Felicity Colman

Theory conceptualises the matter of technology into different durational conditions; contingent upon their approach to cultural context, philosophy of technology, and materialist political position. As we learn from Bergson, to think about a measurement of change (ie; when there might be an ontological or metaphysical change in things due to the catalyzing forces of technology), then we are linking measurement to some form of value system. In considering gendering factors, feminist actions – what I am referring to as actions of Feminicity (Colman 2014) - aim to deconstruct, and make new forms – under the terms of action that Arendt (1958) outlines as the actualization of human activities. Speculating on existing material ontologies and generating active-affects, Feminicity works to manipulate the algorithmic ideologies of capitalist nihilistic and narcissistic behaviours, opening new realities. In this paper, I consider the actions of the feminist image (focusing on materialist film practices, such as in the work of Elke Marhöfer 2012; 2014), which contribute toward the formulation of a new philosophical position and thus different political propositions for society. The paper asks what constitutes the modeling tools that new materialist feminist film practices offer, and what do they express?

Prof. Felicity Colman holds a Chair in Film and Media Arts at the Manchester School of Art, Manchester Metropolitan University. She is the author of »Film Theory: Creating a Cinematic Grammar« (Columbia University Press, 2014), »Deleuze and Cinema« (Bloomsbury; Berg, 2011), and editor of »Film, Theory and Philosophy: The Key Thinkers« (McGill-Queens University Press; Routledge; Acumen, 2009), and co-editor of »Global Arts & Local Knowledge« (Lexington, 2016), and »Sensorium: Aesthetics, Art, Life« (Cambridge Scholars, 2007). She is Co-Editor [with Dr David Deamer and Prof. Joanna Hodge] of the »A/V Journal of Practical and Creative Philosophy«. Her current book projects are on »Digital Feminicity«, and »Materialist Film«. She is working on collaborative research projects on »What is Creativity?« and the production of an »Ethics of Communication«. She is the Vice-Chair of the EU funded COST [European Cooperation in Science and Technology] Network Grant Action IS1307 on New Materialism: Networking European Scholarship on »How Matter Comes to Matter« [2014-2018].