Observational cinema and embodied vision

Abstract

The aim of this study is to discuss the notion of embodiment in respect of Merleau Ponty's philosophy of phenomenology and its relation to observational cinema. For this aim, this thesis dwells on the embodied nature of perception of seeing and its relation to epistemological approaches that understand the process of thinking and knowing either based on dualisms of body and mind, subject and object or interdependency of them. It is argued that phenomenological understanding of bodily experience provides a basis for the constitution of knowledge without a separation of thought and sensuous experience, self and other. Thus, when the cinema is considered as a way of thinking through images or producing knowledge via images, phenomenological perspectives allows us to understand filmmaking, film viewing and film experience in general considering embodied recprocity between images of 􀁒􀁗􀁋􀁈􀁕􀂶􀁖􀀃􀁅􀁒􀁇􀁌􀁈􀁖􀀃and our own bodily experience in the world. Since the underlying idea is that language and body involve in each other within experience as being in the world and the body as the house of the language is the structuring structure of it by preceding it.