Books by Paul Taberham
Narrative comprehension, memory, motion, depth perception, synesthesia, hallucination, and dream... more Narrative comprehension, memory, motion, depth perception, synesthesia, hallucination, and dreaming have long been objects of fascination for cognitive psychologists. They have also been among the most potent sources of creative inspiration for experimental filmmakers. Lessons in Perception melds film theory and cognitive science in a stimulating investigation of the work of iconic experimental artists such as Stan Brakhage, Robert Breer, Maya Deren, and Jordan Belson. In illustrating how avant-garde filmmakers draw from their own mental and perceptual capacities, author Paul Taberham offers a compelling account of how their works expand the spectator’s range of aesthetic sensitivities and open creative vistas uncharted by commercial cinema.
Coedited Books by Paul Taberham
Experimental Animation: From Analogue to Digital, 2019
Experimental Animation: From Analogue to Digital, focuses on both experimental animation’s deep r... more Experimental Animation: From Analogue to Digital, focuses on both experimental animation’s deep roots in the twentieth century, and its current position in the twenty-first century media landscape.
Each chapter incorporates a variety of theoretical lenses, including historical, materialist, phenomenological and scientific perspectives. Acknowledging that process is a fundamental operation underlining experimental practice, the book includes not only chapters by international academics, but also interviews with well-known experimental animation practitioners such as William Kentridge, Jodie Mack, Larry Cuba, Martha Colburn and Max Hattler. These interviews document both their creative process and thoughts about experimental animation’s ontology to give readers insight into contemporary practice.
Global in its scope, the book features and discusses lesser known practitioners and unique case studies, offering both undergraduate and graduate students a collection of valuable contributions to film and animation studies.
The question of what bearing scientific inquiry has upon the humanities is a vexed one, and is th... more The question of what bearing scientific inquiry has upon the humanities is a vexed one, and is the subject of an important on-going debate in film and media studies and beyond. Two central goals of this volume are to make a case that the theorization of film and media spectatorship needs to take current empirical research in the sciences into consideration, and to show how empirical research is beneficially informing our theories. More specifically, Cognitive Media Theory will offer film and media scholars and advanced students an introduction to current cognitive theory through original essays that critically reflect upon the current state of the field, address key topics, genres, and media forms, and present the findings of specific experiments and case studies. Contributors aim to highlight cognitivism’s diversity within the framework of the approach to which it is committed—an approach that demands our theories of spectatorship make use of the best available evidence provided by other fields and disciplines, especially the sciences.
Journal Articles by Paul Taberham
The artist Stan Brakhage drew creatively from the habits, limitations, and thresholds of human vi... more The artist Stan Brakhage drew creatively from the habits, limitations, and thresholds of human visual perception. This article examines how Brakhage compelled viewers to attend to their visual perceptions in a unique way when engaging with his films. The article begins with an outline of John Ruskin's concept of the innocent eye, and its relevance to Brakhage's creative aspirations. Next, by placing the concept of the innocent eye within the context of existing theories on visual perception, the article suggests two ways in which Brakhage was able to retutor the eyes through his films: the first was by paying special attention to entoptic vision (visual impressions whose source is within the eye itself) as a source of inspiration; the second was by developing a series of techniques that compel the viewer to attend to the visual information on the screen in a way that subordinates semantic salience, and emphasizes the surface detail.
Anthology Chapters by Paul Taberham
The evolutionary approach to aesthetics, I shall demonstrate, often dismisses the value of avant-... more The evolutionary approach to aesthetics, I shall demonstrate, often dismisses the value of avant--garde and modernist art -sometimes inadvertently, and other times consciously. Exploring some of the major evolutionary accounts of the origins and functions of art, I will advance an alternative to existing theories, which will frame the avant--garde as a valuable phenomenon which develops aesthetic sensitivities and skills of engagement. Where scholars engaged with the avant--garde typically focus on the historical and social conditions that fostered its emergence, 1 I will focus on the evolutionary--psychological conditions that may have enabled its existence.
Book Chapters by Paul Taberham
Lessons in Perception: the Avant-Garde Filmmaker as Practical Psychologist, 2018
A book chapter on the uses and abuses of narrative structure in experimental film.
Lessons in Perception: the Avant-Garde Filmmaker as Practical Psychologist, 2018
A chapter on the relationship between memory and avant-garde film.
Online Articles by Paul Taberham
BAFTSS Open Screens, 2019
Lucifer Rising can be understood as the culmination of Kenneth Anger’s Magick Lantern Cycle. The ... more Lucifer Rising can be understood as the culmination of Kenneth Anger’s Magick Lantern Cycle. The power of this film, in part, rests on the way in which Anger alludes to a range of esoteric myths and Gods, without contextualising them in the way a more traditional film would do. This article sets out to reveal the various allusions, and in turn elucidate Anger’s unique approach to filmmaking.
Papers by Paul Taberham
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Books by Paul Taberham
Coedited Books by Paul Taberham
Each chapter incorporates a variety of theoretical lenses, including historical, materialist, phenomenological and scientific perspectives. Acknowledging that process is a fundamental operation underlining experimental practice, the book includes not only chapters by international academics, but also interviews with well-known experimental animation practitioners such as William Kentridge, Jodie Mack, Larry Cuba, Martha Colburn and Max Hattler. These interviews document both their creative process and thoughts about experimental animation’s ontology to give readers insight into contemporary practice.
Global in its scope, the book features and discusses lesser known practitioners and unique case studies, offering both undergraduate and graduate students a collection of valuable contributions to film and animation studies.
Journal Articles by Paul Taberham
Anthology Chapters by Paul Taberham
Book Chapters by Paul Taberham
Online Articles by Paul Taberham
http://blog.animationstudies.org/?p=1118
The film is available here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiS4ViWA4kc
Papers by Paul Taberham
Each chapter incorporates a variety of theoretical lenses, including historical, materialist, phenomenological and scientific perspectives. Acknowledging that process is a fundamental operation underlining experimental practice, the book includes not only chapters by international academics, but also interviews with well-known experimental animation practitioners such as William Kentridge, Jodie Mack, Larry Cuba, Martha Colburn and Max Hattler. These interviews document both their creative process and thoughts about experimental animation’s ontology to give readers insight into contemporary practice.
Global in its scope, the book features and discusses lesser known practitioners and unique case studies, offering both undergraduate and graduate students a collection of valuable contributions to film and animation studies.
http://blog.animationstudies.org/?p=1118
The film is available here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiS4ViWA4kc