Advertising has played a central role in shaping the history of modern media. While often identified with American consumerism and the rise of the ‘Information Society’, motion picture advertising has been part of European visual culture since the late 19th century. Following the co-evolution of transport and information infrastructures during the Industrial Revolution, motion pictures indeed became central within an ever-expanding promotional ‘Medienverbund.’ With the global spread of ad agencies, moving image advertisements turned into a privileged cultural form for making people experience the qualities and uses of branded commodities, for articulating visions of a ‘good life,’ and for inciting social relationships. Yet no book-length study exists that would critically survey the history of motion picture advertising from a Cinema or Media Studies viewpoint. → Continue reading
This project is supported by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond and Stockholm University
Bo Florin is an Associate Professor in Cinema Studies at the Department for Media Studies, Stockholm University. Publications include: Moderna motiv, Mauritz Stiller i retrospektiv (ed., 2001) and Regi: Victor Sjöström/Directed by Victor Seastrom (2003), both for the Swedish Film Institute. He has also been working as a consultant at the Swedish Film Institute, concerning restoration projects, and concerning the deposit of the United Nation Dag Hammarskjöld Film Collection. His most recent book is Transition and Transformation: Victor Sjöström in Hollywood, 1923-1930 (Amsterdam University Press, 2013). He has also contributed several articles to international journals such as Film History and Montage A/V.
Patrick Vonderau is Professor in Cinema Studies at the Department for Media Studies at Stockholm University, and the leader of this project. He previously has worked at the University of the Arts in Berlin and at the Department for Media Studies at Ruhr University Bochum. Patrick is interested in media and cultural history, technology and social theory, and especially in understanding the multi-faceted relations between “media” and “industries” in their broad historical, aesthetical, theoretical, and technological contexts. He is also co-leading the Swedish Research Council-funded project Streaming Heritage: Following Files in Digital Music Distribution (2014-2018). His most recent book publications include Behind the Screen: Inside European Production Cultures (2013) and Moving Data. The iPhone and the Future of Media (2012). For more information – patrickvonderau.com
Yvonne Zimmermann is Professor for Media Studies at Philipps-Universität Marburg in Germany. For two years, she was a Visiting Scholar at New York University where she researched Hans Richter’s exile in Switzerland (1937-1941) and the transatlantic exchange of film culture. She is the author of Bergführer Lorenz: Karriere eines missglückten Films (2005) and the editor and co-author of Schaufenster Schweiz: Dokumentarische Gebrauchsfilme 1896-1964 (2011). She has widely published on documentary and sponsored films, avant-garde, advertising, and nontheatrical exhibition. For more information – Yvonne Zimmermann
Professor Patrick Vonderau
Department for Media Studies
Section for Cinema Studies
Stockholm University
SE-102 51 Stockholm
Sweden
www.ims.su.se