The depth between frames : architectural representation in two films by Elizabeth Price and Rut Blees Luxemburg

Stara, Alexandra (2020) The depth between frames : architectural representation in two films by Elizabeth Price and Rut Blees Luxemburg. In: Troiani, Igea and Campbell, Hugh, (eds.) Architecture Filmmaking. Bristol, UK : Intellect Books. pp. 39-56. ISBN 9781783209941

Abstract

This peer-reviewed paper discusses two internationally recognised artists’ films for the first time together and through a novel interpretative lens. The films are: Elizabeth Price’s At The House of Mr X (2007), a 20min montage of static shots of a domestic interior superimposed with text; and Rut Blees Luxemburg’s London Winterreise (2013) a 6min journey through the City of London set to excerpts from Schubert’s eponymous song cycle. The paper’s original proposition is that through different techniques both these films engage with the tension between architecture as inhabited space and as image in similarly revealing ways. Arguing against prevailing film theories and media philosophy – among which Giuliana Bruno and several writers featured in this volume – where architecture and film become practically interchangeable, this paper posits that the two media offer distinct modes of engagement with the world. Drawing from a novel pairing of phenomenology and situationism, the paper offers a new theoretical approach to these media and argues that the distance from embodied experience inherent in filmic representation alongside the ellipsis and poetic intent in artists’ films open up a unique space for architectural critique and imagination.

Actions (Repository Editors)

Item Control Page Item Control Page