[ecrea] CFC - Documentary and Cognitive Theory

*_Call for Chapters Proposals_*

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/Documentary and Cognitive Theory/

Editors: Catalin Brylla and Mette Kramer

There has been very little convergence between documentary film studies
and cognitive film theory. Documentary scholars deem cognitive models
too limited in that they only address the hardwired attributes of
audience reception, thus hypothesising a universal body of spectators
and dismissing social, cultural and historical contexts of authorship
and spectatorship (Smaill 2010, p.8). However, the new wave of cognitive
film theory has moved from purely cognitive concerns towards the study
of emotional engagement, taking into account the social, the cultural
and the individual (Barratt and Frome, 2006). Thus, cognitive models can
explore not only narrative-driven and expository documentaries, but also
“newer”, more personalised formats, such as autobiographical and
participatory documentaries, as well as essay films. Furthermore, the
flexible and grounded nature of cognitive theory has resulted in a
progression from the original, neo-formalist, computational and
narrative-constructivist models (as identified by Sweeney 1994, Groves
2006, Elsaesser and Hagener 2010) towards open-source approaches,
adopting (and being adopted /by/) disciplines, such as perceptual
psychology, neuroscience, anthropology, sociology, phenomenology and
aesthetics. As a result, cognitive film theory has evolved to account
for spectatorship and authorship on many different levels, the
interaction of which is crucial for a documentary analysis that is less
concerned with questions of realism and differences between fiction and
non-fiction, but rather aims to examine 1) how narrative devices and
textual indices can reveal the filmmaker’s assertiveness in
(potentially) shaping the viewer’s point-of-view (e.g. Carroll 1996,
Plantinga 1997) and 2) how the viewer experientially receives the
documentary text through particular formal attributes (e.g. Eitzen 1995,
Smith 2007).

Unfortunately, cognitive film scholars have largely focussed on the
analysis of fiction film, which may have two causes: Firstly, cognitive
film theory was established in the 1990s, arguably as an antithesis to
the post-structuralist Marxist-psychoanalytic-semiological /Screen/
tradition (see Bordwell and Carroll 1996, Tan 1996, Plantinga and Smith
1999). Given that the “/Screen/ scholars” focussed mainly on fiction, it
was a logical step for cognitivists to use fiction, too. Secondly,
fiction films have been more popular with a mainstream audience, and
since one of the cognitivists’ aims is to examine the popularity of
mainstream media through the analysis of prototypical narratives in
order to understand our most common movie experience (Shiamura 2013,
p.4), the focus on documentary has not appeared to be a priority.

This volume aims to expand on the ideas of the few cognitive theorists
who have delved into documentary film analysis, but also to offer new
perspectives that are inter-disciplinary, cater for new documentary
forms, and involve practice-led research. As the study of documentary
provides a vehicle for the inclusion of different disciplines that may
at first glance seem incongruent with cognitive paradigms, we invite
contributors from ANY academic field working on the intersection of
audio-visual documentary and cognitive theory.

The volume will have a foreword by Carl Plantinga, a substantive
introduction, and approximately eighteen chapters of 5,000-7,000 words.
Contributors who have already expressed interest include Ib Bondebjerg,
John Corner, Dirk Eitzen and Karen Pearlman. Chapters may take the form
of case studies, either to demonstrate the relative value of
programmatic approaches or to contest the validity of a specific mode of
cognitive analysis. The following topics are a guideline to potential
chapter proposals and are not meant to exclude other interpretations of
the book’s title /Documentary and Cognitive Theory/:

·formulating general cognitive paradigms for the analysis of non-fiction
film

·traditional and non-traditional documentary forms (e.g. animated
documentary)

·narrative, character and emotion in drama docs or docudramas

·content production, consumption and interaction through video-sharing
websites (e.g. YouTube)

·authorship and spectatorship of interactive narratives

·intersections of cognitive theory with other disciplines, such as
psychoanalysis, feminist theory, anthropology, phenomenology etc.

·social and cultural framing of documentary audiences

·social cognition, representation and authorship

·cognitive methods in non-fiction filmmaking or practice-led research

·convergence between documentary and avant-garde films

·ethics and cognition in documentary

·issues of cross or single-platform commissioning, production,
programming and distribution

·cognition as embodied, enacted, mediated or situated in documentary
practice or theory

·cognitive theory and material culture in the production and/or
reception of documentary

·distributed cognition and intersubjective mediation

·cognitive methods in the pedagogy of documentary practice and theory

If you are interested in contributing a chapter to this volume, please
send a chapter title, a 500-word abstract, a bibliography and a short
biography to Catalin Brylla ((catalin.brylla /at/ uwl.ac.uk)
<mailto:(catalin.brylla /at/ uwl.ac.uk)>) and Dr. Mette Kramer
((mettekramer /at/ mail.dk) <mailto:(mettekramer /at/ mail.dk)>) by October 20^th
2015. We look forward to receiving your chapter proposal, and should you
have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact us.

**

*----------------*

**

*Catalin Brylla*

Senior Lecturer in Film

London School of Film, Media and Design

University of West London

St Mary’s Road

London W5 5RF

Tel: +44 (0)2082312033

Email: (catalin.brylla /at/ uwl.ac.uk)

/
www.catalinbrylla.com <http://www.catalinbrylla.com/>/

/https://vimeo.com/user1419679/

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