Abstract

The volcano represents a borderline phenomenon of the photographic image: trying to depict the volcanic eruption is doomed to fail since the optical apparatus will inevitably be destroyed the closer it gets to the crater. However, by melting images and their machines, the volcano is not only an end, but also a new beginning of film. For Jean Epstein, the volcanic ability to liquefy everything solid is also the essence of cinema. The cinematic apparatus is born out of lava. And Georges Bataille sees in the volcano's glowing crater the cruel eye of the sun - an ecstatic vision that blinds and burns us. From cinema's early eruptive dreams to today's drone flights over icelandic volcanoes, and from the raptured bodies on vulcanic rocks to the humans engulfed in liquid stone, this video essay follows a lava flow of images and associations, accompanied by the rumbling sound of the earth, as recorded from outer space.* [Inspired by the film programme "Under the Vulcano" at Filmpodium Zurich Feb/Mar 2024] For details on the used sound see: https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/FutureEO/Swarm/The_scary_sound_of_Earth_s_magnetic_field