Interdisciplinary Body is an artistic research, situated around the concepts of body and interdisciplinarity in the field of audiovisual arts, with the focus on the two types of cinema – fiction and non-fiction – on the one hand, and the subject of cinema – the body or the human portrayed – on the other hand. Both concepts converge themselves in the spectator, who is perceiving and therefore connecting with or reflecting at what s/he is watching. The relationship between the three elements: the portrayed body, the perceiving body and the discipline – is the focal point of the research.
In psychoanalytic film theories, often based on the studies of Jacques Lacan, the screen serves as a mirror, through which spectators identify themselves with the protagonists on the screen. The identification with the characters is often considered as the secondary identification, while the primary one is the unconscious identification with the camera. Next to this, the recent scientific studies discovered that we feel with our bodies everything what we see, prior to reflecting on it. This is possible due to the mirror neurons activated in our brains while watching an action and therefore mirroring it within own body: the neurons send signals to the muscles, making the difference between seeing and doing diffuse.
Considering the abovementioned cognitive and neurological ‘mirror’ notions, I aimed at establishing an audiovisual environment, in which I could study the ‘imperative relationships’ between the body on screen and that of the spectator. In which way does the gaze – a socially determined gaze – informs one’s perception? Which type of perception is more dominant: corporeal or cerebral? How is a filmmaker engaged into construction of a gaze?
The thematic focal point of this research is the notion of body as political metaphor, placed into extreme corporeal conditions (illness, death, suffering), as a way of explicit bodily non-narrative conveyance. In order to investigate the research questions raised above, I used the following methodological and technical aspects of filmmaking: haptic visuality, sensorial audio, disjunctive montage, multiple screens, essay forms. The general methodology of this research comprised ongoing series of various audiovisual experiments, such as video works and installations, two core projects – a documentary feature film and a fiction film installation for three screens. A written discursive part finalizes this research in which I mirrored the style and content of the artistic part by means of writing various essays in a collage-montage form, reflecting on the research questions.
Interdisciplinary body
Promotors: Klaas Tindemans, Jan Vromman
