Lessons in Perception: The Avant-Garde Filmmaker as Practical Psychologist

Narrative comprehension, memory, motion, depth perception, synesthesia, hallucination, and dreaming have long been objects of fascination for cognitive psychologists. They have also been among the most potent sources of creative inspiration for experimental filmmakers. Lessons in Perception melds film theory and cognitive science in a stimulating investigation of the work of iconic experimental artists such as Stan Brakhage, Robert Breer, Maya Deren, and Jordan Belson. In illustrating how avant-garde filmmakers draw from their own mental and perceptual capacities, author Paul Taberham offers a compelling account of how their works expand the spectator’s range of aesthetic sensitivities and open creative vistas uncharted by commercial cinema.

Paul Taberham is Associate Professor in Animation Studies at the Arts University Bournemouth. He is the coeditor of Cognitive Media Theory (2014) and The New Experimental Animation: From Analogue to Digital (2018). Paul has appeared on radio, spoken internationally at conferences, and published articles for several edited collections and journals including Projections: The Journal for Movies and Mind and Animation Journal. He is a fellow of The Society for Cognitive Studies of the Moving Image.