Cine-museology: Theorising Cinema and the Museum

Credits: 15.0
Overlap: None
Prerequisite: FLM003 or equivalent

This module explores the relationships of cinema (as an institution, as a space, and as a concept) to the institutional, spatial and conceptual contexts of the museum. The museum has in recent years become a respository for film as a museum object in its own right; however, film has haunted the corridors of museums since its earliest invention. In this module, we explore the connections and disconnections between cinematic and museal spaces, using theoretical concepts of immersion, spatial dynamics, the archive, exhibition and curatorial theory to make sense of the plurality of film and the moving image in museums, and indeed the 'museum' in the moving image. Making use of London as an ideal base for interrogating some of these encounters between cinema, the moving image, and museums, the module will also explore the interventions of film across other disciplines, including Art History, Museology, Anthropology and the Digital Humanities. We will explore both actual and virtual museums, through a range of film material from Europe, North America, the Middle East, drawing upon concepts such as 'film as a virtual museum', 'cinematic exhibition practices', 'film as museology', and 'the ethics of ethnographic film'.

Assessment: 100.0% Coursework
Level: 6