ERAMSCI participates in the organisation of the 15th International Seminar on the Origins of Cinema

On 5 and 6 November 2026, the Faculty of Arts at the University of Girona will host the 15th International Seminar on the Precursors and Origins of Cinema, dedicated to Electricity and Its Impact on the Visual and Auditory Culture of Modernity.

The seminar is organised by the Cinema Museum – Tomàs Mallol Collection, the Department of History and Art History at the University of Girona, the Research Group on the Origins of Cinema (GROC) and the ELECTROCINEresearch project, funded by the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. The project explores the impact of electricity on cinema and photography at the turn of the century, focusing on transformations in visual perception and the animism of objects (1885–1919).

This year, three professors from the ERAM University Centre for the Arts, Daniel Pérez, Carolina Martínez and Judit Vidiella, members of the ERAMSCI research group, are participating in the organisation of the seminar as part of the ELECTROCINE research project.

Carolina Martínez will present the paper “Dance, Trance and Electricity. From Loïe Fuller and Giacomo Balla’s Fireworks (1917) for Diaghilev to Incubatio (2025) by the Stocos company”, exploring the connections between dance, electricity and artistic experimentation across different contexts and performance languages.

Judit Vidiella, meanwhile, will present “Representations of Electricity in Cinema, 1906–1910. From the Theatricality of Electrified Bodies to the Animism of Objects”, a study focusing on how electricity was represented in cinema during the early years of the 20th century.

The seminar will provide a space to share research on the origins of cinema and explore how electricity transformed audiovisual forms of creation and representation. This line of research connects film history with contemporary artistic and audiovisual practices.