Phenomenology and Media: Mapping the Structures of Post-Cinematic Experience
Annual Conference of the Romanian Society for Phenomenology, 19-21 November 2026
National University for Theatre and Film, Bucharest [map]
Program [DOWNLOAD PDF]
19.11.2026 – DAY 1
9:30-9:45 – Conference Opening
9:45-11:00 Keynote 1: Shane Denson (Stanford University): “(Synthetic) Thing and (Latent) Space”
11:15-13:30 PANELS A
13:30-15:30 Lunch Break
15:30-17:45 PANELS B
18:00-21:00 Opening Reception
20.11.2026 – DAY 2
10:00-13:00 PANELS C
13:00-15:00 Lunch Break
15:00-18:00 PANELS D
18:00-18:15 Coffee Break
18:15-19:30 Keynote 2: Anna Caterina Dalmasso (University of Milan): “The Video Stage. Becoming Visible in Postdigital Media Ecologies”
21.11.2026 – DAY 3:
9:00 – 11:15 PANELS E (3)
11:15-11:30 Coffee Break
11:30-13:00 Book Launch: Phenomenology and the Aesthetics of Post-Cinema. Embodiment, Affect, Critique (Springer 2026); Participants: Jakob Boer, Liri Chapelan, Christian Ferencz-Flatz, Zsolt Gyenge, Julian Hanich
PANELS A:
A1: Aesthetic Categories
Ludo de Roo (Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf Potsdam), The Diaphanous and the Ludic: Elemental Atmosphere in Video Games
Julian Hanich (University of Groningen), On the Phenomenology of Aesthetic Categories. A Methodological Reflection
André Dias de Andrade (Federal University of Minas Gerais / Paris Nanterre University), Indexical Images: A Phenomenology of Cinematic Perception
A2: New Formats
Liri Chapelan (National University of Theater and Film Bucharest), On the Experience of Watching the New Home Movies: Routine Videos Under a Phenomenological Lens
Maria Poulaki (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki), Towards a Phenomenology of Fractal Videos
PANELS B:
B1: Media Experience
Ilia Inishev (European Humanities University Vilnius), When the Image Ceases to Become World: Phenomenology and Post-Cinematic Experience
Claudiu Bolchiș (European Federation of Art Therapy), What Remains After the Film: Inner Image and the Affective Trace of Cinematic Experience
Ileana Bortun (Romanian Society for Phenomenology), Can AI Help Us Understand our Own Experiences? A Micro-Phenomenological Perspective
B2: Generative AI
Floriana Ferro (University of Trieste/ Ca’ Foscari University of Venice), New Media and Generative AI: Toward a Phenomenology of Entangled Agency
Fabrizia Bandi (University of Milan), Believing in Images: Image-Consciousness and AI-Generated Depiction
Christian Ferencz-Flatz (National University for Theatre and Film Bucharest), The Phenomenological Value of Deepfakes
PANELS C:
C1: Phenomenological Concepts
Liya Zou (KU Leuven), Reconfiguring Phenomenological Passivity in Post-Cinematic Perception
Anne Pesch (University of Koblenz), Sedimentation and Habituation in Interface Relations. A (Post)Phenomenological Exploration of LLM Interfaces and GUIs
Alexandru Bejinariu (Romanian Society for Phenomenology), Viewing on Fast-Forward: Temporal Typifications in the Post-Cinematic Experience
Remus Breazu (National University of Arts Bucharest), The Ego and Unnatural Ways of Seeing
C2: Sociality
Maria Calabretto (Institut Catholique de Toulouse), Is Cinema Still a Communal Experience? The Cinematic Experience and New Spaces
Michal Lipták (Slovak Academy of Sciences), Fragmented Identities: From Facebook Revolutions to Online Tribalism
Yuval Barak (Tel Aviv University), Watching Flow (2024): A Phenomenological Reading of Joint Cat-Human Spectatorship
Eveline Cioflec (Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu), Technology, Encounter and the In-Between
PANELS D:
D1: Bodily Engagement
Peter Virginas (Romanian Institute for Research on National Minorities), Fragrances and Digital Mediation: Post-Phenomenological Relations
Ecem Ince (Abertay University), Embodied Virtuality: Exploring the Intersection of Materiality, Interaction and Affective Experience within Immersive New Media
Martina Properzi & Manuela Luchetta (Babeș-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca), Neuro-Reality: A Challenge for Human Embodiment?
Riccardo Valenti (University of Trento), Venus Publica after Cinema: Synthetic Bodies, Algorithmic Desire, and PostCinematic Experience
D2: Film & Media Culture
Mihai Ometiță (University of Bucharest), Critical Stardom Studies: Post-Cinematic Takes on Filmic Types and Divos
Kacper Krzeczewski & Michał Jas (Jan Kochanowski University of Kielce), The AI-Generated Actor in Digital Media Culture: Between Representation and Simulation of Presence
Marcel Hosu (Romanian Academy of Sciences Cluj-Napoca), The Algorithmic Gaze: Post-Cinema After Joan Copjec
PANELS E:
E1: Temporality & Duration
Victor Popescu (National University for Theatre and Film Bucharest), Slow Cinema’s Investigative-Observational Mode: A Phenomenological Reading of Werckmeister Harmonies
Andreea Dobre (University of Bucharest), Temporal Disjunction and Lived Duration from Cinema to Post-Cinema: Andrei Tarkovsky and the Phenomenology of Mediated Time
Jakob Boer (University of Groningen), “Scrolling Consciousness”: Temporality and Attention in Algorithmic Media
E2: Ecology & Art
Ahmet Emin Bülbül (Kırşehir Ahi Evran University), Dancing with Starlings: A Synthetic Phenomenology of Generative Ecocinema
Zsolt Gyenge (Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design in Budapest), Lost in Projection: Towards a Phenomenological Approach to Moving Image Installations in the Context of Post-Cinema
Raluca Oancea (National University of Arts Bucharest), World and Earth after Cinema: A Phenomenological Reading of Elemental Video Installations at the 61st Venice Biennale
Call for Papers
In the wake of profound technological and cultural transformations, cinema no longer names a stable medium but rather a shifting constellation of practices, dispositifs, and experiential forms. The proliferation of streaming platforms, algorithmically curated feeds, immersive installations, AI-generated imagery, VR and AR environments, conversational agents, and multi-screen ecologies compels us to rethink the very structures of our lived experience. Under the still-contested but heuristically productive concept of “post-cinema,” recent scholarship in film and media studies has sought to come to grips with this transformed media landscape in ways that are still waiting to be fully appropriated by phenomenological reflection.
The present conference invites contributions that bring phenomenology into sustained dialogue with contemporary media theory in order to interrogate the manifold facets of our current post-cinematic situation and map the experiential, affective, embodied, and critical structures that characterize our current media ecology.
Building primarily on traditions of film phenomenology associated with Vivian Sobchack and Jean-Pierre Meunier, and drawing on the philosophical resources of, among others, Edmund Husserl, Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Jean-Paul Sartre, as well as Emmanuel Levinas’s ethics of the Other, Hermann Schmitz’s New Phenomenology, Don Ihde’s post-phenomenology of technology, or Mark Coeckelbergh’s phenomenologically informed ethics of human-robot interaction, we aim to extend phenomenological inquiry beyond the classical cinematic dispositif toward emerging “families of images”: algorithmic visuals, deepfakes, TikTok feeds, immersive environments, AI image synthesis, and hybrid human-machine interfaces.
By bringing together philosophers, film and media scholars, as well as artists, we aim to foster a rigorous interdisciplinary conversation about how phenomenology can illuminate, and be transformed by, the evolving media landscape.
Confirmed keynote speakers:
- Anna Caterina Dalmasso (Università degli Studi di Milano)
- Shane Denson (Stanford University)
We welcome submissions that engage (but are not limited to) the following themes:
1. Embodiment and Mediation
- Post-cinematic bodies and artificial tactility
- Intercorporeality in immersive and interactive media
- Gesture, interface, and motor intentionality
- VR/AR, spatialized sound, and multisensory environments
- Expanded cinema and installation art
2. Affect and Atmosphere
- Affective ecologies of algorithmic media
- Mood, attunement, and digital atmospheres
- Emotional attachment to bots, avatars, and AI agents
- Collective affect in networked spectatorship
- Aesthetic experience beyond representation
3. Temporality and Attention
- Fragmented, looped, and accelerated temporalities
- Binge-watching, scrolling, and platform temporality
- Post-cinematic memory and archival transformations
- Time-consciousness in interactive and immersive works
4. Image Ontology and the “Family of Images”
- AI-generated and synthetic imagery
- Deepfakes and the transformation of indexicality
- The fate of imagination in digital environments
- Reconfigurations of fiction, documentary, and the home movie
5. Critical Phenomenology and Media
- Media infrastructures and lived experience
- Platform capitalism and embodied subjectivity
- Cyberbullying, online violence, and mediated vulnerability
- Maker culture, participation, and technological agency
- Media phenomenology in dialogue with critical theory, deconstruction, psychoanalysis, or cognitive theory
6. Methodological Reflections
- Micro-phenomenology and media research
- Second-person methods and audience studies
- Phenomenology beyond “ideological neutrality”
- The future of phenomenology in the post-digital world
Selected contributions will be considered for inclusion in a peer-reviewed special journal issue.
Submission Guidelines
Proposals for individual papers (30 minutes) should include:
- An abstract of 300–500 words
- A short bio (100–150 words)
Practice-based research presentations are strongly encouraged.
Proposals for pre-constituted panels (3-4 speakers) should include a panel description (300-500 words), as well as abstracts (300-500 words) and short bio (100-150 words) for all speakers.
Submissions should be sent to: conference2026@phenomenology.ro
Deadline for submissions: 31 May 2026
Notification of acceptance: 30 June 2026
Conference dates: 19-21 November 2026
Location: National University for Theatre and Film, Bucharest
Participation fee: 60 EUR
Organizers: Christian Ferencz-Flatz, Alexandru Bejinariu, Remus Breazu