Jakob A. Nilsson (Örebro University)

ABSTRACT As the spread of knowledge and even theory becomes an increasingly audiovisual affair, how can philosophy adapt in ways that develop — rather than dilute — philosophical rigor and specificity? How can philosophy harness the potential of audiovisual media — being more formally multidimensional than text-only — to conceptualize with greater precision and depth? In the recently published Cinecepts, Deleuze, and Godard-Miéville: Developing Philosophy through Audiovisual Media (Edinburgh University Press, 2023), I present a new theory of formal development of philosophy in this regard: a theory of cinecepts. I form this theory mainly through a close reimagination of the work of Gilles Deleuze — spanning his conceptions of philosophy, cinema, art, politics, and novelty — that allows for a merging of what he kept separated: filmic thinking and philosophical conceptualization. Jean-Luc Godard & Anne-Marie Miéville’s underexplored 1970s video works are also the subject of extensive examination, along with critical considerations of a contemporary era of academic video essays and phenomena like philosophy channels on YouTube. In this talk I outline this theory of cinecepts and talk about some of its contexts and implications.
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Jakob A. Nilsson is Assistant Professor of Film Studies at Örebro University. He is the author of Cinecepts, Deleuze, and Godard-Miéville. Developing Philosophy through Audiovisual Media (Edinburgh University Press, 2023). Nilsson has published articles and chapters on related topics most recently in the anthology Contemporary Screen Ethics; Journal of Aesthetics & Culture; Journal of French and Francophone Philosophy; Cinema: Journal of Philosophy and the Moving Image; Cinema & Cie. International Film Studies Journal; and Theory, Culture & Society. He is also the co-editor, with Sven-Olov Wallenstein, of the anthology Foucault, Biopolitics, and Governmentality (2013).