Title: Its like waking, like I just woke up"
1Its like waking, like I just woke up"
- Consciousness, Cognitive Film Theory and Memento
(2000)
2(Radical) Cultural Constructivism...
- One must concede that the Western humanist
concept of the autonomous individual self is not
universal, eternally given, and valid for all
time and all places, but is a product of history
and culture - -Novelist and Literary Theorist David Lodge
-
- See also The General Legacy and Ethos of
so-called SLAB-Theorists (Saussure, Lacan,
Althusser, Barthes)
3...And Some of Its Problems
- Experimental research has shown that people who
have had little or no access to cinema or to any
other form of "individualised" Western culture
have attributed personalities, emotions and
agency to film characters shown to them (Hobbs et
al Berliner) - Complexity of consciousness and self vs. the
evolutionary recent development of language
(Damasio) - Evidence of human universals nearly all human
cultures and languages have concepts of "I",
"me", or "self", as distinct from everything else
(Brown)
4Outline
- The Main Argument Concerning The Singular Self
and Its Experience in Cinema Culture AND
Biology, Not Just Culture - Damasian Model of Consciousness
- Application to Cinema Damasio-Smith-Currie
- Consciousness and Ordinary Amnesia Films 3
Short Cases - The Levels of Consciousness in Memento (2000)
- Conclusions
5Damasio Three Levels of Consciousness (1)
- Proto-Consciousness
- gtgt gives rise to Proto-Self
- non-conscious,
body-mind-interface - gtgt is a necessary requirement for
- Core Consciousness
- gtgt gives rise to Core Self
- consciousness,
"self", agency, onwership - gtgt is a necessary requirement for
- Extended Consciousness
- gtgt gives rise to Autobiographical
Self - memories,
introspection, complex beliefs
6Damasio Three Levels of Consciousness (3)
7Damasio Three Levels of Consciousness (4)
- Rita Carter, Consciousness, p. 235
8Damasio Three Levels of Consciousness (2)
- Damasio, The Feeling..., p. 199
9Damasio on the Core Self
- You know that you are conscious, you feel that
you are in the act of knowing, because the subtle
imaged account that is now flowing in the stream
of your organism's thoughts exhibits the
knowledge that your proto-self has been changed
by an object that has just become salient in the
mind. You know you exist because the narrative
exhibits you as protagonist in the act of
knowing. You rise above the sea level of knowing,
transiently but incessantly, as a felt core self,
renewed again and again, thanks to anything that
comes from outside the brain into its sensory
machinery or anything that comes from the brain's
memory stores toward sensory, motor, or autonomic
recall. (The Feeling of What Happens, 171-2)
10External Features of the Core Consciousness
- wakefulness
- attentiveness to stimuli
- purposeful behaviour
- specific actions and emotions
- background emotions
11Outline
- The Main Argument Concerning The Singular Self
and Its Experience in Cinema Culture AND
Biology, Not Just Culture - Damasian Model of Consciousness
- Application to Cinema Damasio-Smith-Currie
- Consciousness and Ordinary Amnesia Films 3
Short Cases - The Levels of Consciousness in Memento (2000)
- Conclusions
12Smith Person Schema
- a discrete human body
- perceptual activity, including self-awareness
- intentional states, such as beliefs and desires
- emotions
- the ability to use and understand a natural
language - the capacity for self-impelled actions and
self-interpretation - the potential for traits, or persisting
attributes - an enabling framework, part of the material out
of which particular types of characterisation can
be constructed"
13Smith Damasio
- Damasian (Proto and) Core Consciousness
- a discrete human body
- perceptual activity, including self-awareness
- emotions
- the ability to use and understand a natural
language - the capacity for self-impelled actions and
self-interpretation - Damasian Extended Consciousness
- the potential for traits, or persisting
attributes - intentional states, such as beliefs and desires
14Currie Simulation Theory
- Currie "when we see someone in a situation and
attend to what is occurring, we take on the
beliefs and desires we imagine they must have.
Unlike our own beliefs and desires, however,
these are run "off-line. They are disconnected
from their normal perceptual inputs and
behavioural outputs" - Smith As with all schemata, the person schema
and the hierarchy of consciousness it contains
are subject to revision we may apply the person
schema to a brain-damaged individual, and be
forced to revise it on discovering that the
individual lacks certain capacities pre-supposed
by the schema.
15Outline
- The Main Argument Concerning The Singular Self
and Its Experience in Cinema Culture AND
Biology, Not Just Culture - Damasian Model of Consciousness
- Application to Cinema Damasio-Smith-Currie
- Consciousness and Ordinary Amnesia Films 3
Short Cases - The Levels of Consciousness in Memento (2000)
- Conclusions
16Three Ordinary Amnesia Films
- Desperately Seeking Susan (1985)
- Ziyu Fengbao / Purple Storm (1999)
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
- different cultures, two decades in time,
different genres, from superstar mainstream and
action thriller to cross-over / art house.
17Desperately Seeking Susan (1985)
18Ziyu Fengbao / Purple Storm (1999)
19Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
20All Three Films
- The unity of the core self remains intact.
- Could be explained with approximate conventions
of representation seem, however, to be
ultimately grounded in an insurmountable
biological basis of the core self - The Core Self helps and smoothes out the
comprehension of the anomalous characters of
these narratives. - Personal histories and identities are constantly
lost, regained, readjusted, rejected, used and
abused - This status is crystallised in the recurring,
off-hand, synecdocheic representation of
autobiographies as dossiers, boxes, files or bin
bags of clues - A sustained Lacuna treatment would lead to a
spotless mind not far removed from a transient,
but incessantly recreated core self and an
extremely short term memory. - the brain damage in Memento, which acts
precisely like a continuous, inbuilt Lacuna
procedure.
21Outline
- The Main Argument Concerning The Singular Self
and Its Experience in Cinema Culture AND
Biology, Not Just Culture - Damasian Model of Consciousness
- Application to Cinema Damasio-Smith-Currie
- Consciousness and Ordinary Amnesia Films 3
Short Cases - The Levels of Consciousness in Memento (2000)
- Conclusions
22Leonard Shelbys Condition in Memento (2000)
- Leonard, like David, cannot form new memories
anteriograde memory loss - his autobiographical self extends to his wife's
death, but no further - since that incident he seems to have been living
in roughly 10 minute slots of short term memory - Despite his handicap, Leonard tries to find his
wife's killers, and becomes entangled in
suspicious and exploitative relationships.
23Amnesia and Cinematic Devices in Memento (2000)
(1)
- Christopher Nolan "making the audience think
like Leo", "putting the audience in this man's
head" and "in his mindset drawing "the audience
into Leonard's consciousness" - the inner monologue or voice-over that has no
room tone - the self-observation and self-questioning
character of the voice-over - predominantly subjective camera (according to
Nolan there are only two shots in the film which
happen outside Leonard's perimeter of
consciousness) - closed, almost claustrophobic sets
- recurrent motifs, such as the multiple
awakenings. AND - NON-LINEAR NARRATIVE gtgtgt
24Amnesia and Cinematic Devices in Memento (2000)
(2)
- Non-Linear Narrative
- restricted almost exclusively to Leonards POV
- black-and-white goes forward
- colour goes backwards
- unveils situations strange, unfamiliar, virginal
both to Leonard and the audience - disrupts / obstructs character construction
- induces confusion
25The Two-Fold Significance of Memento1. The
Persistence of Self
- No Clear Identity
- No Clear Past
- Yet There still is a self in search of an
autobiography - A unified entity with an ownership and agency
distinct from the environment, which is - Automatically attuned and related to its
surroundings via its body. - Leonard's monologue "You kinda know who you
are" "I can feel the world" "How am I supposed
to heal, if I can't feel time?" "So, what am I
doing..." "Its like waking, like I just woke
up" "Awake. Where am I?".
26The Two-Fold Significance of Memento 2.
Character Simulation by the Audience
- Normal Person Schema gtgtgt unfulfilled gtgtgt
- Only Core Self inferred for Leonard gtgtgt
- Offline simulation of Core Self only
- Augmented by the non-linear, first person
narrative gtgtgt - A simulated sense of Core Self without the
(usual) Autobiographical Self perhaps a genuine
sense of confusion - Yet the sense of unitary, singular self remains
(both for Leonard and the spectator)
271600 User Comments (IMDB)
- "The film is constructed and told in such a way
that you are constantly put into the shoes of
Leonard Shelby, beautifully played by Guy
Pierce. - "So, go and see it be confused, acknowledge the
frailty of all you know to be true, and then
imagine the freedom of actually being Lenny, and
then the horror of having nothing, nothing but
the reliance of a pen and a Polaroid camera to
know who you are. - "But you might get frustrated because you don't
know what's going on. That's normal. In fact,
that's the whole idea.... find out just how
twisted and complex Leonard's world is. This film
will leave its own memento on your mind, and
you'll have a hard time forgetting how much you
enjoyed it. - ""Memento" wins this year's prize for inducing
the most audience participation. Not only is the
film thought-provoking and unusually absorbing,
but it also places us in the main character's
shoes. How can we be in the same mental status
with the main character when he cannot remember
anything? - It forces you to think in the same way that our
lead character, Leonard Shelby... our perceptions
are shattered in the same way." - "I loved this movie because it made me feel as if
I had a short-term memory deficit."
28Outline
- The Main Argument Concerning The Singular Self
and Its Experience in Cinema Culture AND
Biology, Not Just Culture - Damasian Model of Consciousness
- Application to Cinema Damasio-Smith-Currie
- Consciousness and Ordinary Amnesia Films 3
Short Cases - The Levels of Consciousness in Memento (2000)
- Conclusions
29Summary and Conclusions (1)
- Damasio
- the universal architecture of consciousness
- unitary, singular self can be created and
maintained without memory (and culture?) - Theory of Mind mentalising, simulating other
peoples thoughts - Currie offline simulation in cinema
- Smith
- architecture of offline simulation and character
engagement - person schema and its refinement with Damasian
levels - Application of Damasian concepts to 3 amnesia
films - singular core self a strong representational
convention - autobiographical self malleable and adjustable
(bag of clues)
30Summary and Conclusions (2)
- Memento
- the depiction of anteriograde memory loss
- a striking way of representing the core
consciousness only - non-linear, first person narrative helps audience
to simulate the core consciousness - singular, unified self remains, even without (a
proper) autobiography - General Conclusions and Prospects
- A more systematic inquiry into memory loss films
- How they represent the different Damasian layers
of consciousness - How much can be explained with Damasian terms
- Biological architecture of consciousness provides
the fundamental explanation for universal appeal
of individual selves in the narrative arts - Biological architecture of consciousness does NOT
exhaust particular questions about the self,
identity and personal histories in cinema the
domain of the moderate constructivism and
cultural history
31Thank You!
- Harri Kilpi FL
- Researcher, Associate Tutor
- School of Film and Television Studies,
- University of Helsinki
- E-mail harri.kilpi_at_helsinki.fi
- Tel 35850 523 8969
- Web http//www.helsinki.fi/hkilpi