Could the way that I view the world be completely different to the way you do? Maybe we can view colour and light differently to others, and clearly some of us taste particular food differently to others, I personally hate even the slightest bit of spice, and yet other people are willing to try extremely hot peppers for fun. The idea that the german biologist Jakob von Uexküll titles “umwelt” is the “biological foundations that lie at the very epicenter of the study of both communication and signification in the human [and non-human] animal”. Perhaps if we were to view the world through the eyes of a lion, or an insect, the data our brains recieve could be a language or a code that we simply can’t make any sense of.
Skimming though Darrins Week 7 reading, I noticed he made an interesting point about the fact that in film, we accept that we are viewing from the perspective that we are given. For example, in film if where the camera was following after a little girl with the sound effects of someone panting, we would assume the role of a killer (or a creep). The suspension of disbelief is a concept that facinates me, because humans put aside the fact that something might not make any sense, it order to enjoy what they’re viewing.
- We no longer perceive our bodies; 2. We no longer perceive our environment; 3. We no longer judge probability or reality-test; 4. We respond emotionally to the fiction as though it were real.”
People can be completely immersed in a piece of media that just features subject matter that simply isn’t possible, like the chidren in Charlie in the Chocolate Factory, bloated from a lollie and floating towards the ceiling. Instead of being totally disenchated with the film at that moment, audience members were more likely to just enjoy what they were seeing.
“Neurobiologically, the suppression of the posterior superior parietal lobe occurs during the suspension of disbelief in a cinema (Holland, 2003)”
Throughout the remainder of the Mechanics of Immersion course, I would like to play with the suspension of disbelief, making media that features something impossible but instead of deterring the audience, actually intices the viewer to want to see or hear more.
