Enactive Authorship
Second-Order Simulation of the Viewer Experience—A Neurocinematic Approach
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Abstract
The neurocinematic inquiry is extended in this article to the sparsely studied topic of the filmmaker (author) as an embodied agent. Departing from my concept of second-order authorship, and inspired by the second-person framework of intersubjectivity discussed by Michael Pauen and Vittorio Gallese, I propose a model in which the author simulates the viewer (experient) who further simulates the experience of the protagonist in the film. This chain of relations is described as enactive second-order simulation of the viewer experience. While the author does not have a direct key to influence the experient, there is a relation mediated by the protagonist's situatedness in the film's narrative context. I further trust the core assumption of the neurocinematic approach—namely, that film as a narrative medium provides a means to imitate contexts of life that condition the enactive simulation of both the author and the experient.
Contributor Notes
Pia Tikka is a filmmaker and EU Mobilitas Research Professor at the Baltic Film, Media and Arts School, Tallinn University. She holds the honorary title of Adjunct Professor of New Narrative Media at the University of Lapland. She is the founder and principal investigator of NeuroCine research group. As a filmmaker, she has directed two full-length feature films, several interactive new media works, the enactive cinema installation Obsession (2005), and the enactive VR experience The State of Darkness (2018). She is the author of Enactive Cinema: Simulatorium Eisensteinense (2008). Currently, she heads her Enactive Virtuality Lab associated with the Centre of Excellence in Media Innovation and Digital Culture, Tallinn University.