This volume follows the contemporary trend in developing the scope of phenomenological aesthetics beyond its traditional limitation to classical art by using the research tools of phenomenology in order to delve into and explicate contemporary artistic practices. It expands a growing corpus of research on the phenomenology of film by addressing the new objects of the post-cinematic era and their specific experiential strata, such as interactive documentaries, immersive installations, spatialized moving images ranging from expanded cinema-inspired exhibitions to VR experiences to name but a few. This book also follows recent attempts in phenomenological philosophy to clarify and examine the “post-digital worlds” in general.

This collection brings together a wide array of diverse phenomenological philosophers as well as film and media scholars in an effort to draw on and expand the resources phenomenological research can offer for furthering the aesthetic understanding of our new media landscape and its artistic practices as well as its socio-cultural and political impact on our daily lives. It appeals to students and researchers in these fields.

Christian Ferencz-Flatz is a researcher at the Alexandru Dragomir Institute for Philosophy and an associated professor at the National University of Theatre and Film. He is a former fellow of the Alexander Humboldt Foundation. His research interests concern classical German phenomenology, critical theory, film and image theories. His most recent publications include the monographs Phenomenology and Critical Theory. Polemics, Appropriations, Perspectives (Springer, 2023), Sehen Als-ob. Ästhetik und Pragmatik in Husserls Bildlehre (Bautz, 2016) and Filmul ca situație socială (Tact, 2018), as well as the 2016 and 2018 issues of Studia Phaenomenologica: Film and Phenomenology (with J. Hanich) and The Promise of Genetic Phenomenology (with A. Staiti).

Miriam De Rosa researches and teaches film and media theories, as well as visual cultures at Ca’ Foscari, University of Venice, where she is Associate Professor in film and screen media. She joined Ca’ Foscari in 2021, after working at Coventry University and at the Catholic University in Milan. Her most recent publications include: From Ontology to Topology: a Two-leg Methodological Journey to Look at Contemporary Media Arts (2022), Media Processes. Moving Images Across Interface Aesthetics and Gestural Policies (2022), Making conjunctions: thinking topologically with contemporary artists’ moving images (2021), Dwelling with moving images (2020), Film & Domestic Space (2020), Gesture (2019). De Rosa also serves as the general coordinator of the International Master in Cinema Studies (IMACS), sits on the NECS Steering Committee, chairs the NECS Cinema & Contemporary Visual Arts workgroup, and is active as independent film curator. Her latest curated film programs projects were Incursions in the Politics of the Image: Films by Belit Sag (April 2022, Venice) and Desktop Cinema (April 2023, Marseille and May 2023 Milan).