Research Statement
Philosophy and Film: Ideas and Things
Joanna Callaghan, University of Bedfordshire
A mind's eye
http://vimeo.com/29799572
password: 280707
Making of A mind's eye
http://vimeo.com/29799572
password: 280707
Introduction
Ontological Narratives was an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) project
funded under the practice led scheme. The objectives were to explore how
philosophical concepts can be visually translated and what role narrative can play in
developing a coherent vision of these concepts. The project resulted in the
production of a 35mm short film A mind’s eye along with critical writing and a
documentary. In the following paper I will discuss some of the ideas and how these
became a film.
Research Context
The theoretical or subject matter context for Ontological Narratives is Plato’s world of
forms idea, which crudely provides the meat for the practice artefact, the film. The
practice research context is the philosophy of film, how film might replicate or
engender philosophical processes – film does thinking rather than just provoking it.
In this way thinking about film thinking on its own, might create new kinds of
thinking.1
In Timaeus2 Plato lays out the model for Ontological Narratives. He proposed two
worlds, one of forms the other of appearances. In the world of forms ‘things’ exist in
a pure sense as an essence or form. In the world of appearances ‘things’ are
recognisable because they participate in the forms but are only copies of the forms.
1
2
Daniel Frampton Filmosophy (London: Wallflower. 2006)
Plato Timaeus & Critias, trans. Desmond Lee (Middlesex: Penguin 1965)
1
Therefore every thing in the world of appearances has a form or essence existing in
the world of forms. Taking this as starting point the narrative of A mind’s eye3 was a
journey of a character, Stanley from the world of appearances to the world of forms.
The challenge was to visualise a form or an essence. Langer in her work on
formalism speaks of schein a state that ‘liberates perception and conception from
practical purpose and lets the mind dwell on the sheer appearance of things’.4 This
‘sheer appearance’ might be the essence of the thing revealed. Plato defined
elemental essences as fire, water, wind and earth. These translate into visual images
that allude to the irrefutable, unchangeable and constant. (Fig. 1) The somatic
essences animals, plants and human kind are more problematic to capture visually
as they are complex and varied operating within a systems of signs and meanings.
For example a blond male baby, a black horse. (Fig. 2).
A script was written based on the research which presented a visual representation
of Plato’s essences intercut with a dialogue between two characters, Stanley and
Stanley Too. These are named after Amercian philosopher Stanely Cavell though not
autobiographically however they do embody a Cavellian mode of expression. The
Stanleys’ dialogue is a transposition of Cavell’s chapter on the “Cameras Implication”
in the The World Viewed. (Fig. 3) Here the author ponders the presence and
implication of the camera concluding the camera is outside its subject, that ‘it must
acknowledge not its presence in the world but it being outside its world’. 5 This
concept informed the narrative overall however it was also Cavell’s manner of
expression that was employed through a visual representation. In the book, Cavell
uses pronouns ‘you’ and ‘I’ possibly referring to reader/author, camera/maker or
screen/audience. However this vagueness also engenders the sense of an internal
dialogue going on, a speaking to oneself.
In A mind’s eye6 I aimed to replicate Cavell’s language not through characters’
dialogue but through using two versions of the character Stanley and Stanley Too.
One is the form the other the copy. What they both possess is Stanley-ness; the
Joanna Callaghan, A mind’s eye, 35mm (2009; London; Heraclitus Pictures.) DVD
Suzanne Langer Feeling & Form (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1953), 47
Stanley Cavell The World Viewed (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1971) 130
6
Joanna Callaghan, A mind’s eye, 35mm (2009; London; Heraclitus Pictures.) DVD
3
4
5
2
essence shared, fragile and elusive like the words and turns of phrases used to
theorise and philosophise. As Stanley says “I am here, but do I exist?”7
The film is about a character, Stanley who thinks things into existence, meets his
reflection Stanley Too and discovers he is the copy not the original. They have a
dialogue in the tradition of Socrates and his pupils discussing the theory of
recollection, the allegory of the cave, and the Third Man argument. This is a dialogue
between the emotional and the intellectual, the mind and the spirit, the essence and
the copy. There are multiple, simultaneous, cross disciplinary, inter-cultural dialogues
of words, images, emotions and thoughts between and within the maker and viewer,
film and text, film and other films, text and other texts. At times the dialogue is visible
and aural reflected in the character’s interactions and words as Stanely Too says
“Inside of you is something invisible. This invisible thing is me”.8 The dialogue is also
internal and subconscious as when Stanley closes his eyes and sees images of fire,
water, a horse and a baby. The intercutting replicates a dialogue with images
between Stanley’s mind’s eye and the viewer’s mind’s eye. This dialogue (both words
and images) is essential in engendering the nature of Socratic debate with the edit
acting as a gear in moving the exchange forward. A mirror was adopted as a
metaphor for externalising the internal dialogue though the metaphor was also
dialogic in function. It was not a mirror but the symbol of a mirror. A picture frame was
used and the image composed to appear as if it was a mirror (Fig. 3). What was
reflected was not one man but two different men Stanley and Stanley Too, the twins
Oliver and James Phelps. This frame literalises our interpretation acting as a portal to
another world; the world of forms, the world of the film, the inner world. Standing on
the other side of this frame is Stanley the copy of the original Stanley Too. When the
camera moves to the other side of the mirror we become surrounded by Stanley and
his many copies (Fig. 4). What was a portal is now a mirror reflecting the world of
reality where things exist as copies of originals. This movement from mirror to frame
to portal and back to mirror takes place in the space that is the ‘here’ of the film as
Stanley Too explains in the following extract.9
Joanna Callaghan, A mind’s eye, 35mm (2009; London; Heraclitus Pictures.) DVD
Ibid, 3
9 Joanna Callaghan, A mind’s eye, 35mm (2009; London; Heraclitus Pictures.) DVD
7
8
3
STANLEY
Where does that baby boy exist?
STANLEY TOO
In here – inside the space that is being created
as we speak and as our image is being seen.
STANLEY
Our image?
STANLEY TOO
Certainly, we are not the same ‘things’.
We share something. You could call it Stanley-ness.
STANLEY
What’s that?
STANLEY TOO
It’s an ideal pure form of Stanley.
STANLEY
Like the best example of Stanley possible?
STANLEY TOO
It’s not an example,
it is the thing from which
everything else is an example.
It’s a singular thing…a one and only.
STANLEY
If it’s a one and only,
how can we both have it?
4
STANLEY TOO
I am it and you are partaking in it.
This dialogue personifies Plato’s ideas incorporating the refutation offered by
Aristotle’s Third Man argument. Through a playful delivery this complex thought is
rendered comprehensible by the image of twins speaking to each other as if they
were one man though they are two. The third man is the audience’s image of
Stanley in her ‘own mind’.
Outcomes and Reflection
The outcome was a 13 minute 35mm film which has been shown in cinemas, galleries,
museums and festivals and at academic conferences and research seminars. A
secondary outcome was a ‘making of’ documentary produced from the project
documentation, a useful tool for reflection and dissemination of practice and
pedagogy.
There is no doubt film can act as a conduit for philosophical ideas. The aim here was
to make explicit the philosophical ideas rather than implicit as may exist in any film
subject to analysis. The aim therefore depends somewhat on the philosophical ideas
themselves. Platonic notions are not popular in contemporary philosophy for countless
reasons including the subjectivity associated with the consideration of what an
essence comprises. This is indeed what arose in my own practice led research. For
Alain Badiou ‘cinema is a place of intrinsic indiscernibility between art and non art…
no film is controlled by artistic thinking from beginning to end, as it always bears
impure elements within it’.10 This is a painful truth for the filmmaker. One must
acquiesce to the inevitability of imperfection and the impossibility of perfection. Plato’s
ideal film does not exist. A film may have an essence but there is no essence of film.
Chemical construction, mechanical movement or projection are not ‘essences’. Nor
can film essence be found or explained through psycho analytics, film theory,
philosophy or linguistics. Film happens. The notion of ‘happening’ is synonymous with
10
Alain Badiou Infinite Thought: Truth and the Return to Philosophy. Eds. & Trans. Olivier Feltham and Justin Clements (New
York: Continuum Books, 2003) 84
5
the nature of practice led research. That is the highly individual contribution of the
practitioner and the practice (albeit part of the practitioner) to create new connections
between ideas and re-contextualise ideas in alternative contexts. In this sense
Ontological Narratives has been successful in the marriage of philosophical ideas and
a film practice that utilises celluloid and narrative elements. By aligning the research
questions closely with the methodology I was able to address these questions in
action and somewhat in the analysis stage. Philosophical concepts can be translated
into visual aesthetic products and narrative can play a role in developing a coherent
vision of these concepts. However the line between the translation and the ‘product’ is
a creative relation between the conceptual and the actual, fluid and sometimes
arbitrary. In this way transformation may be a better term to encapsulate the outcomes
of the research process though brings another set of issues to the research process
which will be explored in future projects.
Word count: 1567
With references: 2104
6
FIGURES (1-4)
Fig. 1. The elemental essence of fire
A mind’s eye, production still © Joanna Callaghan, 2009
7
Fig.2. The somatic essences
A mind’s eye, production still © Joanna Callaghan, 2009
8
Fig. 3. Stanley and Stanley Too
A mind’s eye, production still © Joanna Callaghan, 2009
9
Fig. 4 The many copies of Stanley
A mind’s eye, production still © Joanna Callaghan, 2009
10
References
Arts and Humanities Research Council (2007), ‘Guidance Notes for Practice led
research’, http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/FundingOpportunities/Pages/RGPracticeLedandApplied.aspx. Accessed 30.7.07
Badiou, Alain (2003) Infinite Thought: Truth and the Return to Philosophy, Eds. &
Trans. Olivier Feltham and Justin Clements, New York, Continuum Books
Baldwin, Anna and Hutton, Sarah, (1994) Platonism and the English imagination,
Cambridge, Cambridge University Press
Barrett, E. “Experiential learning in practice as research; context, method, knowledge”
Journal of Visual Art Practice 6, no.2 (2007): 115-124
Barrett, E. & Bolt, B. Practice as Research Approaches to Creative Arts Enquiry. New
York: I.B. Tauris & Co. Ltd, 2007
Bolt. B. “A Non Standard Deviation: Handlability, Praxical Knowledge and Practice-led
Research” Speculation and Innovation: Applying Practice led research In the Creative
Industries Conference RealTime Arts 74, 2006 http://www.speculation2005.net/
Callaghan, J. A mind’s eye, 35mm, 2009. London: Heraclitus Pictures,DVD
Callaghan, J. “Ontological Narratives” University of Bedfordshire, 2009
Cavell, Stanley (1971) The World Viewed, Cambridge, Harvard University Press
Cowan, J. On Becoming an Innovative University Teacher: Reflection in Action. London:
SRHE & Open University Press, 1998.
Frampton, D. Filmosophy. London: Wallflower, 2005.
11
Gray, C. & Malins, J. Visualising Research. Ashgate: Burlington, 2004
Healey, M. “Linking research and teaching exploring disciplinary spaces and the role of
inquiry-based learning” . In Reshaping the university: new relationships between
research, scholarship and teaching edited by Ronald Barnett, 30-42. Maidenhead: Open
University Press, 2005.
Krauth, N. (2002) 'The Preface as Exegesis', TEXT 6, No.1 (2002) Accessed August
30, 2009. http://www.textjournal.com.au/april02/krauth.htm.
Langer, S. Feeling & Form. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1953
Daniel Mafe and Andrew Brown, (2006), ‘Emergent Matters: Reflections on
Collaborative Practice-led research in the Creative Industries’, Speculation and
Innovation Conference, Queensland University of Technology, Australia,
http://eprints.qut.edu.au/6220/. Accessed 30.8.09
Pakes, A. (2004), ‘Art as Action or Art as Object? The Embodiment of Knowledge in
Practice as Research’, Working Papers in Art and Design, vol. 3,
http://www.herts.ac.uk/artdes1/research/papers/wpades/vol3/apfull.html. ISSN 14664917, Accessed: 8.9.08
Partington, A. ‘The Best Bits: non narrative pleasure and creative practice’ Journal of
Media Practice 9, No. 1 (2008) 9-19
Plato Timaeus & Critias. Translated by Desmond Lee. Middlesex: Penguin, 1965
Polyani, M. Personal Knowledge: Towards a post critical philosophy. London: Routledge
& Kegan Paul, 1958
Reilly, L. (2002), An Alternative Model of “Knowledge” for the Arts, Working Papers in
Art and Design, vol. 2,
http://www.herts.ac.uk/artdes1/research/papers/wpades/vol2/reillyfull.html, ISSN 14664917, Accessed 8.9.08
12
Schön, D. A. (1983), The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action,
New York: Basic Books
Scrivener, S. & Chapman, P. (2004), The Practical Implications of Applying a Theory of
Practice Based Research: A Case Study’, Working Papers in Art and Design, vol. 3.
http://www.herts.ac.uk/artdes1/research/papers/wpades/vol3/ssfull.html.
Scrivener, S. (2002), The Art Object Does Not Embody a Form of Knowledge, Working
Papers in Art and Design 2,
http://www.herts.ac.uk/artdes1/research/papers/wpades/vol2/scrivenerfull.html, ISSN
1466-4917, Accessed 8.9.08
Singer, Irving (Reality Transformed. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1998
13