[Last modified: November, 26 2024 02:08 PM]
How might an anthropology of the body (particularly within the cinematic context of the communal viewing of ‘body horror’ films) be enriched by a productive and collaborative framework such as one hypothesised by multimodal anthropology? I believe it could be a generative approach, as my research ultimately focuses on affective sensory feelings that occur beyond the realm of verbal discourse.
Perhaps research can be directed by allowing participants to modulate the environments in which these movies are viewed. How does the cinematic experience differ when the lights are on? When the sound is lowered? When bodies aren’t separated through the confines of a seat, when they touch? When cinema seats are set up in a semi-circle for the purpose of movie-viewing, rather than in a straight line, directing our eyes away from one another? A focus on encouraging active choice in the construction of the movie-going environment may illuminate certain factors which are otherwise obscured when people are forced to assimilate to a conventional ‘cinema’ space.
To study the sensorial aspects of film-viewing, it could also be an interesting approach to encourage participants to literally inscribe on their bodies what was felt, and where. Providing artistic materials like paints and inks in all colours before the film, and encouraging people to use them on their bodies to capture the ephemeral sensations provoked by the movie, could be a means of co-producing a visual representation of non-discursive experiences.
Beyond the primary, immediate experience of viewing, how does the consumption of body horror movies generate productive ideas of possibility, in terms of creation and invention? If viewers were encouraged to make or conceive of a short film about ‘body horror’ – what would they highlight? What emerges as a site of unease for them, how was this inspired by the original film, or by their everyday lives? How does it feel to (fictionally) inflict or withstand violence, how are understandings of the body and self affected when one is covered in (fake) blood? How is an active approach to the horror of the body felt?
All of these approaches could be starting points for the co-production of knowledge, and for the representation of knowledge and practise that is outside the realm of traditional anthropology. Whilst conducting the research, it would be important to ‘go with the flow’ – to not become stuck within what I want to achieve but also to allow participants to direct the flow of research. What I have instead tried to do is generate affective questions, that can be answered in a multitude of ways, (ideally) provoking more questions.