Anyone who goes to the movies knows that films are not only entertaining, they also stimulate perception, thinking, feeling and sensation - sometimes for a long time afterwards.

The moving cinema images are simulation models of social processes and contribute to the »definition of reality«: Everyone carries their own »dream factory« in their head. We create images of reality; abstract concepts are »retranslated« into mental images. Umberto Eco spoke of »epistemological metaphors« (pictorial expression of epistemologies), Vilém Flusser of the peculiarities of technical images in the telematic society.

How suitable are films for examining topics in their social, scientific and philosophical contexts? In the Film Exploratorium, Wolfgang Petroll (film lecturer at ZAK, KIT) takes up the ideas of the philosopher of science Paul Feyerabend (1924-94) on the occasion of his 100th birthday and illustrates them using the example of selected film quotations (e.g. from Hitchcock, Kurosawa, Welles, Godard, Kubrick, Herzog, Burton, Tarantino).

Paul Feyerabend (1924-94), physicist, philosopher and historian of science, often went to the movies. His most important writings include: »Against Method« 1975, »Knowledge for Free Men« (Erkenntnis für freie Menschen) 1976, »Science as Art« (Wissenschaft als Kunst) 1984.

Wolfgang Petroll studied sociology, psychology and science studies and worked in media art and the cinema industry. Since 2001, he has been a lecturer for film and media aesthetics at the ZAK of the KIT and has curated the film series »Traumfabrik« together with Herbert Born, the operator of the Schauburg Karlsruhe film theater, since 2010.

Cooperation partner

Event as part of the Traumfabrik #26 »Films to think about - people, artists, scientists, society«.

Film Exploratorium of the ZAK | Center for Applied Cultural Studies and Studium Generale of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in cooperation with the ZKM.

In cooperation with: Filmtheater Schauburg Karlsruhe, AWWK - Akademie für wissenschaftliche Weiterbildung Karlsruhe with the kind support of the Georg-Fricker-Stiftung