MC: Gabrielle Hezekiah: Phenomenology and Experience: The Subject and the Screen

Phenomenological approaches to the moving image provide a means of theorizing the dynamic relationship between viewer and screen. Moving beyond classical film theory that posited the screen as a viewed object situated within a network of ideological apparatuses and psychic desires, these contemporary methods suggest a dialectical engagement between embodied subjects wherein there is mutuality of vision and sensuous materiality.

In this Master Class, with the aid of video clips, we will discuss recent trends in phenomenology and film theory, paying specific attention to three key areas: materiality; the lived-body; and haptic visuality. We will explore the ways in which attention to the lived body produces a viewing subject who experiences an intimate relationship to the screen, aided by aesthetic strategies that facilitate an embodied form of knowing.

Beyond its applicability to a multitude of screens in cinema and contemporary art, this approach helps us to pose more fundamental questions: What kind of knowledge is gained through attention to the lived body? How might we think of the subject/screen interface as a site for the production and translation of knowledge? How might phenomenology facilitate an embodied approach to research practice?

In addition to preparing the readings, students will be asked to discuss their research projects.  These need not be projects in film or visual art. Prior knowledge of film theory is not required.

Readings

• Marks, Laura U.  “The Memory of Touch.” In The Skin of the Film: Intercultural Cinema, Embodiment, and the Senses. 127-193. Durham: Duke University Press, 2000. 
• Sobchack, Vivian. “What My Fingers Knew: The Cinesthetic Subject or Vision in the Flesh.” In Carnal Thoughts: Embodiment and Moving Image Culture. 53-84. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004.

Optional

• Sobchack, Vivian. Excerpt of “Phenomenology and the Film Experience.“ In The Address of the Eye: A Phenomenology of Film Experience. 1-26. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992.