Introduction

Martin Heidegger was, between his existential analytic and analysis of language, a critic of technology. To Heidegger technology is a part of “human being’s nature” (tekhne), a way of handling and revealing the nature and the world. But the “modern technology”[1] takes hold of this revealing process and throws man “off of his rails” to kind of “general” or “generic” being. Modern technology present itself, according to Heidegger, as an “enframing”[2] (Gestell) which transfers itself (through the work of humans) as a kind of “world picture”[3] –everything is seen through and for the technology.

This text discusses Heidegger’s idea of…

When the first films came out at the end of 19th century they were mostly treated as a light and quickly consumable entertainment. This was of course partly due to the big and clumsy technology and the means of presentation — the films, or short sequences, were shown in an quickly assembled and carnivalesque tents. Despite this, films — and cinema as a medium — quickly spread all over the world. At the beginning of the 20th century, thinkers, artists and philosophers had to raise the question: were the films works of art?

Today most people probably think that the…