Erik Marshall

I got to see a lot of good panels this year, although I felt a little off all weekend due to the long drive and overextended schedule. I never feel like I have enough time to see/talk to/engage with everyone I want to, but I guess that’s how it goes.

My panel went quite well. It was an open call, and I didn’t know my copanelists, but I was impressed with how well it cohered. Matthew Solomon gave an interesting paper on Melies, focusing in part on amusement rides and the interactive nature of early film. I imagine it is difficult to say anything new about someone like Melies, but he did an exemplary job, and made me rethink some things about my own research with regard to interactivity. David Parisi’s paper was also quite engaging. His work on tactility tries to rescue touch in film theory from what he sees as a conflation with vision and other senses, and he brought together some interesting texts and technologies.

Another panel that stood out was the workshop on cinephilia in the digital age, where  Bob Burgoyne gave an interesting take on some installation art that incoporates video game aesthetics The panel, consisting also of Edward Pigeon, Catherine Russell and Jason Sperb and chaired by Scott Balcerzak, was diverse and thought provoking.

I tried to catch as many of my fellow Wayne-Staters, of whom there were many , as possible this year, but if I missed you I apologize.

Overall, I saw a lot of interesting panels, to the point where I felt completely overhwelmed, but in a good way.