[ISEA2014] Paper: Terry Flaxton – Making Sense of theory in an age that supersedes the theoretic

Abstract

My research concerns the expanding parameters of the moving image as it develops from the two‑dimensional limitations of photochemical film into the less encumbered forms enabled by digital cinematography – which now involve space as well as time. Through experiments with combinations of higher dynamic range, higher frame rates and higher resolutions, I now realize that though it is important to chart the effect of these developmental increases, it is more important to examine our physical and cognitive structure as technical advances now imitate the parameters of the eye/brain complex: so we ourselves are now the study. In many arts and humanities subjects there has been a headlong rush to utilize the tools of neuroscientists to prove the nature of the human condition as FMRI scanners look into the brain to validate each new hypothesis. But cognitive‑neuroscience has its own biological, philosophical and ideological limitations. Into the arena steps both complexity theory and information theory to reveal a way of thinking that releases the cognitive neuro‑scientific blockage. In this paper I will speak about human knowledge as is formulating through the developing synthesis of emerging   theories and discuss how we might understand the paradigm change that is upon us.

  • Terry Flaxton, University of the West of England, UK