Full Description
We've all had the experience of watching a film and feeling like we've been in a trance. This book takes that experience seriously, explaining cinema as a cultural technique of trance, one that unconsciously transforms our perceptions. Ute Holl moves from anthropological and experimental cinema through nineteenth-century psychological laboratories, which she shows developed techniques for testing, measuring, and classifying the mind that can be seen as a prehistory of cinema, one that allows us to see the links among cinema, anthropology, psychology, and cybernetics. Ute Holl moves from anthropological and experimental cinema through nineteenth-century psychological laboratories, which she shows developed techniques for testing, measuring, and classifying the mind that can be seen as a prehistory of cinema.
Contents
Foreword: Fade into Black by Pasi Valiaho Preface to the English Translation of Cinema, Trance and Cybernetics In the Beginning 1.1 Cinema 1.2 Cybernetics 1.3 Knots 1.4 To Whom it May Concern 2.1 Discretions Gregory Bateson, Margaret Mead: Ball, New York 2.2 Depersonalizations Maya Deren: Hollywood, Haiti 2.3 Deviations Jean Rouch: Accra, Paris 2.4 Compressions Albert Londe: Paris, Paris 3.1 Mental Apparatuses 3.1.1 Experimenting 3.1.2 Shocking 3.1.3 Registering 3.1.4 Going Wild 3.1.5 Resonating 3.1.6 Rhythmizing 3.2 Psyco-Motor Activity 3.3 Psycho-Drama 3.4 Psycho-Technology 3.5 Psycho-Reflexology 3.5.1 Feelings and Emotions 3.5.2 The Ends of Paranoia 3.5.3 Personality Changes 3.5.4 Ways of Behaving 3.5.5 Nerve Priming 3.5.6 Reflex Arcs 3.5.7 Media or Homeostatic Processes 4.1 The Truth Won by Means of Film 4.1.1 Signals 4.1.2 Agitations 4.1.3 Explosions 4.1.4 Intervals 4.1.5 Experiences 4.1.6 Centers or Centrifuges 5. After All: Return to Receiver, Bibliography, Index.
