VDM Verlag Thinking the Commodity Through the Moving Image: Cinema, Time and Capitalism

What is it to say that we think the commodity through the moving image? This book tries to answer this central question by investigating the notion that cinema is a form of consciousness, and that cinema¿s machine intelligence develops an entirely fresh ontological terrain for the parthenogenesis of the commodity. Arguing that the commodity is the abstract heart of film¿s form, the author examines how cinema gives rise to a modern cinematic consciousness that automates perception and manufactures affects. Through an exploration of twentieth century cinema the author traces the way cinema informs our concept and experience of time and enables the assimilation and internalisation of capital¿s timescales from the industrial to the digital era. Drawing on key cultural thinkers and philosophers, including Walter Benjamin and Gilles Deleuze, as well as contemporary media theorists such as Jonathan Beller, Sean Cubitt, D.N. Rodowick and Mark B. Hansen, this book articulates a branch of media philosophy that reads the political economy of the moving image through an amalgam of continental philosophy, Marxist theory and film studies. About the Author Nicholas Mercer received his Ph.D. in English and cultural studies from the University of Western Australia in 2008. He has published a number of articles on film, philosophy and cyberculture and has taught at the University of Western Australia and Hwa Chong Institution in Singapore.