Kino ontologija
The Ontology of Cinema

Summary/Abstract: Although the notion of ontology only emerged in the vocabulary of philosophers in the 17th century, ontology has existed avant la lettre from the beginning of philosophy. It is already recognisable in Aristotle’s “first philosophy”, whose task is to study the meaning of “being qua being”. The thing is, though, that this meaning does not open itself directly but only through certain means, or media. For a long time it has been considered that language was the sole media that was able to dis- close the meaning of “being qua being”. This article tries to show that this view can be challenged insofar as the “being qua being” can be disclosed not only through language but through other media as well. Cinema can be considered one such media. Making reference to Vilém Flusser’s notion of technical images, the article highlights the peculiarity of cinema as a media that discloses “being qua being”. This notion enables us to view cinema as a media that discloses being’s Nothing- ness. Technical images appearing on the screen can be regarded as specters of sorts. This is where the notion of “hauntology”, as introduced by Jacques Derrida, comes in as a perfect tool for describing the ontology of cinema.

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