Re: question on Emak Bakia (Man ray, 1926)

From: Ken Bawcom (email suppressed)
Date: Sun Feb 15 2009 - 01:24:11 PST


As I am not a psychologist, I can only speak for myself, but when I
see a film that presents images too quickly, or too many
simultaneously,* for my conscious mind to process with its normal
cognitive methods, I find that I cease the futile attempts at such
processing, and attempt to observe in such a way that I can take it
all in. As this is absent the normal active conscious processing, I
think it fair to call it passive, at least at the conscious level.

I feel that such images are entering into my subconscious, and have
supposed that was generally the film maker's intent, to bypass the
rational mind, and enter into more subjective territory, to have them
dealt with there. Not unlike subliminal messages.

* Robert Nelson's "Hauling Toto Big," and to a lesser extent, Peter
Greenaway's "Prospero's Books" are examples of films where the images
don't change all that fast, but are so numerous, and layered, that
normal conscious processing isn't always possible. At least, not for
me...

Ken B.

Quoting bryan mckay <email suppressed>:

> I think that may be partly a question of pre-awareness. If you go
> into something expecting a sequence of deterritorialized images, you
> might process that in a different way than if you were expecting
> something more structurally/thematically cohesive. And this might
> also help explain the idea of becoming a more active viewer on
> repeated viewings. Once you have an idea what to expect, you're able
> to structure the experience in a way that becomes more meaningful to
> you as a viewer rather than absent your conscious self from it
> completely.
>
> Also, as far as viewing and listening in different ways -- it's true
> that every viewing and every viewer has a different set of
> circumstances attached, but if we're talking about cognition, our
> brains all work in more or less predictable ways and I do think
> (even if we haven't done it yet) we can boil much of this down to
> cognitive brain activity.
>
> On Feb 13, 2009, at 11:14 AM, malgosia askanas wrote:
>
>> Bryan wrote:
>>
>>> Nathaniel Dorsky talks about the nihilism of contemporary montage,
>>> where the viewer is assaulted with a constant parade of
>>> meaningless cuts. Perhaps this is what Simonetta is talking about.
>>> If a filmmaker were to intentionally create this sort of
>>> nihilistic effect, that wouldn't be too out of line with the Dada
>>> ethos. When the cuts rapidly add up to nothing, the viewer is
>>> forced to step back and simply watch the shots pass by, unable to
>>> actually engage with or decode the film.
>>
>> But I think that a conceptual difference needs to be made between
>> (1) what one does when one "tunes oneself out" in the presence of a
>> barrage of cuts that appear, for one reason or another, as not
>> worth processing, and (2) the strategies of awareness one employs
>> in the presence of a sequence of deterritorialized (to use a
>> Deleuzo-Guattarian term) images that one approaches with the intent
>> of viewing art. For a slightly different example, there is a
>> considerable difference between listening to a long political
>> speech that appears as a meaning-deprived stream of platitudes, and
>> listening to Kurt Schwitters' "Ursonata" - even though it too,
>> purposefully and even more so, is a stream of sounds devoid of
>> textual meaning.
>>
>> Of course, the "one" here also has to be posited carefully -
>> different people view and listen in different ways.
>>
>>
>> -m
>>
>>
>> __________________________________________________________________
>> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
>
>
> __________________________________________________________________
> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
>
>
>

"Those who would give up essential liberty
to purchase a little temporary safety
deserve neither liberty, nor safety."
Benjamin Franklin 1775

"I know that the hypnotized never lie... Do ya?"
Pete Townshend 1971

__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.