Flim, Aesthetics,Science: Hugo Munsterberg's Laboratory of Moving Images

摘要

Imagine a room, a mental space, a cinema. Now place yourself in a psychological laboratory at the turn of the last century. Think of a space full of objects suspended in the eerie silence of thought, where instruments alone make ambient noise, mechanical, intermittent, insistent, and repetitive. This noise makes me think of the sound made by a film projector. Indeed, the entire atmosphere reminds me of that art of projection: here, as in a movie theater, the mood is one of absorption. People are engrossed in observant silence. They form groups, often sitting in ordered rows, immersed in a mental exercise that both isolates and connects them. In this particular space of mental experimentation, one is engaged, captivated, enveloped, and consumed. The objects and images that move as the mind races by are mesmerizing.