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A Prefatory Note Concerning BRAINTRUSTdv Roundtables
Cannes, 1982. In an unoccupied hotel room sits a 16mm camera with a microphone. A television is on in the background. In the foreground a single sheet of paper lies on a table. On the paper is a question about the death of cinema—specifically whether the "television aesthetic" has supplanted the "film aesthetic." By turns, directors such as Jean-Luc Godard, Werner Herzog, Michelangelo Antonioni, Steven Spielberg and Rainer Werner Fassbinder sit before the camera and address the question. The responses range from bleak (Godard) to hopeful (Spielberg), from quietly circumspect (Antonioni) to wildly prophetic (Herzog). Chambre 666 is the title of both the film and the text transcription which resulted from this project conceived and staged by Wim Wenders.
The BRAINTRUSTdv roundtable project resulted from a perceived need to establish an anthology of disparate voices casually and succinctly addressing questions about the potential aesthetic and cultural impact of new technologies. Each of the roundtables revolves around a question posed in advance, and the responses are limited to 1000 words each. Rather than positing definitive answers or prescriptive solutions, each roundtable is a snapshot intended to reflect a zeitgeist such as that captured in Chambre 666.
Alejandro Adams
Roundtables Editor
BRAINTRUSTdv
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