BFM's PhD Seminar: Jakob Isak Nielsen

Title: Cell Phone Fiction – a New Serial Poetics?

Abstract: The popular breakthrough of the internet and internet connected devices in the 1990s paved the way for new forms of storytelling, genre conventions and stylistic parameters as regards serial fiction in a variety of media and genres. This talk focuses on the uneven tradition of serial fiction produced for cell phones as the primary form of consumption. The aesthetic traditions of cell phone fiction overlap with other serial forms such as web series and television series but their stylistic, generic and/or narrative traits can also be delineated along more distinct lines. The talk will pursue the latter course and incorporate the concept of “platform vernacular” (Gibbs et al, 2015) in that respect. Examples of cell phone fiction will be drawn from two different commercial players, Quibi and SnapChat, the main cases being When the Streetlights Go On (Quibi, 2020) and Class of Lies (SnapOriginals, 2018) - two serials that at first glance appear to be generically alike.

Jakob Isak Nielsen (b. 1975) is an associate professor at Department of Media and Journalism Studies (Aarhus University) where he was also head of department (2014-2019). His research interests include film, tv and media aesthetics, particularly studied within select production cultural and media systemic contexts. His PhD is available online and focused on the functions of camera movement in narrative cinema – central functions also being discussed in an audiovisual essay. 

His subsequent work has been published in a range of journals (e.g. Journal of Popular Television, Short Film Studies, 16:9, Kosmorama, Passage) and edited collections in both English and Danish, e.g. A Companion to Fritz Lang (Wiley-Blackwell), Transnational Cinematography Studies (Lexington Books), Danish Television Drama: Global Lessons from a Small Nation (Palgrave Macmillan).

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