Integral Cinematic Analysis
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This document presents an integral model for analyzing cinema that maps its multiple dimensions. It discusses 4 analytical domains for examining 1) the cinematic experience, 2) cinematic form, 3) the language of cinema, and 4) cinema's social milieu. It proposes several integral approaches: integral methodological pluralism, all-quadrant-all-level analysis, aperspectival-altitudinal analysis, and complexity theory. These lenses integrate multiple perspectives to provide a holistic understanding of cinema and its co-evolution with consciousness, culture, and society.
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Integral Cinematic Analysis
- 1. Integral Cinematic Analysis Mapping the Multiple Dimensions of the Cinema and the Co-Evolution of Cinema, Consciousness, Culture, and Society Mark Allan Kaplan, Ph.D. Winner of the Complex Thought Engagement Award Integral Theory Conference 2013
- 2. Presentation Overview Putting it all Together into a Model for Integral Cinematic Analysis Integrally-Informed Integrally-Informed Approaches for Cinematic Analysis An Integral Mapping of Major Film and Media Theoretical Approaches
- 3. Defining Cinematic Analysis The Study of the Moving (Kinetic) Image in all its Evolving Forms • Movies, Television, Home Video, Video Games, Online Video, Mobile Video, Digital Cinema.
- 4. AN INTEGRAL MAPPING OF MAJOR FILM AND MEDIA ANALYTICAL APPROACHES Historical, Theoretical, and Critical Approaches
- 5. Mapping the Four Analytical Domains of Cinematic Media
- 6. The Cinematic Experience Analyses of the 1st- Person domain of the cinematic experience of both creators and viewers • Phenomenological, Psychoanalytical, Cognitive, Auteur, and Reception Theory From Clockwork Orange (1971)
- 7. The Cinematic Form Examinations of the 3rd-Person dimensions of the material forms and properties of the medium and their effects • Formalist and Realist Russian Filmmaker/Theorist Sergei Eisenstein
- 8. The Language of Cinema From Psycho (1960) Explorations of the 2nd- Person realm of the language or communicative aspects of individual and collective cinematic works • Hermeneutic, Semiotic, Structuralist, and Genre Studies
- 9. The Milieu of Cinema From All Quiet on the Western Front (1929) Considerations of the 3rd- Person Plural aspects of the social and environmental milieu or contexts of individual and collective cinematic works and the medium itself • Ideological, Apparatus, Feminist, Marxist, and Social Penetration Theory
- 10. Mapping the Inside and Outside of the Four Analytical Domains of Cinematic Media
- 11. The Eight Analytical Zones of Cinematic Media QUADRANTS ZONES INSIDE/OUTSIDE ANALYTICAL APPROACHES Upper Left (UL) Quadrant Subjective/ 1st Person Zone 1 UL/Inside Phenomenological; Phenomenological Aesthetics Zone 2 UL/Outside Psychoanalytical; Cognitive; Auteur; Reception Theory Lower Left (LL) Quadrant Intersubjective/ 2nd Person Zone 3 LL/Inside Hermeneutic; Philosophy of Language Zone 4 LL/Outside Semiotic; Structuralist; Genre Studies; Cultural Studies Upper Right (UR) Quadrant Objective/ 3rd Person Zone 5 UR/Inside Formalist; Filmic Expression Zone 6 UR/Outside Realist; Neo-Realist Lower Right (LR) Quadrant Interobjective/ 3rd Person Plural Zone 7 LR/Inside Ideological; Feminist; Marxist; Social Penetration Zone 8 LR/Outside Apparatus; Screen Theory; Intermediality; Media Archeology
- 12. INTEGRALLY-INFORMED APPROACHES FOR CINEMATIC ANALYSIS Gebser, Morin, and Wilber
- 13. Integral Cinematic Analytical Approaches Integral Methodological Pluralism (IMP) Approach All-Quadrant-All-Level (AQAL) Approach Aperspectival-Altitudinal Approach Complexity Approach
- 14. Integral Methodological Pluralism (IMP) Analytical Approach Integrating the Major Analytical Domains into a Tetra-Analytical Meta-Approach
- 15. All-Quadrant-All-Level (AQAL) Analytical Approach Subject/ Object of Analysis Holonic Lens Quadratic Lens Developmental Lens States Lens Typology Lens Zonal Lens
- 19. The States Lens • Cinematic Temporal States (Slow Motion, Fast Motion, etc.) • Editorial Rhythm States (Montage, Jump Cuts, etc.) • Auditory States (Harmony, Dissonance, Silence, etc.) • Musical Arousal States (Love, Fear, Danger, etc.) • Visual Expression States (Contrast/Affinity, etc.) • Visual Object States (Object Movement, etc.) • Camera States (Camera Movement, etc.) • Character Emotional States (Joy, Sadness, etc.) • Character Relationship States (Attraction, Aversion, etc.) • Narrative Event States (Suspense, Ambiguity, etc.) TEXTUAL STATES VISUAL STATES TEMPORAL STATES AUDITORY STATES
- 20. The Typology Lens • Temporal Progression Types (Linear Time, Nonlinear Time, Flashbacks, etc.) • Temporal Setting Types (Historical, Present Day, Future, etc.). • Sound Types (Sound Effects, Dialogue, etc.) • Music Types (Classical, Jazz, Atmospheric, etc.), • Sound Effect Types (Natural, Human, etc.) • Shot Types (Close-Up, Long Shot, etc.), • Visual Expressive Element Types (Space, Shape, Color, Light, etc.), • Screen Format Types (Wide Screen, Full Screen, IMAX, etc.), • Character Types (Protagonist, Antagonist, etc.) • Story Plot Types (Arch- Plot, Mini-Plot, Anti- Plot, etc.). TEXTUAL TYPES VISUAL TYPES TEMPORAL TYPES AUDITORY TYPES
- 21. The Zonal Lens
- 22. The Zonal Lens Zones/Subzones Subjective Intersubjective Objective Interobjective 1 Textual Signification Character Subtext Relational Subtext Story Event Subtext Story Subtext 2 Textual Structure Character Character Interactions Story Events Story Structures 3 Auditory Signification Auditory Character Signification Auditory Relationship Signification Auditory Object Signification Auditory Atmospheric Signification 4 Auditory Structure Music/ POV Sounds Dialogue Sound Effects Background Sounds 5 Visual Signification Visual Character Signification Visual Relationship Signification Visual Object Signification Visual Field Signification 6 Visual Structure Close-Up/ POV Shots Medium Shot Close-Up/ Insert Shots Wide Shot 7 Temporal Signification Subjective Temporal Signification Relational Temporal Signification Objective Temporal Signification Accumulated Meaning Patterns 8 Temporal Structure Subjective Time Shared Time Real Time Historical Time
- 23. Aperspectival-Altitudinal Analytical Approach Subject/ Object of Analysis Transpersonal/ Indigo-Clear Light Integral/Teal- Turquoise Pluralistic/Green Rational/Orange Mythic/Amber Magical/Red Archaic/Magenta Levels within the Worldview Line of Development
- 24. Worldview/ Altitude Circle of Care and Concern Field of Spatial-Temporal Perception Techno-Economic Structures Subjective/ Objective Emphasis Modes of Expression Transpersonal/ Indigo-Clear Light Trans-Egoic Trans-Perspectival/ Trans-Temporal (Space- Free/ Time-Free) Trans-Tech (Trans- Human)/ Cybernetic Organisms Trans-Subjective/ Objective Transcendental Integral/ Teal-Turquoise Kosmocentric Aperspectival/ Evolutionary (Qualified Space/ Qualified Temporality) Convergence/ Holistic Meshworks Integrative Concretion/ Conscious World Integrative Pluralistic/ Green Worldcentric Multi-Perspectival/ Non- Linear (Relative Space/ Relative Temporality) Informational/ Value Communities Deconstructive Concretion/ Time Related World Deconstructive Rational/ Orange Sociocentric Perspectival/ Linear Temporality (Concrete Spatial/ Abstractly Temporal) Industrial/ Corporate States Abstraction/ Space Related World Realist Mythic/ Amber Ethnocentric Bi-Perspectival/ Linear Temporality (Limited Space/ Natural Temporality) Agrarian/ Nation States Imagination/ Soul-Psyche Related World Iconic/ Imaginal Magical/ Red Egocentric Uni-Perspectival/ Cyclical Temporality (Spaceless/ Timeless) Horticultural/ Tribal Emotion/Natural World Emotive Archaic/ Magenta Pre-Egoic Pre-Perspectival/ Pre-Temporal Foraging/ Nomadic Latent Interiority/ Undifferentiated World Primal/ Sensory-Motor Levels and Lines of Development Associated with the Embedding of Cinematic Altitudinal and Perspectival Structures
- 25. Complexity Analytical Approach The Complex Circuit of Cinematic Subjective-Objective Transmutation
- 26. Mapping the Levels of Participation and Immersion
- 27. Mapping the Cinematic Symbiotic-Metamorphic Tetra- Evolutionary Complex
- 28. Archives of the Soul By means of the [cinematic] machine, in their own likeness, our dreams are projected and objectified. They are industrially fabricated, collectively shared. They come back upon our waking life to mold it, to teach us how to live or not to live. We reabsorb them, socialized, useful, or else they lose themselves in us, we lose ourselves in them. There they are stored ectoplasms, astral bodies that feed off our persons and feed us, archives of soul. (Morin, 2005a, p.218) Archives of the Soul
- 29. PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER INTO A MODEL FOR INTEGRAL CINEMATIC ANALYSIS IMP, AQAL, Aperspectivalism, Complexity
- 30. Integrally-Informed Lenses of Cinematic Analysis Subject/ Object of Analysis IMP Lens AQAL Lens Complexity Lens Aperspectival- Altitudinal Lens
- 31. Integral Cinematic Analysis Mapping the Multiple Dimensions of the Cinema and the Co-Evolution of Cinema, Consciousness, Culture, and Society 2013 Integral Theory Conference Presentation Paper By Mark Allan Kaplan, Ph.D. Download the Complete Journal Article of this Work at: https://foundation.metaintegral.org/products/integral-cinematic-analysis
Editor's Notes
- ABSTRACT: This presentation paper provides an introduction to the application of Integral and transdisciplinary approaches to cinematic media theoretical analysis, using the theories and works of Jean Gebser, Edgar Morin, and Ken Wilber to potentially integrate the major cinematic theoretical and analytical approaches into a comprehensive meta-approach covering the objective, subjective, intersubjective, and interobjective dimensions of the cinematic arts. Specific integrally-informed lenses of cinematic analysis are also introduced as part of this meta-approach, based on Geber’s perspectival structures, Morin’s cinematic complexity, and Wilber’s AQAL theories and methodologies. Potential benefits for this meta-approach are presented, including a deeper and more expansive understanding of the complex interrelatedness of the experience, form, language, and context of cinematic works, collective works of individual cinematic artists, genres and styles, collective movements within the medium, along with the evolution of the cinematic medium itself and its relationship with the evolution of individual and collective consciousness, culture, and society.
- For the purposes of this presentation paper, I am using the terms “cinema,” “cinematic,” “cinematic media,” and the “cinematic arts” to refer to the moving or kinetic image in all its evolving forms, including movies, television, video games, and home, online and mobile video. The term “cinematic analysis” in this context covers the full range of analytical approaches common to these evolving forms of the cinematic arts for the analysis and evaluation of individual and collective cinematic works, genres, styles, and collective movements within the medium, and the study of the essence and evolution of the medium itself and its relationship to self, culture, and world. I am using the terms “cinema” and “cinematic” as they were originally defined, the generic label for the moving or kinetic image, because it seems like the most accurate term at this time in the evolution of the medium (Thompson & Bordwell, 2009). I am not using the terms “film” or “video,” since they have limited meaning in a world where the moving image is being created with and transmitted across and through so many different and evolving “non-film/video” formats and platforms; and I am not using the term “media” because I feel it is not precise enough, having possible meanings extending into mediums that do not involve the moving image, such as print media. The full range of analytical approaches common to the evolving forms of the cinematic arts tend to fall into the major areas of: Theory, focusing on the study of the essence of the medium and its relationship to self, culture, and world; history, concentrating on the study of the evolution of movements and forms within the medium and the evolution of the medium itself; and criticism, which tends to cover the analysis and evaluation of individual and collective cinematic works (Braudy & Cohen, 2009; Thompson & Bordwell, 2009).
- To begin building a Integrally-informed transdisciplinary meta-approach to cinematic analysis, we can use Wilber’s four quadrant framework of 1st Person, 2nd Person, 3rd Person, and 3rd Person-Plural dimension-perspectives to potentially map and integrate the major cinematic media analytical approaches into four major categories of approaches: Analyses of the 1st-Person domain of the cinematic experience of both creators and viewers (i.e., Phenomenological, Psychoanalytical, Cognitive, Auteur, and Reception theoretical approaches); explorations of the 2nd-Person realm of the language or communicative aspects of individual and collective cinematic works (i.e., Hermeneutic, Semiotic, Structuralist, and Genre Studies approaches); examinations of the 3rd-Person dimensions of the material forms and properties of the medium and their effects (i.e., Formalist and Realist approaches); and considerations of the 3rd-Person Plural aspects of the social and environmental milieu or contexts of individual and collective cinematic works and the medium itself (i.e., Ideological, Apparatus, Feminist, Marxist, and Social Penetration approaches) (Andrew, 1976; Braudy & Cohen, 2009; Kaplan, 2012c).
- We can attempt to further unpack these analytical domains using Wilber’s eight zone framework (Wilber, 2003; 2007), performing a preliminary break down of each of these four categories of theoretical approaches into inside/subjective or outside/objective perspectives of each domain, giving us eight different zones of theoretical inquiry (See Figure 2). For example, we can study 1st Person cinematic experiences from an Inside/Phenomenological (Zone 1) approach, examining the pure experience of viewer or creator, or we can take an Outside/Psychoanalytic or Cognitive (Zone 2) approach, analyzing the psychological structures at work within that same cinematic experience. In the 2nd Person language or communication pattern domain of cinematic analysis we can use an Inside/Hermeneutic (Zone 3) approach to study how different viewing audiences experientially interpret a cinematic work, or we can employ an Outside/Semiotic (Zone 4) approach to study the observable meaning making patterns and structures of a cinematic work. The 3rd Person domain of the material forms and properties of the cinematic work itself can be studied from an Inside/Formalist (Zone 5) perspective exploring how the various forms of the cinematic work, such as visual space or editorial rhythm, are used to elicit a specific experiential effect, or from an Outside/Realist (Zone 6) perspective analyzing how a cinematic work in particular or the medium in general, operates as a photographic representation of object reality. Finally, we can explore the 3rd Person Plural analytical domain of the milieu of cinema from an Inside/Ideological (Zone 7) approach studying the influence of social ideologies on the cinematic medium and individual and collective cinematic works, or we can take an Outside/Apparatus (Zone 8) perspective and analyze how the medium itself is an inherent mechanical/photographic representation of certain social and systemic structures (Kaplan, 2011f; 2012c).5
- In addition to the above Integrally-informed mapping of the major film and media approaches, specific Integrally-informed approaches of cinematic analysis can also be introduced as part of a transdisciplinary meta-approach to analyzing the multiple dimensions of cinematic media, which could potentially enable a deeper and more expansive penetration of the complex interrelatedness of the experience, form, language, and context of individual cinematic works, the collective works of individual cinematic artists, genres, styles, and collective movements within the medium, along with the evolution of the cinematic medium itself and its relationship with the evolution of individual and collective consciousness, culture, and society.
- To begin, we can integrate the above quadratic and zonal mapping of the major cinematic media analytical approaches into a form of Integral Cinematic Analysis or an Integral Methodological Pluralism (IMP) approach (Esbjörn-Hargens, 2009; Wilber, 2007). This tetra-analytical meta-approach could theoretically include the integration of at least one methodology (inside or outside zones) from each of the above four major analytical domains, covering the cinematic experience, form, language, and context in our examination of a cinematic work, collective works, etc.7 For example, we could alternatively look at a collection of works within a specific genre studying their common formal structures (3rd Person/Formalist), observe ways these forms appear to be used to communicate genre-specific meaning patterns (2nd Person/Semiotic), how these forms and meaning patterns tend to psychologically affect an audience member (1st Person/ Psychoanalytical), and if and how various social patterns and structures have affected these elements and patterns within these cinematic works and/or in the genre as a whole (3rd Person Plural/Ideological) (Kaplan, 2012c).
- Another Integrally-informed approach would be through the application of the major analytical lenses of Wilber’s AQAL (All-Quadrants, All-Levels) Integral Theory model (Esbjörn-Hargens, 2009; Wilber, 1995), which could potentially help us get to a deeper and more expansive understanding and mapping of the qualities, capacities, and interconnectedness of the multiple dimensions within and between the cinematic experience, its form, its language, and its context (Kaplan, 2010; Kaplan & Wilber, 2012). Wilber’s AQAL model has several perspective-taking and analytical frameworks or lenses of perception through which we can perceive, experience, and integrate the multiple dimensions of existence. Here I will be exploring the potential application of these various Integral lenses to cinematic analysis. These lenses, as I am organizing them here, are the holonic, quadratic, developmental, states, typological, and zonal lenses, covering Wilber’s AQAL framework elements of holons, quadrants, lines and levels (of development), states, types, and zones (Esbjörn-Hargens, 2009; Wilber, 1995; 2007). My preliminary investigation suggests that we can use these lenses, individually and collectively, to explore multiple aspects and dimensions of all the analytical domains of the cinema. Here I will be using a few examples to suggest this potential usage of each of these lenses of perception (Kaplan and Wilber, 2012).
- The Holonic Lens helps us look upon everything we perceive as a HOLON; a whole that is part of another whole. Holons are the essential building blocks of our reality. A whole atom is part of a whole molecule, which is part of a whole cell, which is part of a whole organism (Koestler, 1967; Wilber, 1995). In the cinematic arts, we can potentially map out the constructed units of the cinematic form using a holonic or holarchical approach revealing the nested holarchy of a whole frame that is part of a whole shot, which is part of a whole scene, which is part of a whole scene sequence, which is part of a whole act (Kaplan, 2011a).8
- Going beyond our above usage of the QUADRANTS to map the major analytical domains of the cinematic medium, we can also potentially use the Quadratic Lens to map numerous dimensions of these domains, including a deeper exploration of the above mentioned constructed units of cinematic form and see how these forms make up a cinematic work’s constructed cinematic reality, or the level at which we are immersed in its projected world (Kaplan, 2011b). Using the Quadratic Lens in this way we can observe that within the holonic stream of the cinematic work’s frames, shots, scenes, sequences, and acts, there appears to be four major dimensions or expressive units that make up its constructed cinematic form or reality. These four expressive units or dimensions are text (themes, characters, story, and setting), image, sound, and time (the editorial construction and expression of these expressive units over time) (See Figure 4). Unpacking this further, it appears that we tend to perceive the image as the primary objective dimension. The text tends to be perceived as the invisible interior (subjective) dimension that animates and emanates from this observable visual world, giving it its meaning, purpose, value, and emotional context. The dimension of sound appears to be primarily experienced as an invisible force that extends the invisible interior emotional and meaning dimension of text beyond the screen and into our subjective experiential field, establishing a shared intersubjective relationship between our interior and the interior dimensions of the constructed cinematic reality. The dimension of time is generally experienced as the observable systemic (interobjective) unfolding of the constructed cinematic form (Kaplan, 2010).
- If we look more closely through the Quadratic Lens we see that within each quadrant, there are also various evolving or developmental patterns. The Developmental Lens, as I am defining it, includes two separate yet intimately connected perceptual lenses: LINES and LEVELS of development. For example, screen characters (and all sentiant beings) have various lines of development in each quadrant (i.e.: emotional, cognitive, moral lines of individual-interior development; cultural values development in the collective-interior; skeletal-muscular growth in the individual-exterior; social development in the collective-exterior; etc.). We also see that each of these lines evolves through various levels or stages of development (i.e.: egocentric to worldcentric levels of subjective care and concern; mythic to rational to pluralistic cultural worldview stages; stages of organic brain development; industrial to informational technology system stages; etc.) (Esbjörn-Hargens, 2009; Kaplan, 2010; Kaplan, 2011c; Wilber, 2000). In the domain of the cinematic text there are several areas where we find lines and levels of development, beyond those within a screen character, including the various thematic and narrative plot lines that develop and evolve through the levels or acts of set-up, conflict, confrontation, and resolution in classic cinematic narrative structure (Field, 2005; McKee, 1997). In addition to these and other lines and levels of textual development, there are also numerous audio, visual, and temporal lines of development that also evolve through the same stages, acts, or levels of development, as well as often having their own parallel levels.
- In addition to developmental lines and levels, each quadrant also contains STATES, transient shifts in various inner and outer dimensions including experiential states (i.e., psychological, emotional), physical states (i.e., biological, behavioral), relational states (i.e., cultural, communication), and social and environmental system states (i.e., weather, economic) (Esbjörn-Hargens, 2009; Wilber, 1995). In a cinematic work, at the most basic level, these various human reality states can be captured and replicated to some degree through text, image, and sound. For example, we can visually and auditorily capture a storm (a weather state), and add the text/story of a person trying to get out of its way, including how this person is reacting (i.e., a fearful emotional state). A closer look at this process through the States Lens reveals that a cinematic work can have various textual states, including character emotional states (joy, sadness, etc.), character relationship states (attraction, aversion, etc.), and narrative event states (suspense, ambiguity, etc.). There are also visual states (visual contrast or affinity, static imagery, frenetic movement, etc.); auditory states (harmony, dissonance, silence, etc.); and temporal states (slow motion, fast motion, etc.) (Kaplan, 2010; 2011d).
- In addition to states and developmental lines and levels, each quadrant also contains TYPES, which are consistent styles or common characteristic patterns (Esbjörn-Hargens, 2009; Wilber, 1995). Using the Typology Lens we can observe that a cinematic work can have various textual types, including character types (protagonist, antagonist, etc.), and story plot types (arch-plot, mini-plot, anti-plot, etc.). There are also visual types, including shot types (close-up, medium shot, long shot, etc.), visual expressive element types (space, shape, color, light, etc.), types of screen formats (wide screen, full screen, IMAX, etc.), and media formats (35mm film, 70mm film, digital video, etc.); auditory types, including sound types (background sounds, sound effects, dialogue, music) and sub-classifications like music types (classical, jazz, atmospheric, etc.), and sound effect types (natural, human, mechanical, etc.); and temporal types including temporal progression types (linear time, nonlinear time, flashbacks, etc.) and temporal setting types (historical, present day, future, etc.) (Kaplan, 2010; 2011e). There are also more general typologies that appear to track across all four dimensions, including genre (action, drama, comedy, horror, etc.) and style types (Expressionism, Neorealism, Film Noir, etc.), which will have specific textual, visual, auditory, and temporal patterns associated with them. In addition to typologies that are specific to the cinematic arts, cinematic works by their very nature also include human/world typologies since to some degree these works attempt to represent the human world. Believable screen characters embody real-life human personality, gender and body types; in order for their interactions to be perceived as convincing they must communicate and relate to each other through reflections of real human/world communication and cultural typologies; and for their constructed cinematic reality to be experienced as credible, it must emulate real world atmospheric, environmental and social system types, either directly or in stylized forms (Kaplan, 2011e).
- Like the other AQAL lenses, there are many ways of applying the Zonal Lens beyond the above mapping and methodological integration of the major analytical approaches. One of these applications has the potential of deepening our understanding of the basic four-quadrants of constructed cinematic reality discussed above: Text, image, sound, and time. From this top level we can then potentially open up each of these four basic dimensions of the cinematic form to their inside (subjective/process) and outside (objective/structure) dimensions, which correlate to their internal intentional and meaning-making (signification) level and their external observable/perceivable level (Kaplan, 2011f). This translates into a preliminary mapping of eight zones of Constructed Cinematic Reality: (1) Textual Signification Patterns (Inside); (2) Textual Structures (Outside); (3) Auditory Signification Patterns (Inside); (4) Auditory Structures (Outside); (5) Visual Signification Patterns (Inside); (6) Visual Structures (Outside); (7) Temporal Signification Patterns (Inside); and (8) Temporal Structures (Outside).
- These eight zones of the expressive units of the cinematic form which make up a Constructed Cinematic Reality are just the tip of the iceberg because each these zones can manifest in deeper quadratic patterns. For example, in the textual dimension, the outside of the text manifests in all four dimensions of subjective characterization, intersubjective character interactions, objective story events, and interobjective story structures (i.e., sequences, acts, plot points, etc.); and inside these four dimensions of the text, are the parallel subtextual (inside/signification) patterns or the more subtle dimensions of intention and meaning-making processes. These subtextual dimensions are either a deepening of the main text or hidden undercurrents that stand in juxtaposition to the main text. When viewed as a whole we can see that we are essentially dealing with eight zones of textual and subtextual experiential, communal, objective/empirical, and systemic narrative realities. We can equally unpack the dimensions of image, sound and time into these same types of sub-dimensions as well, producing a matrix of the zones and subzones of Constructed Cinematic Reality and cinematic expression. The full use of this multidimensional Zonal Lens array can potentially help the cinematic artist create works that are powerfully immersive, while also giving them the tools to express and capture more profound and subtle dimensions of being and becoming, as well as giving the cinematic theorist a more complete set of tools for observing and evaluating these illusive dimensions (Kaplan, 2011f; Kaplan & Wilber, 2012).
- Another potential Integrally-informed analytical approach would be to use the lines and levels of the Developmental Lens as a kind of typological categorization tool to map and analyze the structures of consciousness that are embedded in individual and collective cinematic works. One of the major ways of typologically mapping structures of consciousness is to use the Worldview line and levels of development as a baseline measure (Feuerstein, 1987; Gebser, 1985; Kaplan, 2010; 2012a; Wilber et al., 2008). This type of worldview mapping was first introduced by Jean Gebser (1985), who related cultural worldviews with certain stages or structures of individual and collective consciousness and various other lines and levels of development including spatial and temporal perceptual structures, and modes of creative expression. Gebser believed that these worldviews and related perspectival and developmental structures were embedded in all works created by human beings as a reflection of their own perspectival structures. Wilber continued and expanded on this work in his mapping of these and various other developmental lines and levels (1995; 2000).
- To aid with this approach we can map both Gebser’s and Wilber’s work in this area across all four quadratic dimension-perspectives. Using the stages of the Worldview (collective-interior) developmental line as an altitudinal baseline, we can track these worldview altitudes with the correlated developmental lines of Circle of Care and Concern (individual-interior), Fields of Spatial-Temporal Perception (individual-exterior), and Techno-Economic Structures (collective-exterior). Additional lines that appear to be important to this type of application in both Gebser’s and Wilber’s work are the lines of Subjective/Objective Emphasis and Modes of Expression, which track across the subjective/objective dimension-perspective boundaries (Gebser, 1985; Wilber, 2000). In the above table these lines of development, along with the major altitudes or levels of development that are relevant to worldview embedding, are correlated with the color spectrum scale, which is one of the basic neutral altitudinal scales (Wilber et al., 2008).
- The complex connection and communication between creator, cinematic work, viewer, and world is deeply explored by Edgar Morin, whose complexity approach to the cinematic medium holds the potential for offering us a way to more fully analyze and understand this complex interconnectedness (2005a; 2005b). Morin begins with the observation that all human-made works are the partial product of the human imagination, and therefore the imaginary is embedded in all human-made artifacts including and especially, the cinema (2005a). Because humans imagine through imagery (mental images, dream imagery, etc.), and the cinema has the unique capacity to concretize or reify imaginary dimensions, in a sense doubling the inner image with an outer image, the cinematic image is inextricably and uniquely bound with the human imagination. This produces a complex symbiotic-metamorphic web of interaction between the inner images of cinematic creators and viewers and the outer cinematic image (Morin, 2005a). Morin also notes that in addition to the cinema’s capacity for this reification of the subjective imaginary dimensions or the capacity to project an experience of subjective presence between a cinematic work and the viewer, the cinema also has the capacity to capture and represent objective forms and movement, and the juxtaposition of these objective elements replicate human-to-world meaning-making shifts of attention and perception, thus giving the viewer a sense of objective presence as well (Morin, 2005a). According to Morin, this combination of subjective/objective reification/representation and projected presences gives the cinema the capacity to induce various levels of participation or projection-identification through a complex circuit of transmutation between the multiple dimension-perspectives of the creator, the cinematic work, the viewer, and the world around them.
- Morin defines several levels of participation, including the level of Affective Participation, which he notes as appearing to be the most immediate form of participation usually stimulated or excited by the cinematic image, and operates at the level of emotional projection and identification with the projected cinematic image and our own inner images and emotions. Morin maps two more, deeper and more visceral and immersive levels of participatory projection-identification, that of Anthropo-Cosmomorphism and Doubling-Metamorphoses; Anthropo-Cosmomorphism being a more symbiotic and magical/mythic form adding deep psychic and archetypal projection-identifications, and Doubling-Metamorphoses being that endosymbiotic archaic/magical level of full immersion where the doubling and metamorphoses of the inner and outer images are complete and the viewer becomes fully a part of the cinematic reality. All three of these levels of participation “…inject humanity into the external world and the external world into the inner man” (Morin, 2005a, p.85) to varying degrees. While Morin only clearly maps these three levels of participation, other levels are suggested in his work. After analyzing these references to other levels I noted several parallels between Morin’s mapping of participation and the work of both Gebser and Wilber and have attempted to integrate them into a more complete map of cinematic participation, bringing together levels of participation with worldview perspectival altitudes.
- Morin notes several techniques that appear to excite or stimulate these levels of participation and immersion, including movement, succession of shots, degree of subjective and objective presence, and the cinegenic quality or charm of the image (2005a). He also notes that the cinematic medium appears to be evolving toward a greater and greater capacity to use these techniques in more powerful and affecting ways, suggesting a possible evolutionary acceleration and intensification of affective excitation and participation. In addition, the complex circuit of cinematic subjective-objective transmutation, mapped out above, appears to be another evolutionary factor enabling the cinema to operate as an ontophylogenetic kernel within a symbiotic-metamorphic tetra-evolutionary complex that acts as both a mirror and a catalyst for the evolution of consciousness, culture, and society.
- In summary, these four approaches to cinematic analysis (IMP, AQAL, Altitudinal-Aperspectival, and Complexity) represent four distinct, yet interconnected Integrally-informed methodologies. Each approach appears to potentially offer us new, deeper, and/or more expansive ways of analyzing individual and collective cinematic works, genres, styles, and collective movements within the medium, and the essence and evolution of the medium itself and its relationship to self, culture, and world. Together, these approaches form a potentially integrally-informed transdisciplinary meta-approach that could possibly help us more fully reveal the inner-workings of “the cinematic machine” and help us to more accurately read and consciously utilize this powerful and influential archive, mirror, and catalyst for the individual and collective evolving human soul and spirit.