Please join us on Friday, November 4th at 10:30AM in Cobb 311 as we welcome Mikki Kressbach, Ph.D. Candidate in Cinema and Media Studies. Mikki will be discussing her dissertation chapter-in-progress, “Found Footage Horror and the Evidentiary Effect, or How to Know an Outbreak.”
Mikki’s paper is available for download here.
Please email either Katerina Korola [katerinakorola@uchicago.edu] or Dave Burnham [burnham@uchicago.edu] for the password.
Found Footage Horror and the Evidentiary Effect, or How to Know an Outbreak
“Found footage horror and the evidentiary effect, or how to know an outbreak,” examines the coupling of found footage horror and emergent infectious disease (EIDs). While most discussions of the genre focus on its stylistic affinities with documentary film, this chapter seeks to understand the epistemological paradigms that underscore this comparison through the lens of visual evidence. Developing the term “evidentiary effect,” I argue that the reflexive aesthetic of found footage horror encourage the viewer to examine the image as visual evidence, leaving them vulnerable to the shocks and scares of the genre. EID found footage films use the evidentiary effect to create a sense of viral omnipresence as the viewer anxiously scans the image in search of information. In upending the functional use of visual evidence, EID found footage films confront us with the epistemological paradigms and visual rhetoric with which we understand and control real world outbreaks.
Mikki Kressbach is a PhD candidate in the department of Cinema and Media Studies. Her dissertation, titled “Perfect Contagion Machine,” explores the representation of emergent infectious disease in contemporary films, television, and video games. Her broader research interests include popular representations of science, health technologies, and science studies.
Refreshments will be provided.
**Persons with a disability who believe they may need assistance, please contact either Katerina Korola [katerinakorola@uchicago.edu] or Dave Burnham [burnham@uchicago.edu].**