19/06/2026
📢 KEYNOTE ANNOUNCEMENT | Saturday, June 20
We are very excited to welcome Laliv Melamed, Professor of Digital Film Cultures at Goethe University Frankfurt, for our final keynote address of the conference.
🔻 Event Details:
📍 Where: Amphithéâtre 1
⏰ When: 18:00 - 19:30
💬 THEME: What We Knew Not to Know: Operative Media and the Open Secret of State Violence
Thermal, aerial, ultrasonic, and algorithmic—modern operative images act directly on the world, offering a chillingly close look at the mechanics of state violence (surveillance, targeted strikes, and systemic control).
But what regimes of evidence do these images actually create? What terrains of knowledge, recognition, or compliance do they open up?
Drawing on the conceptual framework of her upcoming book, Professor Melamed will explore the paradigm of the operative image, examining military optics and their cultural imaginaries of security and secrecy.
🎓 ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Laliv Melamed is a professor at Goethe University, Frankfurt. Her research focuses on non-fiction film and media, exploring governance, affect, and violence, specifically within the context of Israel-Palestine. She is also a prolific author and editor.
📚 SELECTED BOOKS & PUBLICATIONS:
Sovereign Intimacy: Private Media and the Traces of Colonial Violence (University of California Press, 2023)
Pandemic Media: Preliminary Notes Toward an Inventory (Co-editor, Meson Press, 2021)
Optics of Opacity: Operative Media and the Public Secret (Forthcoming book project)
✨ Join us for this powerful and timely reflection on media, technology, and state power to close our keynote series. See you in Amphi 1!
