Joseph Anderson is Chair of the Department of Mass
Communication and Theatre at the University of Central
Arkansas. He holds a Ph.D. in the psychology
visual communication from the University of Iowa,
along with masters degrees in film and painting. He
has taught motion picture production at the Universities
of Kansas, Iowa and Wisconsin and spent more than
a dozen years working in the motion picture industry. He
has created educational films and videotapes for
Time, Inc., and as president of Anderson-Hart Productions
directed the development and production of feature-length
motion pictures. His most recent credit is
Executive Producer for The Old Gray Lady:
Arkansas' First Newspaper (2006).
Anderson
is also an internationally recognized scholar in
the field of film theory. He has conducted
laboratory research in visual perception at the University
of Wisconsin, the University of Iowa and Georgia
State University, and is author of The
Reality of Illusion: An Ecological Approach to Cognitive
Film Theory (1996), Moving
Image Theory: Ecological Considerations (2005),
and the forthcoming Narration and Spectatorship
in Moving Images (Cambridge Scholars
Press).
The Reality of Illusion: An Ecological
Approach to Cognitive Film Theory
Anderson's primary argument is that motion picture
viewers mentally process the projected images
and sounds of a movie according to the same perceptual
rules used in response to visual and aural stimuli
in the world outside the theater. To process
everyday events in the world, the human mind
is equipped with capacities developed through
millions of years of evolution. In this context,
Anderson builds a metatheory influenced by the
writings of J. J. and Eleanor Gibson and employs
it to explore motion picture comprehension as a subset of general human comprehension
and perception, focusing his ecological approach to film on the analysis of cinema's
true substance: illusion. Anderson investigates how viewers, with their mental
capacities designed for survival, respond to particular aspects of filmic structure
- continuity, diegesis, character development, and narrative - and examines the
ways in which rules of visual and aural processing are recognized and exploited
by filmmakers. He uses Orson Welles's Citizen Kane to disassemble and redefine
the contemporary concept of character identification; he addresses continuity
in a shot-by-shot analysis of images from Casablanca; and he uses a wide range
of research studies, such as Harry F. Harlow's work with infant rhesus monkeys,
to describe how motion pictures become a substitute or surrogate reality for
an audience. By examining the human capacity for play and the inherent potential
for illusion, Anderson considers the reasons viewers find movies so enthralling,
so emotionally powerful, and so remarkably real. --
SIU Press
Barnes & Noble Listing
Moving Image Theory: Ecological Considerations
This collection is unique for two reasons. First, and most importantly,
it is the only book that I know of that includes contributions from both film
scholars and practicing, experimental psychologists. Second, most of the
contributions are in the vein of ecological psychology, an approach begun by
James Gibson that focuses on the interactions between animal and environment.
Cognitive
film theory is a radical, new way to understand film viewing and filmmaking. The
ecological approach of this collection goes even farther. If
cognitive film theory is seen as an attempt to make
film an empirically accessible subject, the ecological
approach transforms the way film can be studied empirically. Even
those readers who are not convinced that the ecological
approach is ultimately correct will have gained new
insight, altering the way they think about film viewing
forever, just by seeing the ecological approach in
action. --Tony Chemero
SIU Press
Barnes & Noble Listing
Amazon.com Listing
Narration and Spectatorship in Moving
Images (forthcoming from Cambridge
Scholars Press)
Joseph Anderson and Barbara Fisher Anderson, the founders of the Society for
Cognitive Studies of the Moving Image (SCSMI) have collected papers from the
2006 SCSMI conference in Potsdam, Germany. They offer a selection of essays that
should appeal to students and scholars in a number of disciplines: media theory,
media psychology, cognitive science, computer graphics, philosophy, and literary
theory, and to the general reader who is curious about how moving images work
and affect us all.
POSITIONS
Chair, Department of
Mass Communication and Theatre, University of Central
Arkansas, Conway, AR July,
2002 - Present.
Associate Professor, Moving Image Studies program,
Department of Communication, Georgia State University,
Atlanta, GA. 1998-2002.
Coordinator
Film Program, Department of Theatre and Film, University
of Kansas.
1995-1997.
Associate Professor, Department of Theatre and Film,
University of Kansas. 1991-1998.
Visiting
Professor, Department of Communication Studies, University
of Iowa. 1990-91.
President,
Anderson-Hart Productions, Austin, Texas. 1985-90.
Vice President, Texas Pacific Film/Video, Austin,
Texas. 1984-85.
Freelance Writer/producer/editor 1979-84.
Assistant Professor, Communication Arts, University
of Wisconsin-Madison. 1974-79.
Instructor, University of Iowa, Department of Speech
and Dramatic Art. 1971-74.
Producer/Director,
Time Inc., New York, N.Y. 1967-71.
Instructor, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge,
Louisiana, 1965-66.
PUBLICATIONS
BOOKS:
Narration and Spectatorship in Moving Images Joseph
D. Anderson and Barbara Fisher Anderson,
Eds. Forthcoming, Cambridge Scholars Press.
Moving Image Theory: Ecological Considerations. Joseph
D. Anderson and Barbara Fisher Anderson, Eds. Carbondale: Southern
Illinois University Press, 2005. Paperback
edition, 2006.
The Reality of Illusion: An Ecological Approach
to a Cognitive Film Theory. Carbondale: Southern
Illinois University Press, 1996. Paperback
edition , 1998.
CHAPTERS:
"Moving
Through the Diegetic World of the Motion Picture," in Film Style and
Story, Lennard Hojbjerg & Peter Schepelern, editors. Museum
Tusculanum Press, University of Copenhagen, 2003, pp. 11-21.
"The Case for An Ecological Metatheory." (with
Barbara Anderson) in Post Theory: Reconstructing
Film Studies, eds. David Bordwell and Noel Carroll,
Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1996.
"Motion Perception in the Motion Picture," (with
Barbara Anderson) in The Cinematic Apparatus.
S. Heath and T. DeLauretis, eds. New York: St. Martin's
Press, 1980, pp. 76-95.
ARTICLES:
"Scene
and Surface in the Cinema: Implications
for Realism," Cinémas (Cinéma
et cognition), Vol 12, No 2, Winter 2002, 61-73.
"El realismo y la concussion de la atencion," Signo
y Pensamiento, Vol. XVIII, No. 35 (December
1999), 33-38.
"The perception of scene and surface in motion pictures" in Perception
and Action, David N. Lee, editor(International Society for Ecological
Psychology, 1999), p. 102. [ Abstract ]
"The Case for an Ecological Metatheory" reprinted
in Metropolis (Budapest, Hungary, 1999), pp.
34-39.
"I
Dream of J.J. or Affordances and Motion Pictures." La
revue electronique de communication/ The Electronic
Journal of Communication 5,1 (1995). Available
by E-mail: comserve@vm.its.rpi.edu. Message:
send Anderson V5N195.
"A Cognitive Approach to Continuity," Post
Script, Vol. 13, No. 1 (Fall 1993), pp. 61-66.
"The Myth of Persistence of Vision Revisited," Journal
of Film and Video, Vol. 45, No. 1 (Spring 1993),
pp. 3-12. (with Barbara Anderson)
"Sound and Image Together: Cross-Modal Confirmation," Wide
Angle Vol. 15, No.1, pp. 30-43. (January 1993)
"Between Veridicality and Illusion," Journal
of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, Vol VI, No.2
(Spring, 1992), pp. 173-182.
"The Myth of Persistence of Vision," Journal
of the University Film Association, XXX, 4
(Fall, 1978), pp. 3-8. (with Barbara Fisher)
"Binocular Integration in Line Rivalry," Bulletin
of the Psychonomic Society, 1978, Vol. 11 (6),
pp. 399-402. (with Harold Bechtoldt and Gregory
Dunlap)
"What's In a Flicker Film?" Communication Monographs 43:1
(March, 1976), pp. 29-34. (with Edward Small)
"Visualization and Verbalization as Mediators
of Thought," Speech Monographs, 41 (1974),
pp. 408-412.
LECTURES
Keynote Address, "We Were Not Designed to Watch
Movies: The Value of an Ecological Approach to Film
Theory in a Post-Postmodern Era," VIII Conference
of Cinema Studies in Transylvania, Sapienta Hungarian
University of Transylvania, May 23-25, 2005. Kolozsvar-Cluj
Napoca, Romania.
Keynote address, "Toward a Theory of Moving
Images, " 11th Laterna Film Academy, "Motion,
Sound, Image and Emotion," May 20-21,
2005. Pecs, Hungary.
Invited lecture, University of Wisconsin-Madison,
Department of Communication Arts: "The Ecological
Approach to Cognitive Film Theory," December
4, 2002.
Invited "University Lecture," Cornell
University:: "Realism and the Perception
of Artifacts in Motion Pictures," November
9, 2000. Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.
Invited lecture "Rethinking Realism," for
Animation Lab, Graphics, Visualization and Usability
Center, Georgia Tech, December 14, 1999.
Magika Lanterna lecture series: "Ecological
Film Theory." Eight lectures, Janus
Pannonius University; Pecs, Hungary; November
8-11 and November 15-18, 1999. By special invitation.
Invited lecture, Eotvos University, Budapest, Department
of Communication and Aesthetics, "An Ecological
View of Moving Images," November 12, 1999.
Invited lecture, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Lecture
to the University of Wisconsin Film Colloquium
entitled “Why is ‘Invisible Editing’ So
Difficult to See?” April 18, 1996.
Invited lecture, University of Kansas, Department
of Spanish and Portuguese. "The Hollywood System
and its Practices of continuity editing." April
1, 1996.
“How Conventional is the Classical Hollywood
Cinema?” Lecture given as part of “The
American Cine-Century: Mapping a Medium,” sponsored
by the Hall Center for the Humanities, University
of Kansas. February 27, 1996
PANELS AND PAPERS
"Concepts in an Ecological Theory of Film," paper
presented at 4th International Conference of the
Center for Cognitive Studies of the Moving Image,
Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI, July 23, 2004.
Chair, "Moving Image Theory: Ecological Considerations," panel
at "Narration, Imagination and Emotion in Moving
Image Media," the 4th International Conference
of CCSMI, Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI, July
22-24, 2004.
"Differences in Intensity of Emotional Responses
to Film Special Effects," paper presented at
109th Annual Convention of the American Psychological
Association, Div. 10, San Francisco, CA, August 24-28,
2001. (With Ben Meade)
"Perceiving Simulated Human Motion," paper
presented at the Eleventh International Conference
on Perception and Action, University of Connecticut,
Storrs, CT, June 28, 2001.
"Information and Misinformation," paper
presented at the Third Biennial International Symposium
of the Center for Cognitive Studies of the Moving
Image, University of Pécs, Hungary. May
21-25, 2001
"Graphic Violence Special Effects in Film:
The Role of Realism" Benjamin Meade,
Joseph Anderson, Suzanne Petren, and William Evans. Presented
at 108th Annual Convention of the American Psychological
Association, Washington, D.C. August 8, 2000.
"Events and Affordances: How Are They Related?" Panel
at 2000 North American Meeting of the International
Society for Ecological Psychology, Clemson University,
Clemson, S.C. June 23, 2000.
"The Perception of Scene and Surface in Motion
Pictures," paper presented at the Tenth International
Conference on Perception and Action, Edinburgh University,
Edinburgh, Scotland. August 13, 1999
"Cognitive Film Theory in 1999: What
We’ve Found Out," a paper presented at "Film,
Mind and Viewer," a symposium on cognitive film
theory, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. May
27, 1999.
“Guiding the Attention of Motion Picture Audiences,” a
paper presented for the panel “Cognitive and
Ecological Approaches to Film Theory” at the
annual conference of the Society for Cinema Studies
in West Palm Beach, Florida. April 15, 1999.
“The Biological Boundaries of Moving Image
Perception,” a paper presented at the annual
conference of the University Film and Video Association
in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. August 6,
1998.
“A Short History of Cogntive Science and Film
Studies,” presented at the symposium “Cognitive
Science and the Future of Film Studies,” sponsored
by the Instutite for Cogntive Studies in Film and
Video, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas. April
18, 1997.
"Rethinking Realism," a paper presented
at the annual conference of the University Film and
Video Association in Keene, New Hampshire, August
4,1995.
"The Ontology of Synchronization: A Cognitive
Approach," a paper presented at the annual conference
of the University Film and Video Association in Bozeman,
Montana, August 1994.
"Toward an Ecology of Cinema" presented
at Department of Theatre and Film Retreat, University
of Kansas, October 13, 1993.
"From Jump Cut to Match Action: an ecological
approach to film editing," a paper presented
at the annual conference of the University Film and
Video Association in Philadelphia, August, 1993.
"A Cognitive Approach to Continuity," a
paper presented at the annual conference of the Society
for Cinema Studies, February 1993.
"Cognitive Film Theory," a topic panel
chaired at the annual conference of the Society for
Cinema Studies in New Orleans, February, 1993.
"Sound and Image in the Motion Picture: An
Instance of Cross-Modal Confirmation." Panel
presentation at the Ohio University Film Conference
XIII (November, 1991; Ohio University, Athens, Ohio).
"Between Veridicality and Illusion." Panel
presentation at the Annual Conference of the
University Film & Video Association (August,
1991; Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon).
PRODUCTIONS
The Old Gray Lady: Arkansas' First Newspaper. Color,
Sound, 90 min. Executive Producer, 2006.
1955. Color,
Sound, 12 min. Editor. 1998.
Lawrence: Free State Fortress. Color,
Sound, 30 min. Executive Producer. 1997.
Beyond the Golden Gate. 35mm, Color, Sound,
110 min. Producer/Editor. 1988.
One Way Out.
35mm, Color, Sound, 90 min. Editor,
Director/Austin Sequences. 1986-87. Released
in domestic market by Unicorn Video under title Crazed Cop.
Independence. The
official film of the Texas Sesquicentennial. 35mm,
Color, Sound, 30 min. Associate Producer and Editor.
1985.
The Adventures of Jody Shanan. 35mm,
Color, Sound, 96 minutes. 1983-84. Producer
and Editor.
Checking It Out. P.B.S. magazine
series (26 segments, color, sound, 30 min.
each). Editor.
Open the Gates: The
Vision of Hubert H. Humphrey. Democratic Convention
Special, l980. (35mm, Color, Sound, 18 min.) Editor.
The
Intercessors. Dramatic narrative
motion picture, l978. (16mm, Color, Sound,
27 minutes). Producer and Editor.
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