Film in the Anthropocene (Philosophy, Ecology, and Cybernetics)

This book provides an interdisciplinary analysis of film in the context of the Anthropocene: the new geological era in which human beings have collectively become a force of nature. Daniel White draws on perspectives in philosophy, ecology, and cybernetics (the science of communication and control in animals and machines) to explore human self-understanding through film in the new era. The classical figure of Janus, looking both to the future and the past, serves as a guide throughout the study. Both feature and documentary films are considered. Front Matter ....Pages i-xiv Introduction: Stepping into the Play Frame—Cinema as Mammalian Communication (Daniel White)....Pages 1-14 Janus’s Celluloid and Digital Faces: The Existential Cyborg—Autopoiēsis in Christopher Nolan’s Memento (Daniel White)....Pages 15-55 Documentary Intertext: Robert Gardner’s Dead Birds 1964 (Daniel White)....Pages 57-77 Cinema’s Historical Incarnations: Traveling the Möbius Strip of Biotime in Cloud Atlas (Daniel White)....Pages 79-140 Documentary Intertext: John Marshall, The Hunters 1957 (Daniel White)....Pages 141-179 Janus East and West: Multicultural Polyvocality—Trinh Minh-ha’s The Fourth Dimension and The Digital Film Event (Daniel White)....Pages 181-209 Documentary Intertext: Trance and Dance in Bali 1951 (Daniel White)....Pages 211-248 Janus’s Interspecies Faces: Biomorphic Transformations in the Ecology of Mind in James Cameron’s Avatar (Daniel White)....Pages 249-286 Documentary Intertext: André Singer’s and J. Stephen Lansing’s The Goddess and the Computer 1988 (Daniel White)....Pages 287-308 Conclusion: Toward a Transdisciplinary Critical Theory of Film (Daniel White)....Pages 309-330 Back Matter ....Pages 331-341 This text provides an interdisciplinary analysis of film in the context of the Anthropocene: the new geological era in which human beings have collectively become a force of nature. Daniel White draws on perspectives in philosophy, ecology and cybernetics (the science of communication and control in animals and machines) to explore human self-understanding through film in the new era. The classical figure of Janus, looking both to the future and the past, serves as a guide throughout the study. Both feature and documentary films are considered