Sabin Bors

The paper examines the notion of embodiment and the sensory qualities of the camera as a cinematic dispositif. I analyse French director Gaspar Noé’s film »Enter the Void« (2009) and Austrian artist Kurt Hentschläger’s series of installations »KARMA« (2004-2008) to: a) propose a comparative approach based on two radical experiential forms and their power to inform abstract models of reality; b) discuss the notion of »reality« through embodied conceptualizations of the medial and formal dimensions of film and immersive environments; and c) provide a critical analysis of the notion of »kinematographic« bodies. The critical discourse touches upon notions of cinematography, the sensuous exchanges between media, medium and the human body, or the experiential regime of the senses, to reflect on the sensorial aspects of technology as a means of expression. It discusses the idea of an intensive environment where the synthetic and symbiotic relations of embodiment act as extensions of intentionality – what Vivian Sobchack calls a transformation that "can both reduce and/or amplify perceptual engagement with the intended object.” The choreographic motions, provocative imagery and alternate takes on the idea of gravity mark two different perspectives. While the movement of the camera in Noé’s film amplifies neuronal voyeuristic desires and an individualistic, encapsulated experience, the physics simulator used by Hentschläger to create a realistic sense of real world gravity and kinetic forces generates an intensive, counter-individualistic meta-formation in constant flux.

Sabin Bors (born 1981) is taking a wide interest in contemporary art and philosophy, architecture and design and has previously worked as associate editor for several arts and architecture magazines. He holds an MA degree in Philosophy and is a PhD candidate in Philosophy with a thesis on prosthetic representations and visual culture, focusing on contemporary art, cinema and medicine. He has published numerous project and artist presentations, articles in critical theory, and conducted a series of interviews with international artists and architects. As lecturer, he presented papers on topics such as »Ambients and Affects«, »Multi-pli-city«, »Tactical Landscapes«, »Negotitated Architectures«, »Corporeal Models« or »Traces & Screenings«. His particular interest in video art, digital art and photography has allowed him to engage in a series of research and curatorial projects in the field of contemporary art. In 2012 he founded a non-profit cultural organization dedicated to promoting non-conventional and cross-combination means of expression, and has initiated the »anti-utopias« contemporary art platform. He has curated the »Accumulations« video art exhibition (Galerie Sherin Najjar, Berlin, February 2012), was part of the curatorial advisory board of Moving Image London video art fair (October 2013), and has curated a series of photography exhibitions in London, Zürich and Brussels. Working as an independent curator and editor specialized in contemporary art and architecture, he is currently the managing curator of the Contemporary Art Archives.