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Where do you end, and where do media begin? In Media in Mind, author Daniel Reynolds draws upon naturalist philosophies of the mind from John Dewey through contemporary theories of embodied and extended cognition to make the case that the lines separating media from the minds of their users are not blurry or variable so much as they never existed to begin with.Through analyses of films and video games from 1900 to the present,
Media in Mind shows how media forms and technologies challenge dominant models of perception and mental representation, and how they complicate theoretical understanding of concepts like the platform and the interface.
In order to do justice to the profound and literally mind-changing power of media, Reynolds argues, we need to think not so much about the relationship between media and the mind as about the roles that media play in our minds. Through this crucial distinction, Media in Mind surveys more than a century of media theory to illustrate the ways that scholars of film and digital media have situated and reconsidered a series of divisions between media, user, and world, and
how these conceptual divisions have reflected and inflected their ways of understanding the mind.
Where do you end, and where do media begin? In Media in Mind, author Daniel Reynolds draws upon naturalist philosophies of the mind from John Dewey through contemporary theories of embodied and extended cognition to make the case that the lines separating media from the minds of their users are not blurry or variable so much as they never existed to begin with.Through analyses of films and video games from 1900 to the present,
Media in Mind shows how media forms and technologies challenge dominant models of perception and mental representation, and how they complicate theoretical understanding of concepts like the platform and the interface.
In order to do justice to the profound and literally mind-changing power of media, Reynolds argues, we need to think not so much about the relationship between media and the mind as about the roles that media play in our minds. Through this crucial distinction, Media in Mind surveys more than a century of media theory to illustrate the ways that scholars of film and digital media have situated and reconsidered a series of divisions between media, user, and world, and
how these conceptual divisions have reflected and inflected their ways of understanding the mind.
Introduction: The Discontinuities
1. Transactionism: A Theory of Media in Mind
2. Feeling Through the World: Skilled Perception in a Changing
Environment
3. Media and Radical Embodiment: Where is Representation?
4. Platforms as Emergence
5. Encounters at the Intraface
6. Designing a Game Boy
Conclusion: The Continuity
Bibliography
Daniel Reynolds is Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies and Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in Humanistic Inquiry at Emory University. He holds a BA in Linguistics from the University of Oregon, an MFA in Film Studies from Boston University, and a PhD in Film Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
"With Media in Mind, Reynolds addresses longstanding philosophical
hurdles in spectatorship theory while also forging a compelling
naturalist model for understanding film, video games, and other
media as part of the enworlded human mind. This book takes on the
lofty challenge of reevaluating the Cartesian dualism undergirding
most dominant theories of media with all of the wit and rigor that
such a project requires." -- Caetlin Benson-Allott, author of
Killer Tapes and Shattered Screens: Video Spectatorship from VHS to
File Sharing
"Reynolds sets out a clear and elegant alternative to dualist and
representationalist models of media spectatorship and video
gameplay. In contrast to media theories premised on interaction
between mind and media, he draws on the philosophy of John Dewey to
propose a model of transactionism. The argument is lively,
accessible, and profound, fueled by his close attention to a
diverse array of media experiences, from Tetris to Tsai Ming-liang.
His deft analyses
are insightful, compelling, and fun to read." -- Jennifer M.
Barker, Associate Professor of Moving Image Studies in the School
of Film, Media & Theater at Georgia State University
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