Bruno Besana

Tension on Tension

Some Considerations that Might Help to Produce an Increasingly Precise Understanding of a Problem which Has No Specific Object
This article shows that ‘tension’ cannot be conceived as a specific object of an analysis for which one could determine a precise field of enquiry. Instead, it establishes tension as a specific mode or angle of approach with which any given contingent object or set of objects can be explored. The wideness of its applicability and the specificity of its angle suggest that research on tension can help to unfold a better understanding of a classical ontological question concerning the essential value of actions and relations in the definition of what a thing is. The text follows this line of argumentation by pairing contemporary philosophical sources and specific aesthetic and political examples. Suggesting the possibility of an open classification of different modes of tension, it clarifies the extent to which the essential definition of a thing is bound to the contingent analysis of its transformations.
Keywords: cinema; duration; harmony; interruption; Klee, Paul; suspense; tension
Title
Tension on Tension
Subtitle
Some Considerations that Might Help to Produce an Increasingly Precise Understanding of a Problem which Has No Specific Object
Author(s)
Bruno Besana
Identifier
Description
This article shows that ‘tension’ cannot be conceived as a specific object of an analysis for which one could determine a precise field of enquiry. Instead, it establishes tension as a specific mode or angle of approach with which any given contingent object or set of objects can be explored. The wideness of its applicability and the specificity of its angle suggest that research on tension can help to unfold a better understanding of a classical ontological question concerning the essential value of actions and relations in the definition of what a thing is. The text follows this line of argumentation by pairing contemporary philosophical sources and specific aesthetic and political examples. Suggesting the possibility of an open classification of different modes of tension, it clarifies the extent to which the essential definition of a thing is bound to the contingent analysis of its transformations.
Is Part Of
Place
Vienna
Publisher
Turia + Kant
Date
2010
Subject
cinema
duration
harmony
interruption
Klee, Paul
suspense
tension
Rights
© by the author(s)
This version is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Bibliographic Citation
Bruno Besana, ‘Tension on Tension: Some Considerations that Might Help to Produce an Increasingly Precise Understanding of a Problem which Has No Specific Object’, in Tension/​Spannung, ed. by Christoph F. E. Holzhey, Cultural Inquiry, 1 (Vienna: Turia + Kant, 2010), pp. 157–84 <https://doi.org/10.25620/ci-01_09>
Language
en-GB
page start
157
page end
184
Source
Tension/​Spannung, ed. by Christoph F. E. Holzhey, Cultural Inquiry, 1 (Vienna: Turia + Kant, 2010), pp. 157–84
Format
application/pdf

References

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Cite as: Bruno Besana, ‘Tension on Tension: Some Considerations that Might Help to Produce an Increasingly Precise Understanding of a Problem which Has No Specific Object’, in Tension/​Spannung, ed. by Christoph F. E. Holzhey, Cultural Inquiry, 1 (Vienna: Turia + Kant, 2010), pp. 157–84 <https://doi.org/10.25620/ci-01_09>