Hamilton's Faculty Lecture Series will feature Associate Dean of the Faculty and Associate Professor of Philosophy Kirk Pillow on Friday, Feb. 11 at 4:10 p.m. in the Red Pit at KJ. Pillow's talk is titled "Lens Flare in the Age of Digital Production." It is free and open to the public.
Pillow explains: "Lens flare is the reflection of non-image forming light off of the interior of a camera lens, and most commonly results in multi-colored spots in the image produced. Lens flare became widely used as an aesthetic device in 1960s film-making. Recently," says Pillow, "lens flare has become a ubiquitous feature of digital video and film production, with fake lens flare effects embedded into images never even shot with a camera.
"The paper pursues the question: why concoct fake lens flare to doctor digitally produced images? Taking some guidance from Walter Benjamin's classic essay, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," I argue that the use of digital lens flare reflects a nostalgic adherence to a standard of representational fidelity inherited from the photographic tradition," Pillow explains. "I suggest that digital film production must overcome this nostalgia if it is to revolutionize our sense of realism to the extent that photography and film have."
Sponsored by the Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty. Reception immediately following at Café Opus.
