(Re)Presenting Animal Experience

This thesis investigates what the cinematic narrative as an artistic practice can contribute to the general theoretical proposal of human-animal intersubjectivity—usually a philosophical and scientific topic—and explores how it is possible for such artistic practices to transcend anthropomorphism and arrive at a zoomorphic conception of the world.Drawing on previous studies in phenomenology,cognitive sciences,animal studies,narratology,and film philosophy,the thesis addresses cinematic narratives of nonhuman animals in a philosophical approach and offers a re-evaluation of cinematic medium and technologies so as to reveal the zoomorphic nature of the cinematic.Other than focusing on the thematic content and the authorial intentions of the films,the study engages primarily with film-experiences,the auditorial or receptive ends during film viewing.Examined through phenomenological point of view,the cinematic is conceived as a representational device that re-presents what is presented to the camera and,through projection,is perceived by audiences as presentation.Endorsing the ecological or enactive cognitive understanding of consciousness and world,the thesis argues in favor of a biological and semiotic continuum between human beings and other nonhuman animals.Hence,it is crucial to look into nonhuman animals'experiential world/Umwelt in order to explore human-animal intersubjectivity.Through its photographicity—the mechanic objectivity—and its quasi-subjectivity as a Bazinian realistic artwork,film's inherent zoomorphic features make it a perfect medium to explore nonhuman animals' Umwelten.After explicating the importance of experientiality in understanding human-animal intersubjectivity and film's vantage points for exploring nonhuman animals' Umwelten,the thesis addresses three specific issues concerning such explorations:empathy and sharing as spectator-animal relations,disorientation,defamiliarization and ethic obligation in close-ups of animals,and the epistemological expansion through cinematic technologies.Empathy and sharing as two dominant types of spectator engagement with narrative characters are compared and given close analyses through the particular narrative situations imposed by the point-of-view(POV)shot.The thesis contends that via POV shots,audiences are able to share,not only empathize with,certain nonhuman experiences—manipulated through the zoomorphic film-body—which open up possibilities to transcend their human experiential limits.In comparison,close-ups provide audiences with the experience of being lost and defamiliarize their encounters with nonhuman animals,thus helping the audiences to re-learn,in an existential sense,what nonhuman animals and human beings really are.The face-to-face close-up,a particular situation of such expressive device,calls for spectatorial ethical engagement as a result of the transcendental demand inherent in our intersubjective relations with nonhuman beings.Lastly,an investigation into certain cinematic technologies(especially high-tech cinematographic devices such as slow-motion cinematography,micro-cinematography,and time-lapse cinematography)reveals that the cinematic narrative is capable of expanding the audience's(anthropomorphic)perceptual and sensorimotor limits,and hence enables the audience to feel into the nonhuman animals and explore their Umwelten.