On Terra Firma

Contemporary film and fine art theory typically focuses on the durational, ignoring the complexities of space and place. Consequently, the migration of the moving image from the cinema to the gallery space and its effects on the spatiality of the moving image remains relatively untheorised. On Terra Firma: Space, Place and the Moving Image examines the moving image as a mimetic medium that both depicts space and place and spatially positions the spectator. In order to provide a philosophical context for the relationship of the moving image to space and place, Martin Heidegger and Bernard Stiegler provide the groundwork for the central concepts of thick space and thin space. It is in this context that a broad range of experimental and narrative film and video is discussed, from single screen to multi-screen work. This includes the work of Alfred Hitchcock, Peter Gidal, Stan Brakhage, Patrick Keiller, Hollis Frampton, Richard Serra, Bruce Nauman, Chris Welsby, Jane and Louise Wilson and Graham Ellard and Stephen Johnstone. This book will appeal to practioners and theorists who are interested in the moving image and its contemporary relationship to issues of space and place.