Opening Lecture Dr. Nina Cvar: From Marx and Engels to Althusser and Jonathan Beller

From Marx and Engels’ seminal work, The German Ideology, through Althusser’s theoretical framework on ideology, emerged during the 1960s and 1970s. The segment will conclude with a reflection on the relationship between aesthetics and materiality, with a specific focus on cinema and the concept of the cinematic mode of production as articulated by Jonathan Beller.  By examining cinema as a site where aesthetics, materiality, and ideology intersect, the discussion will aspire to rethink the relevance of ideological critique in aesthetics in the digital age.

Nina Cvar, is employed as a research associate at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Ljubljana and as an assistant professor of sociology of culture at the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana. Between 2008 and 2017 she was a professional film critic, contributing to all major Slovenian publications. For her work she was awarded the Nika Bohinc’s Award and MOL scholarship for talented pupils and students. In 2021, she published a scientific monograph Digital Image and Global Capitalism: Technology, Politics, Resistance for one of the central Slovenian humanities and social sciences publishers, Sophia.