Alberto Zambenedetti
Assistant
Professor of Italian Cinema and Cinema Studies – University of Toronto
Mapping
Cinematic Time: Affect, Seizure, Boredom
According to
sociologist Georg Simmel, modern life requires that individuals conceive of
their lives as organized according to an “impersonal time schedule” (1903) that
has replaced the circadian rhythms and chronobiological processes of
agriculture-based societies. This epochal shift is accompanied by the rise of
cinema, arguably the time-based medium that is most synonymous with modernity.
In the late twentieth century this shift was intensified by the advent of
personal computing; as a result, screens (from the cinema to the iPad) have become
the privileged site for social interactions. Paul Virilio, French cultural
theorist, notes, “The screen has become the city square,” (1997) replacing live
assemblies of personal, mercantile, juridical, and even religious nature.
Through an examination of a variety of visual media, including painting, still
photography, cinema, and internet art, this lecture explores what Mary Ann
Doane described as the “emergence of cinematic time” (2002) and how it has
affected our perception of the human condition.
Brief Bio:
Dr.
Zambenedetti earned a PhD in Italian Studies from New York University, after
completing a Masters’ degree in Cinema Studies at NYU Tisch School of the
Arts and a Laurea in Foreign Languages and Literatures at Ca’ Foscari
University in Venice, Italy. He has published extensively on mobility in
Italian cinema, on transnational cinemas and urban studies. He has edited two
books in the series World Film Locations (Intellect Publishers)
specifically World Film Locations: Florence and World
Film Locations: Cleveland; he has co-edited a book on Italian director
Federico Fellini (Florence: Franco Cesati Editore, 2016). His recent research
focuses on concepts of temporalities in cinematic and artistic media.
With the
support of the World Languages and Literatures Department, the Media Studies
Program and the Center for Leadership, Teaching, and Learning and the “Time
Project”.