, today, are so fashionable that already have clichés and stereotypes connected to them.The intention is to understand how the horror genre appropriates the use of an aesthetic associated with documentary records to favor fear responses in the viewer. Hence, we privileged cuts in film history and concepts that can contribute to the development of our study, both with regard to documentary cinema, as with regard to the horror genre. As more detailed analysis of the object, we bring the original trilogy of the franchise "Paranormal Activity"

O presente trabalho tem como proposta estudar o uso de estruturas documentais no cinema ficcional de horror, tipo de narrativa que ficou conhecida popularmente como found footage. Esses filmes fazem uso de uma linguagem propositalmente híbrida, associando a forma do documentário ao conteúdo da ficção e, hoje, encontram-se tão em voga que já possuem até mesmo clichês e estereótipos. A intenção é entender de que forma o gênero do horror se apropria douso de uma estética associada a registros documentais para favorecer as reações de medo no espectador. Para tanto, privilegiamos recortes na história do cinema e conceitos que possam contribuir para o desenvolvimento de nosso estudo, tanto no que diz respeito ao cinema documental, quanto no que diz respeito ao gênero de horror. Como objeto de análise mais detalhada, trazemos a trilogia inicial de da franquia Atividade Paranormal / This paper aims to study the use of documentary structures in the fictional horror movies, kind of narrative that became known popularly as found footage. These films make use of a purposely hybrid language, linking the form of documentary to fictional content and, today, are so fashionable that already have clichés and stereotypes connected to them.The intention is to understand how the horror genre appropriates the use of an aesthetic associated with documentary records to favor fear responses in the viewer. Hence, we privileged cuts in film history and concepts that can contribute to the development of our study, both with regard to documentary cinema, as with regard to the horror genre. As more detailed analysis of the object, we bring the original trilogy of the franchise "Paranormal Activity"

Set up as a visual investigation, the research explores how the addition of paint and graphite materials onto the surface of found and discarded photographs, creates a visual and conceptual disjuncture by punctuating and altering the temporal frame of the photograph. The research is positioned in relation to Susan Sontag’s description in On Photography (1977) as to how the photograph can at once “transfix” and “anesthetize” the subject matter, which through the passage of time serves to create an “aesthetic distance,” and Roland Barthes’ observation in Camera Lucida (1980) that the photograph is “platitudinous.” The tendency to project nostalgic sentiment onto the found vernacular photograph is explored, drawing on Susan Stewart’s notion of the authentic object in On Longing (1984), which, it is argued, when expressed in the form of the found photographic object, becomes an emblem of loss, further exaggerating the sense of distance and impenetrability. Working specifically with the found photograph prompts a questioning of previous critical commentaries concerning painting over photographs, as in Gerhard Richter’s ‘Overpaintings,’ where Joannes Meinhardt (2009) suggests that the addition of paint intensifies the essential “speechlessness” of the photograph. This research extends these discourses and contributes a counter critical position, supported and articulated through an original body of work. It proposes that the applied paint on the surface of the found photograph punctures the essential “speechlessness” and unknowability magnified within this subset of photography. The very physical materiality and difference offered by the paint medium ruptures the perception of distance and mediates the tendency towards nostalgic interpretations, bringing a level of stability and certainty in the face of the uncertain, fluctuating meaning and temporal plane of the found photograph.

This critical analysis examines the progression and trajectory of my studio practices over the final two years of my graduate career. The pinnacle of my development became a meditation on time and its overall encompassing effects. The mundane and the fantastic are all bound by time. Many archetypes have ventured to escape the clutches of time. Found objects are remnants of time, linking past to present, present to future. Scars and blemishes are also vestiges of time, marking us like scratches on a record. The detritus of our lives defines our time, as it defines us. This thesis will elaborate on my exploration of time and its implications. It will describe works and identify the evolution of concepts from one work to the next. By defining what the work is and how it operates, the analysis will explore the larger implications of that work.

13 slides in pocket inside back cover. / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

A tese investiga como se estabelece o dispositivo do olhar enquanto experiência estética no cinema de horror found footage a partir da materialidade cinematográfica. Realiza-se uma discussão acerca do modo como esses filmes circulam no gênero horror com o cruzamento de teorias de cinema, tecnologia e da Comunicação. A concepção de dispositivo do olhar é pensada, especialmente, a partir de Jonathan Crary, Michel Foucault, Giorgio Agamben, Laurent Mannoni, Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, Vilém Flusser e Philippe Dubois. O dispositivo do olhar é, portanto, delineado como o comportamento visual e de uso de artefatos tecnológicos que aparece nos filmes e o modo como esse olhar de dentro do filme pode afetar a forma de ver do espectador. Não é como a tecnologia é representada nos filmes, mas a estratégia dessa e seus respectivos discursos em intentar o apelo sensível do público. O problema de pesquisa é: Como se constitui o dispositivo do olhar nos filmes de horror found footage e o que esse fenômeno pode indicar da nossa relação com o cinema e a tecnologia na contemporaneidade? De que modo é possível discutir a experiência estética com o cinema de horror a partir dessas produções? Assim, o objetivo geral da pesquisa é compreender como opera o dispositivo do olhar no cinema de horror found footage e a maneira como ele propõe experiências estéticas, a fim de perceber características da nossa relação com o cinema e a tecnologia na contemporaneidade. Já os objetivos específicos são os seguintes: a) Problematizar o dispositivo do olhar no cinema, sua produção imagética nos respectivos aspectos tecnológicos, sociais e culturais, a partir do horror contemporâneo; b) Estudar aspectos estéticos e narrativos do gênero horror com ênfase nos filmes found footage; c) Discutir especificidades da imagem no found footage; d) Analisar os filmes que compõem o corpus, discutindo-os a partir das movimentações do dispositivo do olhar no horror e das experiências estéticas que potencializam. Entre alguns pressupostos abordados pela tese estão os de que o horror found footage é um fenômeno pós-sala de cinema, ainda que muitas produções circulem em grandes espaços de shopping centers e sejam lançadas em 3D. Ou seja, ver filmes é cada vez mais uma atividade privada e individual. O espectador está sozinho, do mesmo modo que as personagens que correm pela noite escura com uma câmera na mão. A visualidade dos games, a navegação pelas interfaces computacionais ou dispositivos móveis, também deixam marcas nas narrativas com esse estilo. Há ainda diversos tipos de imagens, texturas, cores diferentes que até o desenvolvimento do found footage não haviam sido exploradas no gênero horror. Essas imagens intentam ambiências, conceito de Gumbrecht (2014) que auxiliou a análise. As texturas estranhas, as falhas, ruídos, os “erros” dos equipamentos potencializam as experiências a partir de atmosferas, muitas dessas de aparelhos visuais que não são mais consumidos massivamente, como o VHS. Há sim uma presentificação do passado desses artefatos, dos modos como eram usados, um retorno de hábitos que são reconfigurados pelo contexto do horror. As ambiências possíveis pelas imagens, a perseguição pela experiência tátil com a narrativa, marcam um fenômeno contemporâneo de busca pela apreensão do tempo, das memórias, da vida. Um desejo de possuir as imagens e seus mundos, algo que se sobrepõe à intenção de registro ou de representação do mundo. Podemos afirmar ainda que a ideia de Gumbrecht (2015) do presente amplo se aplica aos filmes estudados nesse aspecto. / This thesis investigates the establishment of the apparatus of seeing as an aesthetic experience within found footage horror movies, from their cinematographic materiality. A discussion about the way as these movies circulate in horror genre is made through crossing film, technology and Communication theories. The apparatus of seeing conception is thought, especially, from authors such as Jonathan Crary, Michel Foucault, Giorgio Agamben, Laurent Mannoni, Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, Vilém Flusser and Philippe Dubois. The apparatus of seeing is, therefore, thought as a behavior, both visual and regarding the usage of technological artifact, that appears within the movies and in the way how this seeing from inside the film can affect the spectator habit of viewing. This is not about the representation of technology, but its strategy and its discourses to propose sensitive appeal in the public. The research problem is: How the apparatus of seeing is composed in found footage horror movies and what can this phenomenon denote about our relation with cinema and technology in contemporaneity? How is it possible to discuss the aesthetic experience with horror movies from these productions? Thus, the main objective is to understand how the apparatus of seeing operates in found footage horror movies and how it proposes aesthetic experiences, in order to see characteristics of our relation with cinema and technology in contemporaneity. The specific objectives are: a) To problematize the apparatus of seeing in cinema, its imagistic production in the respective technological, social and cultural aspects, from contemporary horror genre; b) To study aesthetics and narrative aspects of the horror genre, especially the found footage films; c) To discuss the specificities of the image within found footage; d) To analyze the corpus of films, discussing them from changes of apparatus of seeing and the aesthetic experiences that it potentiates. Among the assumptions the thesis approaches, are that the found footage is a post-cinema phenomenon, although many productions circulate in large spaces of shopping centers and are released in 3D. In other words, watching movies is increasingly a private and individual activity. The spectator is alone, just like the characters that run through the dark night with a camera in their hands. The game visuality, the navigation through computational interfaces or mobile devices, also leave marks in the narratives marked by this style. There are still several types of images, textures, different colors that, until the development of found footage, had not been explored in the horror genre. These images attempt to establish ambiences, a concept of Gumbrecht (2014) that aided the analysis. The strange textures, the flaws, the noises, the "errors" of the equipments potentiate experiences from atmospheres, many of them of visual devices that are no longer massively consumed nowadays, like the VHS. There is rather a presentiment of the past of these artifacts, the ways that they were used, a return of habits that are reconfigured by the context of horror. The possible ambiences of the images, the persecution for a tactile experience with the narrative, mark a contemporary phenomenon of search for the apprehension of the time, the memories, the life. A desire to possess the images and their worlds, something that overlaps the intention of recording or representing the world. We can also affirm that the idea of Gumbrecht (2015) of the broad present applies to the films studied in this aspect.

This thesis works towards a theory of creative appropriation as critical praxis. Defining ‘appropriation’ as the re-use of already-authored cultural matter, I investigate how the ubiquity of aesthetically and commercially motivated appropriative practices has impacted concepts of creativity, originality, authorship and ownership. Throughout this thesis, appropriation is understood as bridging the artistic, political, economic, and scientific realms. As such, it strongly affects cultural and socio-political landscapes, and has become an ideal vehicle for effectively criticizing and, perhaps, radically changing dominant aesthetic, legal and ethical discourses regarding the (re)production, ownership and circulation of knowledge, artifacts, skills, resources, and cultural matter in general. Critical appropriation is thus posited as a political strategy that can draw together the different causes motivating appropriative processes across the globe, and organize them for the benefit of a multitude which values concepts of reusing, sharing and collectivity over concepts of the individually authored and the privately owned. My arguments regarding this critical potentiality are based on concrete practices emanating from several media (textual – visual – sonic – digital). The corpus includes Berlin Dadaist collage, ‘found footage’ filmmaking, audio sampling, and digital media art. It is critically contextualized in the fields of philosophy, law, and aesthetics, and paired with relevant examples from extra-aesthetic arenas (economics, industrial production and science). Following a trajectory from the analog to the digital, my thesis traces the emergence and tactical employment of critical appropriative practices in the context of different historical, philosophical, technological and economic circumstances. Focussing on conceptual and practical shifts from the analog to the digital furthermore enables me to draw connections between analytic perspectives founded in dialectic materialism and contemporary theories foregrounding issues of immaterial labor. The important qualitative changes that practices and perceptions of appropriation have undergone are argue to significantly amplify the critical potential of all appropriative practices. Ultimately, my comparative analyses thus establish appropriation as an ideal site for effectively challenging – both in terms of form and content – the ingrained, restrictive notions of original genius and naturalized authorship-qua-ownership on which present cultures and technologies of global capitalism are so heavily based.

This thesis works towards a theory of creative appropriation as critical praxis. Defining ‘appropriation’ as the re-use of already-authored cultural matter, I investigate how the ubiquity of aesthetically and commercially motivated appropriative practices has impacted concepts of creativity, originality, authorship and ownership. Throughout this thesis, appropriation is understood as bridging the artistic, political, economic, and scientific realms. As such, it strongly affects cultural and socio-political landscapes, and has become an ideal vehicle for effectively criticizing and, perhaps, radically changing dominant aesthetic, legal and ethical discourses regarding the (re)production, ownership and circulation of knowledge, artifacts, skills, resources, and cultural matter in general. Critical appropriation is thus posited as a political strategy that can draw together the different causes motivating appropriative processes across the globe, and organize them for the benefit of a multitude which values concepts of reusing, sharing and collectivity over concepts of the individually authored and the privately owned. My arguments regarding this critical potentiality are based on concrete practices emanating from several media (textual – visual – sonic – digital). The corpus includes Berlin Dadaist collage, ‘found footage’ filmmaking, audio sampling, and digital media art. It is critically contextualized in the fields of philosophy, law, and aesthetics, and paired with relevant examples from extra-aesthetic arenas (economics, industrial production and science). Following a trajectory from the analog to the digital, my thesis traces the emergence and tactical employment of critical appropriative practices in the context of different historical, philosophical, technological and economic circumstances. Focussing on conceptual and practical shifts from the analog to the digital furthermore enables me to draw connections between analytic perspectives founded in dialectic materialism and contemporary theories foregrounding issues of immaterial labor. The important qualitative changes that practices and perceptions of appropriation have undergone are argue to significantly amplify the critical potential of all appropriative practices. Ultimately, my comparative analyses thus establish appropriation as an ideal site for effectively challenging – both in terms of form and content – the ingrained, restrictive notions of original genius and naturalized authorship-qua-ownership on which present cultures and technologies of global capitalism are so heavily based.