Four teenagers sit outside on the footpath in deck chairs staring to the left of the camera. Behind then are parked cars, the side of a brick building and green trees. They look dreamy, maybe a bit bored but content.

Still from FOR THIRTY YEARS, NANCY WOULD SIT OUT ON THE STREET CORNER AND WATCH THE SUNSET (2017) Sam Hamilton

The Thickness of Cinema

Curated by Dr Mercedes Vicente, CIRCUIT's 2018 symposium was preceded by an artists' week of screenings and installations throughout Ōtautahi Christchurch.

What might be the role of the body and the sensorial experience in the emergence of cinematic intelligibility and meaning? How does film affective experience contribute to our knowledge of the world? In what ways might we be able to analyse and get beyond sensation and emotion to explore cultural, gender or ideological implications? How have cinema, and phenomenological approaches to film, been influenced by and respond to recent technological developments in our digital age that offer new and expanded sensory and experiential dimensions? What might the cinematic experience be destined to offer us in lieu of the new sensorial experiences brought by these technological advances?

CIRCUIT's 2017 Symposium was entitled The Thickness of Cinema, and explored cinema’s sensorial capabilities and notions of embodiment and experience. The Thickness of Cinema was presented by CIRCUIT at Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu on Saturday 26 August 10-4pm.

Curator-at-large

The Thickness of Cinema was curated by CIRCUIT 2017 curator-at-large Dr Mercedes Vicente, an independent curator and writer who has recently completed her PhD at the Royal College of Art, London, on the work of New Zealand pioneer video artist Darcy Lange.

The 2017 CIRCUIT Symposium was preceded by an Artist’s Week of screenings, installations in a variety of locations across Christchurch, and features works from New Zealand, USA, Austria and Canada.

Artist's week and artist cinema commissions

The 2017 CIRCUIT Symposium was preceded by an Artist’s Week of screenings, installations in a variety of locations across Christchurch, and features works from New Zealand, USA, Austria and Canada.

At the Symposium CIRCUIT premiered Thick Cinema, five new artist cinema commissions curated by Mercedes Vicente and featuring work by Fiona Amundsen, John Di Stefano, Sam Hamilton, Kim Pieters, Joyce Campbell. Vicente asked each of the five artists to respond to the same provocations that make up the symposium. Three of the artists (Fiona Amundsen, Kim Pieters, Joyce Campbell) also took part in the symposium as speakers/panellists.

The Thickness of Cinema was supported by Creative New Zealand, the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery/Len Lye Foundation, The Physics Room, Canada Council for the Arts, The Free Theatre and Canterbury Workers Education Association.