Invention & Imagination – Dialogue between art and science
18/11 | from 3:00 to 4:30 pm – Conference n°3: Contemporary metropolises: imagination and invention of futures. Personality in the spotlight: Fritz Lang
Science fiction is one of the most developed genres in cinema in recent years. “Metropolis, the main work of Fritz Lang, unanimously considered a classic, is a film that dates back almost a century and yet is still as relevant as ever.
In difficult times such as these, with the massive emergence of dystopian fiction production as a response to environmental and political crises, a discussion of the innovative filmmaker, Fritz Lang, seems relevant and could, perhaps, enlighten us on possible futures. The German expressionist film icon’s 1927 masterpiece, Metropolis, is an impactful cinematic science fiction, both in form and content, as it pushes for reflection on the increasingly complex relationship between humans and machines, in a critical perspective that impresses to this day.
Speakers
Alain Musset is a geographer, director of studies at EHESS, member of the Geography-Cities laboratory. His research focuses on cities and urban societies in Latin America from a historical, critical and social perspective. A science fiction enthusiast, he is also interested in the imaginary of the city and future visions of our planet. As such, he was a member of the scientific committee of the exhibition Science et Fiction, aventures croisées (October 2010-July 2011) and participated in the setting up of the exhibition Valérian et Laureline en mission pour la cité (June 2017-January 2018) at the Cité des sciences et de l’industrie de La Villette. In this field, he has also published several books: “From New York to Coruscant. Essai de Géofiction” (Paris, PUF, 2005); “Le syndrome de Babylone. Geofictions of the apocalypse” (Paris, Armand Colin, 2012); “Star Wars, un ensayo urbano-galáctico” (Santiago de Chile, Bifurcaciones, 2018); “Station Metropolis-Direction Coruscant. Ville, science-fiction et sciences sociales” (Saint Mammès, Le Bélial’, 2019)
Born in 1967 in Porz (now known as Cologne), Daniel Kothenschulte is a writer, curator, professor of film and art history, and pianist for world cinema. For three decades he has been recognized as one of Germany’s most renowned film critics. He works as a critic for the newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau and the television station WDR. Daniel Kothenschulte studied art history, theater, film and television as well as German language and literature in Cologne and Bochum. Today he teaches at various universities, including the Städelschule Frankfurt (University of Fine Arts), the University of Applied Sciences in Dortmund and the University of Television and Film in Munich. He is the author of several books such as “Die Zukunftsruine. Metropolis 2010 – Fritz Langs restaurierter Klassiker. Köln 2010” (The ruin of the future. Metropolis 2010 – Fritz Lang’s restored classic) and with Robert Nippoldt, “Hollywood in den 30er Jahren. Hildesheim 2010” (Hollywood in the 30s).
Bernardo Jefferson de Oliveira has a degree in Geography from the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Rio de Janeiro (1983), and a master’s and doctorate in Philosophy from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (1988 and 2000, respectively). He completed his doctoral internship at Harvard University in 1998 and his post-doctoral fellowship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2004, as well as at the Sorbonne in 2011 and at the University of the District Francisco José de Caldas in 2019. He was director of the museum “Espaço do Conhecimento UFMG” (Space of Knowledge UFMG, free translation) of the Federal University of Minas Gerais where he works as a full professor of the Faculty of Education. He has published several books, including two volumes of the work “History of Science in Cinema” published by Fino Traço (2005, 2007).
Mediator: Anderson Pereira Antunes is a historian and museologist, trained at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO), with a master’s degree and a doctorate in the history of science and health from the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation/Fiocruz. He completed his doctoral internship at the Department of History at King’s College London. Anderson Pereira Antunes is a specialist in the dissemination of science, technology and health at the Museum of Life (Casa de Oswaldo Cruz Foundation/FIOCRUZ). He is currently a PCI fellow at the Department of Coordination of the History of Science and Technology of the Museum of Astronomy and Affiliated Sciences (MAST), where he works as a researcher for the Museum of Life.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
