The affect of deep sleep within duration: temporality, narrativity, and interactivity within the affective medium of interactive cinema

Barker, T. (2006) The affect of deep sleep within duration: temporality, narrativity, and interactivity within the affective medium of interactive cinema. In: Art Association of Australia and New Zealand Conference, Melbourne, Australia, 7-9 Dec 2006,

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Abstract

<p>Through an investigation of Dennis Del Favero’s interactive work Deep Sleep, this paper resuscitates Whiteheadian process philosophy and intersects it with Deleuzian temporal theory in order to arrive at an aesthetic of the temporal within new media art. Previously, questions of temporality have largely gone unaddressed within new media theory as the researchers within the field have followed either an aesthetic philosophy which flattens questions of time into questions of space, or a theory of the digital which privileges database over narrative, Lev Manovich being representative. This type of theorizing stresses atemporal zones as immobile sections of eternal presents, a methodology which is ill-equipped to deal with the necessarily fibrous nature of duration within the digital encounter. This paper seeks to move beyond these spatial tropes by re-thinking Del Favero’s work as existing within a highly differentiated affective temporal realm, in such a way that prompts morphological becomings through both its narrativity and the interrelations formed between the user and the machine. As such, this paper returns a Deleuze inspired theory which privileges notions of affect through the multitemporal duration of immersive interactive new medias.</p> <p>Del Favero’s work calls for both cognitive and non-cognitive responses, thus, in theorizing interaction, one cannot substantialize the viewer as merely an extended cognitive system. This paper therefore provides a means to re-think the user, within interaction, through citing Deleuze’s conception of psycho-mechanics and spiritual automaton, as outlined in the Cinema books, as an assemblage of discontinuities. Thus, interaction is analysed as a process which challenges voluntary control and gives precedence to affect, as involuntary actions, the memory of which are stored up in the body as habit.</p>

Item Type:Conference Proceedings
Status:Published
Refereed:Yes
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Barker, Professor Timothy
Authors: Barker, T.
Subjects:N Fine Arts > N Visual arts (General) For photography, see TR
College/School:College of Arts & Humanities > School of Culture and Creative Arts > Theatre Film and TV Studies

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