CINEMA OF THOUGHT, COLOURS OF THOUGHT

Erik Viskil explores the role of colours and their references in film in relation to the trains of conscious thought they evoke within the viewer. He departs from the idea that films can be essays – as goes for lectures in their turn too – and takes us associatively along various filmmakers and modes of filmmaking. By means of fragments and stills he shows in what ways directors of thoughtful films, such as Chantal Akerman and Jean-Luc Godard, made colours act beyond the obvious and how colours in their films generate statements and questions that overpower moods, and offer clues for understanding deeper layers of thought.

Erik Viskil is an independent researcher, writer, lecturer and advisor, with a profound interest in film. He studied Museology in Leiden and Speech Communication, Argumentation Theory & Rhetoric in Amsterdam, where he also received his PhD. He is a former executive board member of Rietveld and founder of the department of Image & Language. His activities related to film range from lecture series and projects at art schools to film programmes with cinemas and cultural institutions. He contributed to three earlier editions of the Studium Generale with seminars and lectures on film. He is currently participating in different roles in BEAR Fine Art in Arnhem, Design Academy Eindhoven, PhDArts in Leiden. At Gerrit Rietveld Academy he is leading the development of a new institutional plan.

THE ART OF ATTENTIVENESS

Most of what we see, we do not register consciously – the majority of visual information is lost on us. The presentation The Art Of Attentiveness is a guide to better observing art and the world around us, with a special focus on the functions and symbolism of color in visual cultures around the world.

Wieteke van Zeil shows how art can help us become more attentive, since artists often see what we fail to notice, they know how the eye navigates and present to us new perspectives. She discusses the most beautiful art details and connects them with our present lives, and she gives practical tips, based on neuroscientific insights, on how to observe art. Van Zeil shows that every carefully painted tiny detail encapsulates a wealth of knowledge, meaning and history, and can open up a new world to us.