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This book provides an interdisciplinary analysis of film in the context of the Anthropocene: the new geological era in which human beings have collectively become a force of nature. Daniel White draws on perspectives in philosophy, ecology, and cybernetics (the science of communication and control in animals and machines) to explore human self-understanding through film in the new era. The classical figure of Janus, looking both to the future and the past, serves as a guide throughout the study. Both feature and documentary films are considered.
List of contents
1. Introduction: Stepping into the Play Frame-Cinema as Mammalian Communication.- 2. Janus's Celluloid and Digital Faces: The Existential Cyborg-Autopoie sis in Christopher Nolan's Memento.- 3. Documentary Intertext: Robert Gardner's Dead Birds 1964.- 4. Cinema's Historical Incarnations: Traveling the Möbius Strip of Biotime in Cloud Atlas.- 5. Documentary Intertext: John Marshall, The Hunters 1957.- 6. Janus East and West: Multicultural Polyvocality-Trinh Minh-ha's The Fourth Dimension and The Digital Film.- 7. Documentary Intertext: Trance and Dance in Bali 1951.- 8. Janus's Interspecies Faces: Biomorphic Transformations in the Ecology of Mind in James Cameron's Avatar.- 9. Documentary Intertext: André Singer's and J. Stephen Lansing's The Goddess and the Computer 1988.- 10. Conclusion: Toward a Transdisciplinary Critical Theory of Film.
About the author
Daniel White is Professor Emeritus and founding faculty member of the Wilkes Honors College of Florida Atlantic University.
Summary
This book provides an interdisciplinary analysis of film in the context of the Anthropocene: the new geological era in which human beings have collectively become a force of nature. Daniel White draws on perspectives in philosophy, ecology, and cybernetics (the science of communication and control in animals and machines) to explore human self-understanding through film in the new era. The classical figure of Janus, looking both to the future and the past, serves as a guide throughout the study. Both feature and documentary films are considered.
Additional text
“Graduate students, scholars and professionals interested film and addressing problems posed by the rising Anthropocene might find this book useful in providing ways to think outside the box and expand thinking to be more inclusive.” (Morgan Danker, CBQ Communication Booknotes Quarterly, Vol. 51 (3-4), 2020)
Report
"Graduate students, scholars and professionals interested film and addressing problems posed by the rising Anthropocene might find this book useful in providing ways to think outside the box and expand thinking to be more inclusive." (Morgan Danker, CBQ Communication Booknotes Quarterly, Vol. 51 (3-4), 2020)
