Spectatorship : Apparatus Theory PDF

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Key texts for cinematic apparatus theory...

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Key texts: •Christian Metz, The Imaginary Signifier: Psychoanalysis and the Signifier •Jean-Louis Baudry, ‘Ideological Effects of the Basic Cinematographic Apparatus’ and ‘The Apparatus: Metapsychological Approaches to the Impression of Reality in Cinema’ in Narrative, Apparatus, Ideology edited by Philip Rosen

- Ideology not considered here something that falsifies reality, creating a false consciences among those that believes in its claims. - Ideological systems like advertising or cinema, address us in a specific way, terminologies, perspectives, that we respond to as individuals and identify to the way an ideological system addresses us.

The Cinematic Apparatus •Technological equipment •Camera/projector/screen

•Spatial, perceptual, architectural conditions Darkened auditorium Projector positioned behind spectators Fixed rows of seating: an immobile spectator A screen which frames the image ^standardised arrangment

-cinema can be described as a ‘psychic apparatus’

•“the darkness of the movie theatre, the relative passivity of the situation, the forced immobility of the cine-subject and the effects which result from the projection of moving images…brings about a state of artificial regression.”

- Baudry, ‘The Apparatus’ in Narrative, Apparatus, Ideology, p313

- Our bodies aren't moving but our perception is hyper-mobile, continually changing viewpoints, can go anywhere. -“ …t ope r c e i v eawo r l do n s c r e e na ta l l , wemu s ti de nt i f ywi t ht h ec a me r a , i t sp oi nto fv i e wi nt ha t wor l d ,a ndi t st e c h no l o g i c a lp r o c e s s e sofr e c or di n gi t sp e r c e p t i on . ”[ Re i c ha ndRi c h mo nd , I nt r od uc t i on :Ci n e ma t i cI de nt i fic a t i o ns

•Ba u d r y ’ sa r g u me n tt h a t t h es p e c t a t o r sr e l a t i o n s h i pt ov i e wo fc a me r ai ss op o we r f u lt h a twe c o met obe l i e v ewea r ee n g a g e dwi t hd i r e c tp e r c e p t i o no fwo r l d, r a t h e rt h a nh y p e r r e a l c r e a t e df o ru s-i l l u s i o no fr e a l i t y -Al la b o u tv i s u a lp e r c e p t i o n , n ome a n sb ywh i c ht oa c tonwh a twe ’ r es e e i n g , c a n n o ta c t wi t h i nt h ewo r dwea r es e e i n g . -Ob s e r v a t i o n, v i s ua lp e r c e p t i onwi t h o u ta n yo b l i g a t i ont oa c to nwh a twes e e -Re gr e s s i v es t a t eo fc i n e mas p e c t a t o r s h i p ,

Definition; ‘the technical equipment or machinery needed for a particular activity or purpose’ a technical system

Ci ne maa p p a r a t u sc a ni n d u c ec e r t a i np l e a s u r e si na u d i e n c e ss u c ha sv o u y e r i s m

Pe e p h o l emo v i ec l i p; - Pr i ma r yi d e n t i fic a t i onwo u l db ec a me r aa si ts h o wsu st h ema nwa t c hi n gawoma n

- Secondary identification would be the person who is watching the woman. - They prompt our desires from ways that are different in real life as it is controlled by the camera, we have a disembodied view on the practice of spying, if we were really at the scene he wouldn't be spying, we are spying on the spier. Pleasure derived from viewing, cinema is aware of this, prospect of looking gives risk of getting caught, cinema takes away this risk giving pleasurable experience. - The version of reality you are given is the way things actually are Viewing is active, but you are subjective to the ideology of what you are spectating, therefore becoming a passive subject of the ideologies encoded into the movie...