Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/7968
Title: Mnemophrenia: a science fiction film-essay on the future of cinema and artificial memories
Authors: Konstantinidou, Eirini
Advisors: Lebow, A
Langford, B
Keywords: Practice-based PhD in film;Mockumentary;Postmodern schizophrenia;Virtual reality films;Improvisation
Issue Date: 2014
Publisher: Brunel University School of Arts PhD Theses
Abstract: “What is more real than the thoughts in your mind?”, “Re/structure your memories, re/construct your reality, re/define yourself”. The foundation of my research is about practising theory instead of theorising practice. My project begins with theory, which then leads to the science fiction film Mnemophrenia that constitutes the practical aspect of it. I attempt to demonstrate how theory and practice can be joined to create a fruitful union, each one feeding the other. In my research, I am inspired by Marshall McLuhan’s idea and use the medium as the message in order to depict and explore how cinema can affect human memory and more specifically create artificial memories and thus contribute to the dissolution of any boundaries between reality and fiction. The key research question that Mnemophrenia explores is: what would happen if in a future postmodern society the Bazinian myth of ‘total’ cinema becomes a reality? If ‘total cinema’ is pure realism and cinema can lead to artificial memories, then artificial memories and pure realism become one and films become artificial memories. Mnemophrenia depicts a different kind of human being or species, a schizophrenic ‘cyborg’ changed from within due to the advancement of virtual reality films which signals the end of cinema as we know it today. Mnemophrenia is about the future of cinema and maintains a horizon of hope that could lead to utopia; it does not discard technology as something evil as many previous science fiction films have done. I am interested in depicting through the film and examining in my thesis the possibility of a society where the dissolution of borders between fiction and reality does not lead to horrific consequences for humanity but instead promotes a potential for a new kind of identity that is an amalgam of real and artificial memories.
Description: This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.
URI: http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/7968
Appears in Collections:Brunel University Theses
Dept of Arts and Humanities Theses

Files in This Item:
File Description SizeFormat 
FulltextThesis.pdf15.26 MBAdobe PDFView/Open


Items in BURA are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.