19 June 2008
IMM studio A 2.24
Matthias Weiß on music videos and visual music
About 25 years after the on-air launch of MTV, the music video has been declared dead several times. Before writing it off, one should take a second to think about the origin, purpose and particular aesthetic of this young visual genre. Cultural historian and theatre studies-graduate Matthias Weiß wrote his dissertation on the use of visual quotes in Madonna's music videos. In his lecture, Matthias Weiß will explain which visual rules divide the music video from other visual genres and also why this division is bond to fail in the dawn of new developments within the industry and media. He will use several visual examples to underline his thesis, featuring works by the likes of Run DMC, Missy Elliott and Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Matthias Weiß studied architecture at Technischen Universität, Munich and art history and theatre studies at Freien Universität Berlin. Since January 2002, Mr. Weiß is a member on the graduate-college "Bild-Körper-Medium. Eine anthropologische Perspektive" (Picture-Body-Medium. An anthropologist perspective) at Hochschule für Gestaltung, Karlsruhe. 2002 until 2004, he held a Gerda Henkel foundation fellowship in Duesseldorf. 2004, he completed his PhD at Freie Universität Berlin with his thesis: "Formen und Funktionen der Rekursivität im Videoclip am Beispiel der Musikvideos von Madonna" (Form and function of recursivity in music videos, exemplified by Madonna-videos). Since 2005, Matthias Weiß is a scientific assistant on the special research field of "Kulturen des Performativen" (Culture of performance) at Freie Universität Berlin. His dissertation will be published in Dietrich Reimer-publishing under the title "Madonna revidiert. Rekursivität im Videoclip" (Examining Madonna - Recursivity in music videos).