Where is the mind of the media editor? An analysis of editors as intermediaries between technology and the cinematic experience

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Author
de Selincourt, Chris
Date
2016Type
Thesis
Publisher
Cardiff Metropolitan University
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Show full item recordAbstract
What space does the mind occupy? A standard response to this question might
be to locate the mind within the brain. However some argue that our mental
processes also extend beyond the boundaries of the brain. Gallagher & Zahavi
(2008) have termed these two views of the mind: internalism and externalism.
In cinema, the role of editor as mediator between the cognitive activities of
filmmakers, audiences and the editing equipment, makes their practice particularly
suited for investigating these two seemingly incompatible views. When
editors cut or join chunks of sound and image, they assemble externally what
some would recognise internally as the mind’s fluctuations between one object
of attention and the next. Their activities reveal a side of cinema, but also of
the mind, which is usually hidden from view. The purpose of this thesis will
therefore be to show how studying the process of editing contributes to our understanding
of the relationship between mind and world.
In order to address the question of where the editor’s mental processes are located,
this study applies a phenomenographic methodology. Rather than attempt
to understand cognition from a preconceived or objectively constituted
position, phenomenography starts by examining variation in how a group of
individuals view a particular process. This leads toward research findings that
are presented from a ‘second-order perspective’ (Marton, 1981). In this thesis
an understanding of how audiovisual material is selected and sequenced is revealed
through fourteen interviews with British editors and directors. From the
analysis of these interviews a framework emerged of five critical interrelated
ways to approach the editing process. This evidence suggests that the cognitive
process occurs in virtue of an editor’s physical activities, the editing equipment,
plus a broader network of social and cultural relations that support the
filmmaking environment. Refuting the belief that the mind is separate from the
world, the editor’s mental processes are to be found distributed amongst a variety
of internal and external features of their environment.
The outcome of this thesis is a phenomenographic perspective on the editing
process. This, I conclude, will help to inform cognitive scientists of the kinds of
mental processes that editors are aware of. It also provides a wider audience of
scholars with a framework for further research on variation in the process and
practice of editing.
Description
PhD Thesis - School of Art and Design
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