30/01/2025

Film Studies Research Seminar Series of King’s College London

Susana Viegas is presenting at the Film Studies Research Seminar Series at the Department of Film Studies of King's College London: "Do Androids Die? Exploring the Life and Death of Technological Beings".

Abstract This talk investigates a growing field of study: posthuman thanato-film analysis, situated at the intersection of philosophies of death, film, and technology. Moving beyond conventional depictions of death and dying in cinema, this interdisciplinary approach examines how films contemplate mortality and finitude through the lens of artificial beings such as androids and humanoid robots. While death traditionally pertains only to living organisms, the “death” of androids introduces alternative semantic frameworks, including deactivation, decommissioning, or disconnection. This presentation explores the connection between technology and mortality, focusing on narratives where humanoid robots confront their finite existence and grapple with artificial death, thereby blurring the boundaries between humans and intelligent machines. I analyse Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and the HBO television series Westworld, co-created by Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan. Both the replicants in Blade Runner and the hosts in Westworld challenge the human perception of death and dying, while themselves embody divergent temporal understandings of life and mortality. Notably, androids do not experience biological death in a chronological sense. Yet, their existence and imagined consciousness prompt questions about their capacity to comprehend finite temporality and engage with concepts like mortality. These explorations shed light on the intricate relationship between artificial intelligence and human consciousness, offering profound insights into the nature of life, death, and what lies between.

Chair Catherine Wheatley

February 5, 5-7PM, Bush House SE 2.10

📸 Blade Runner [1982], by Ridley Scott

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07/08/2026

“Swan Songs: Philosophical Reflections on Death, Time, and Memory in Testament Films” is out now!

We are pleased to announce the completion of the Special Issue “Swan Songs: Philosophical Reflections on Death, Time, and Memory in Testament Films”, guest edited by Vasco Baptista Marques and Susana Viegas for Arts. The Special Issue brings together seven original articles examining testament films from a philosophical perspective. Rather than approaching filmmakers’ final works merely as […]
06/08/2026

New Open Access publication by Susana Viegas

We are pleased to share that the book chapter “Derrida on Cinema’s Spectral Images: Time, Repetition, and Belief” by PI Susana Viegas is now available in Open Access through the publisher Brill. Published in “Derrida and Film Studies”, edited by Kamil Lipiński and Andrzej Marzec (Brill, 2025), the chapter explores Jacques Derrida’s reflections on cinema […]
06/08/2026

Join us at the Goethe-Institut Portugal for the cycle “Falar sobre a morte (nunca matou ninguém)”!

Organized by the Goethe-Institut Portugal, with contributions from the FILM AND DEATH team, Death Café, the association Doulas do Fim da Vida, and many other partners, the festival Falar sobre a morte (nunca matou ninguém) [Speaking About Death (Never Killed Anyone)] will open on September 17 at 5:00 pm with the interactive sound installation Memorial […]
03/08/2026

Join Anderson Santos and Lucas Ferraço Nassif at the Centro Português de Psicanálise

On September 1, 7:00 PM, the Centro Português de Psicanálise (R. da Assunção 7, 2º) will host a talk by Anderson Santos, moderated by Lucas Ferraço Nassif, on “Félix Guattari: Psicanálise e o Paradigma Ético-Estético”. This presentation will be in Portuguese. This presentation addresses the shift initiated by Félix Guattari within psychoanalysis, as he proposes […]
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Funded by the European Union (ERC, FILM AND DEATH, 101088956). Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Council Executive Agency. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.

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