NOTE: Thursday, January 16 seminar features advanced readings (link for PDF version).

The Eisenberg Institute begins its Winter 2014 programming on January 16-17 with featured guest Thomas LaMarre (James McGill Professor in East Asian Studies and Associate in Communications Studies, McGill University).

The January 16 seminar, "From Cyberspace to Mobile Phones: A History of Expanded Television," takes place at 4 p.m. in 1014 Tisch Hall and features Professor LaMarre. The event will include discussion of pre-circulated readings (link for PDF version), with comments from Megan Sapnar Ankerson (University of Michigan) and Lisa Nakamura (University of Michigan). Leslie Pincus (University of Michigan) will chair the session. This event is free.

The seminar will trace the historical continuities and discontinuities between two configurations of “infrastructure experience” associated with expanded television. The first configuration comprises the emergence of cyberspace, television plug-in screen ecologies, and video-release animation. The second configuration includes wifi, computers and mobile phones, and video-game-related late night animation. It will explore how cyberspace transforms from a site for staging outer space adventure into a site for exploring inner space and identity, at the same time that bodily disruption associated with cable plug-ins diminishes in violence. This allows expanded television to transform into modes of media attunement.

On Friday, January 17, 12 p.m. in 1014 Tisch Hall, the Institute presents the workshop, "One Frame at a Time: Decoding Anime." Using clips and stills from Japanese animation, Professor LaMarre will present his critical theory for reading the visual language of anime as outlined in his book, The Anime Machine: A Media Theory of Animation (portions available online). Lunch provided. This event is free.

Featured Guest: Thomas LaMarre teaches in East Asian Studies and Communications Studies at McGill University.  His books include Uncovering Heian Japan: An Archaeology of Sensation and Inscription (2000), Shadows on the Screen: Tanizaki Jun’ichirô on Cinema and Oriental Aesthetics (2005), and The Anime Machine: A Media Theory of Animation (2009).

These events have been made possible by a generous contribution from Kenneth and Frances Aftel Eisenberg.

Image: Still from Devil Survivor 2: The Animation (dir. Kishi Seiji, 2013), courtesy of Thomas LaMarre.