Digital Humanities and Film Studies

Visualising Dziga Vertov's Work

Add to my list

by Adelheid Heftberger

Type: Studies
Subject: Director > Dziga Vertov
Keywords: Dziga Vertov, 1920s, technology
Publishing date: 2019
Publisher: Springer
Collection: Quantitative Methods in the Humanities and Social Sciences
Language: English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Paperback • 322 pages
6 x 9 ¼ inches (15.5 x 23.5 cm)

ISBN

978-3-030-02863-3

User Ratings

(0 vote)

Average rating:

0	rating	= We can do without
0	rating	= Good book
0	rating	= Excellent book
0	rating	= Unique / a reference

Your rating: -

Book Presentation:
This book highlights the quantitative methods of data mining and information visualization and explores their use in relation to the films and writings of the Russian director, Dziga Vertov. The theoretical basis of the work harkens back to the time when a group of Russian artists and scholars, known as the “formalists,” developed new concepts of how art could be studied and measured. This book brings those ideas to the digital age. One of the central questions the book intends to address is, “How can hypothetical notions in film studies be supported or falsified using empirical data and statistical tools?” The first stage involves manual and computer-assisted annotation of the films, leading to the production of empirical data which is then used for statistical analysis but more importantly for the development of visualizations. Studies of this type furthermore shed light on the field of visual presentation of time-based processes; an area which has its origin in the Russian formalist sphere of the 1920s and which has recently gained new relevance due to technological advances and new possibilities for computer-assisted analysis of large and complex data sets. In order to reach a profound understanding of Vertov and his films, the manual or computer-assisted data analysis must be combined with film-historical knowledge and a study of primary sources. In addition, the status of the surviving film materials and the precise analysis of these materials combined with knowledge of historical film technology provide insight into archival policy and political culture in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 30s.

About the Author:
Adelheid Heftberger is a Slavicist and Film Scholar, and currently holds the position of Head of Access in the Film Department of the German Federal Archive in Berlin. She is the author of the book Kollision der Kader. Dziga Vertovs Filme, die Visualisierung ihrer Strukturen und die Digital Humanities and has written countless articles, as well as lectures and seminars, on topics such as digital humanities, archival research, Russian/Soviet film, film restoration and the dissemination of audiovisual cultural heritage collections via digital media. She is a Dr. phil. in Russian Studies, which was received at the Universities of Innsbruck and Vienna.

See the publisher website: Springer

See the complete filmography of Dziga Vertov on the website: IMDB ...

> On a related topic: